Exploring Kakum National Park: A Treasure Of Nature and Tradition
Today, I want to take you back to the ending of 2023. If you’ve been following my blog, I bet you’d know that I was accepted to take part in an intense 3 weeks training program for young African leaders. This program has been a life changer for me and it was one of my best experiences in 2023.
Our 3 weeks stay wasn’t all about going to class, we had series of activities planned to make us enjoy our stay while providing citizens from outside Ghana the opportunity to explore our beautiful country. Today, I am delighted to tell you about our fun trip to the central region of Ghana. As a Ghanaian, I have visited the central region of Ghana so many times, particularly Cape coast. This region is know for its abundant historical sites and it holds a lot of memories in the history of our country, Ghana.
Our trip was a very long one as we had so much to see. So, I’m going to divide it into two parts and in two different posts.So, here we go!
For someone who values my resting time, waking up at 3am was a huge task for me. Since the journey was over two hours the organisers requested that everyone be ready by 4am.
At exactly 4:00am, most people were ready waiting at the lobby while the late comers were still getting ready. Just so you know, I was one of the early birds.😅 We had our breakfast and by 5:00am we were already seated in our buses ready to go on this adventure. The ride to cape coast was a really good one as it is a tradition for we Ghanaians to sing and dance on trips. Being the person that I am, I sang till I could sing no more.😅
We arrived in cape coast at around 9am and we were greeted by the fresh sea breeze, the breathtaking cocoa farms and the smell of fish from the fishing communities nearby. Our first stop was at the Kakum National park. This park is known mostly for its canopy walk which has to be the longest and highest canopy walk in Ghana.
Being my second time there, I wasn’t really scared because I had gone on numerous canopy walks. We gathered into a group and a tour guide was assigned to take us around. This park contains very rare animals you can find in Ghana but it’s very difficult to see these animals during the day, unless at night when the place quiets down.
For most people, this was their first time and you could see the fear on their faces. The walkway has two sides, the long side which means you’d have to go on the walkway 7 times and the short side which requires that you go just 3 times. The scared ones obviously went for the short one and left we the adventurers to do our thing.😅
One thing I was really happy about is that I got to recreate old memories with my friends. It was really great doing this. Now, I have two sets of pictures from this park. One with my friends from way back in junior high school and another with my new friends now that I am older.
after
before
after
This time, being on the canopy walk came with a different feeling all together. Looking around the beautiful forest, seeing the beauty of everything around me and appreciating nature. As a kid, my only focus was on the canopy walk as I was even scared them but now, I see everything from a different perspective.
From the canopy walk, you get to walk through the forest to see the beauty of it up until you get to the exit area which has a board saying ‘I survived the Kukum Canopy walkway’. I guess they have actually made a lot of changes to the place now because when I first came here there was nothing like this around. It think it’s a great improvement.
Oh, before I forget to add the good part. Along the way to the exit, there were people at designed spots selling coconut and cocoa. Why would you come to cape coast without having a taste of the juicy and healthy coconut juice and also the rich Ghanaian cocoa. I think this has to be the main reason why I enjoyed the trip. I even bought more cocoa to take back home cos I really enjoy it.
From there, we had our snack and made our way to the buses for our next trip. I hope you enjoyed this first part of our trip to cape coast. Here are some pictures from the Kakum national park. I hope you like them.
Thank you for your time and the next part will be up soon.
With love, Nhaji ❤️
all images belong to me.