Me. Camping. Rainforest. Africa.

That's right, I camped in the freaking rainforest in Africa. I'm so hardcore, I know. Again, apologies to the space-time continuum, because this was last weekend as well.

We wake up late Saturday morning -May 24 - (the previous post details our Friday night). Today's plan is to go to Kakum National Park. Neither Catherine or I know what time it is, because we have left our alarms and watches back at Big Mamah's house. We decide to shower and get ready, and just wait for Joseph to come get us, since he's the only one with the time. Finally, J. knocks on the door and informs us that it's already 10:30. Yikes - we've already wasted a lot of time. Since we're already late, we decide to check our email and have lunch in town, then head out.

We take a taxi in to the park, about a 30 minute drive. As we near our destination, I start getting really, really nervous. Kakum is the home of a series of canopy walkways that dangle precariously 150 feet above the rainforest floor. It is one of only about 4 locations in the whole world that have such a thing, and it is our main reason for going. I have the feeling that the canopy walk is one of those things that unfolds your emotions thusly: 1. You look forward to a lot before you actually do it; 2. You're really nervous about doing it once you've bought your ticket; 3. You regret your decision completely upon actually seeing the thing in front of you; 4. You're thinking of ways to get out of doing it once you're halfway across; and, finally, 5. Exuberant and exhilarated that you have completed this huge task once you're safely on solid ground.

Anyway, the hike up into the forest canopy was an intense one, basically just stair-after-stair-after-stair. Between the heat, humidity, and the physical exertion, I was sweating like a madwoman. Truly, I had reached a new level of disgutingness not previously thought possible. As we climbed up the last set of stairs to the canopy walk, my heart was thudding in my chest for a completely different reason. I watched some others in our group go across and took a bunch of photos to keep my mind off the task at hand. The walkway is basically a series of long, thing metal ladders with a wooden board laid on top of them, held together with lots of intricately tied ropes. These ropes attach to cables and are in turn attached to the anchoring trees.

As I take my first step out on to the walkway, the board below me lurches and the ropes sway. It's very difficult to keep your balance up here and the ropes only go up to about your elbows. It feels as if you could topple over, though I'm sure that would be a difficult thing to actually do. I make my way across the first (and shortest) bridge, exhilirated. There are still six more to cross, the longest and highest of which lie ahead. The view from up here is simply breathtaking and I snap away with my camera.

It takes us about an hour to cross all of the canopy walkways. When all is said and done, I'm so happy that I did it, and it wasn't really that frightening. It was only when I was imagining tumbling off it to a horrific death that I was scared at all! Sweaty (what's new?) and tired, we head back to the cafe at the reception area. We order water and food, and just sit and relax for awhile. When we've gathered enough strength, we order our dinners to-go and follow our guide back down a winding trail to the campsites.

The campsite area is more than adequate, with outdoor showers and a covered toilet area. The sites themselves are open platforms, just a floor raised up a bit off the ground, with a roof covering it from above. From the "ceiling" hangs a mosquito net, protecting some well-used sleeping pads. Within a few minutes, C. and I have come to the consensus that we will be sleeping in the same net, as all of our sites are spread out. We joke that we're worried about being "eaten by bears," but I think that's just because we don't really want to think about what we actually should be afraid of out here in the African rainforest.

We settle in, C. decides to shower and J. decides to start a fire. The fire is still looking pretty sad by the time C. comes back from the shower, but it's starting to put off some heat, so we girls pack up our stuff and head off to my campsite. We eat our dinner and head in for the night. Keep in mind that's it's only about 6 p.m. at this point and it's not even dark yet. But we've had an exhausting day and we have to get up at about 4:45 a.m. tomorrow morning to go hiking again, in hopes of seeing some rainforest animals.

We read and nap until dark, then snack a little on the granola bars and peanuts I've brought along, then go to sleep at about 8-8:30 p.m. I wake up a lot during the night. Finally, I wake at about 4 a.m. and lie there in the dark until J. comes to wake us at a quarter-til-5. By this time, C. is awake too. Quickly, we gather our things and head out to the main receptin area where we will meet our guide, Emmanuel, and the rest of our hiking group. Together, just as dawn breaks, we head back up the canopy trail. Again, it's a difficult climb, but in the dark I have no concept of how far I've gone, and I'm at the top before I know it. We walk the Ebony trail, in hopes of seeing some of the monkeys we can hear so clearly. It's not hot here inside the rainforest, but it is very humid and muggy. We stop often to search for monkeys in the branches, but we see only one small one very high up.

The walk there and back takes a little over an hour altogether. When we get back, we sit in the cafe and wait for it to open, which turns out to be about two hours later. We feast on soda and water and order a ton of food. After filling up, we walk out of the park to the nearest tro-tro stop not far off. A seemingly full tro-tro stops and somehow we all load in. The mate (the guy who collects the money and opens and closes the doors) hangs out the side door as we cruise through many small villages at upwards of 70 km/h. The drive back to Cape Coast seems faster than the ride in and we are soon there.