Walking on Treetops

Ok folks.  I’ve officially lost my damn mind.  Now, I’m good for going on vacation and doing some daredevil stuff that I would never do in my “normal” life, but I think this one takes the cake.  In my opinion, it’s bigger than climbing Dunne’s River Falls in Ocho Rios or riding a jet ski without a life jacket in Negril (ya'll know I can't swim). 

Picture this: Me, flip flops, a rain forest and seven narrow bridges made of wood and rope (about 1/5 of a mile in length) suspended 100 feet above one of Ghana’s largest rain forests.  Ready to commit me yet?

Well, lucky for me, I don’t have a fear of heights, flying, enclosed spaces, death or any of that sort of stuff.  My fears really center around failure, falling and not feeling secure.  Well, I think I put all those to the test at the Kakum National Park yesterday.  Taxi driver extraordinaire Richard Mensah drove me the 45 minutes from Elmina to the park in the morning and it was an absolutely lovely drive.  But of course, the trip wouldn’t be fun without a little drama to start it off.

Once we arrived at the park, I was told that the entry fee was $25 because I’m a “non-Ghanaian adult.”  From what I hear, I look like I'm from Ghana but I don’t sound like it...once I open my big American mouth the prices start going up.  Well, I totally refused to pay that much to “see some damn trees” and was all set to leave.  But Richard was having none of that and caucused with some of his taxi driver buddies out front to figure out a scheme to get me a cheaper price.  The consensus: Tell them I’m a student, pray they don’t demand my ID and pay $12 to get in (shout out to Kwabena for the bri-zilliant idea).  Well, one sob story about being a starving student in America “near Obama,” a serious pout and very little eye contact later and I was in for $12 (I told you they love Obama over here). 

Ya’ll, about 10 minutes into hiking uphill in flip flops to get to the canopy walkway, I wished like hell I had shut my trap, gotten back in the car and headed back to flatter pastures.  But, I’m not one for failure, so I was determined to hike my out-of-shape butt up those hills, through the woods and to that canopy walk.  Luckily, my focus was on climbing hills and not the seven shaky bridges that awaited me. 

Once I made it up all the hills and steps and actually saw the bridge, I still wasn’t alarmed.  No biggie, they said no one has ever fallen into the rainforest so I’m good, right?  Wellll…the minute I stepped on the thing I knew I was in for some screaming and plenty of cussing the whole way through.  On top of the bridge teetering from side to side, some of the wood boards not being nailed down and feeling like you want to turn back every second, there’s a RAINFOREST underneath.  Jesus wept.

Wondering how it all turned out?  Well, the obvious is that I survived.  I made it across all seven bridges and only lost my sh*t once when some dummy was determined to jump up and down in front of me to show just how NOT scary it is.  Richard was absolutely wonderful during the entire thing, staying very close to me, cheering me on from the front and back, taking tons of awesome pictures (I didn’t have time because I was busy concentrating on not dying) and sticking with me as me and my flip flops hiked back downhill to safety.  Ironically, I didn't see a single creature the entire time I was in the rainforest - well, wait, I should count those really big ants I saw right? 

It goes without saying that it was amazing and I hope I can bottle up some of that fearlessness and use it when I return back to my “normal” life. 

The hills are kicking my butt!

Just getting started...ummm, was this my idea?

I walked across seven of these ya'll...how amazing!

Determined not to fall because I promised my mama I wouldn't die on my trip to Africa!  HA!

Thank the Lord, I made it!