Cape Coast – July 2

We had an early start to the morning, rolling out of Kumasi at 6 AM with Emmanuel and Govina.  Emmanuel wanted us to get to see a few more points of note in Ghana before our departure.  We drove directly to Cape Coast, Ghana and started near there at Kakum National Park.  The main attraction at Kakum is the canopy walk through and above the rainforest.  We all made it and while some held on tighter to the ropes than others, everyone had the courage to cross the entire way!

A view of the rainforest 

Chelsea crossing

Clayton documenting

Mike is happy

Mollie in the middle

Helena hanging on for dear life - or just tree hugging

After lunch at Kakum, we headed to the Castle in Cape Coast.  We had a very nice tour guide who gave us an idea of how the castle operated over 300 years ago.  He showed us through the slave dungeons and captain’s quarters and everything in between, including the “door of no return”.  The castle is impressive and the location is right on the Atlantic Ocean and spectacular, but yet the history is so mind-bogglingly atrocious.  Despite its history it was exciting and even peaceful to see the Atlantic from Ghana, with the waves crashing into the castle walls and the horizon spanning on, seemingly forever. 

The group with the castle behind and the dungeons below

View from the castle of the coast

That night we traveled to Accra and stayed in a CSIR guesthouse, which was very nice.  The complex was located in the middle of the section of town containing all the important government buildings like the BNI (The Bureau of National Intelligence – the Ghanaian FBI).  There were also many embassies for foreign nations.  We saw the Canadian and Egyptian embassies, and caught a little glimpse of home soil when we passed around the U.S. Embassy.

Written by Clayton and Mollie