James, the head wildlife guide for Ashanti Tours, and Richard, our driver, picked us up on Sunday morning, manhandled our luggage into the Toyota 4X4 and whisked us off to Shai Hills, the start of our Ghana birding. Or they would have whisked us off if it weren’t for the Accra traffic and the condition of the roads, deplorable even by African standards. To make matters worse took us four hours to retrace our route back through Accra and drive 60 miles to Kakum National Park and the Rainforest Lodge, our home for the next three nights. Make no mistake, this is still Africa!
Our room at the Rainforest Lodge is comfortable, the shower is hot, wifi is sporadic and the food is OK, although seldom what we expected. It will take a few days to get onto a birding schedule, especially for John—4:15 wake-up, breakfast at five and on the road by 5:30. Thank goodness for the couple of hours of down-time in the heat of the day. Then we head out for the afternoon session that can last until 7:30 if owls are on the menu.
The main attraction at Kakum National Park is the canopy walkway, a series of seven platforms all connected by narrow, swaying rope and ladder “bridges” 40 meters above the forest floor. I was gasping after the 20-minute uphill climb but had time to recover while we waited for “the man with the key” to arrive—a common occurrence in Africa.
We had accomplished most of our birding by the time the hoard of families and bus loads of exuberant kids arrived. James decided we should abandon the aerial towers and bird along the forest floor trail back down to the parking lot. We arrived back at the entrance an hour later, drenched in sweat. As it turned out, we were too busy bushwhacking around downed trees and through tangled vines to do much birding. Even so, today’s total was 70+ species with 25 “lifers.”
This morning at breakfast the cook asked me, “How are you today, Grandpa?” I know it was meant as a sign of respect. But “Grandpa!” Really?? And the day didn’t get much better.
An hour’s drive took us to the Antwikwaa section of Kakum, but it was so foggy we may have well stayed in bed. James pointed out several species but “Grandpa” found it nearly impossible to take photos in the fog. Luckily the fog burned off enough for a decent shot of the Rosy Bee-Eater, one of our favorites.
None of Ghana’s 700 or so bird species are endemic and we have seen all but 120. So far our total is 123 species, 37 of which are “lifers.”
