On Thursday morning and still high on Imodium I decided that it probably wasn't the eggs which had disagreed with me, but the coffee, which incidentally tasted worse than the eggs, so I was munching through another pair of slightly less cold fried eggs, still being eyed by the crocodiles, who had probably learned that if the obruni eat enough eggs they fall in the water and we get to eat them! We were approached by a nice man who introduced himself as Kwame, it means "Saturday born" and I think a lot of Ghanaians where born on a Saturday, he was a taxi driver based at Hans Cottage and he offered to take us to the Kakum National Park about 30 kilometers away and wait for us and then bring us back for 30 cides. We accepted his offer and finished our breakfast, leaving the disappointed Hans Cottage Crocks waiting for another obruni to fall into their cunning trap.

Three quarters of an hour later we arrived at a well organised visitor center on the edge of a small area of the only Primary Rain Forest left in the region. We were given the option of a nature walk or the Canopy Walkway. Having noticed a display of "I survived the Walkway" memorabilia in the gift shop and knowing Mrs. M's view on anything more than three feet off the ground, Imagine my surprise when Mandy exclaimed that she wanted to do the "Walkway"! We paid our 60 Cides and were given a badge, proudly emblazoned with the letters NGA (Non Ghanaian Adult), Its curious that rather than allow a concession for local people it is common to apply a surcharge for "Foreigners". After a short wait we met Amy, another NGA, a volunteer teacher from Washington, and were introduced to George, our Ranger Guide, in his very smart military style uniform. George gave us a short talk on the work being undertaken to protect this small area of Rain Forest and set off up the hill at a cracking pace. We all managed to keep up with him, just about and as we got deeper into the Forest he would stop at various locations and explained about various trees and plants and their importance to the habitat. We heard of trees that twined round each other and were male and female and could not live without each other. There were trees whose bark could be pounded into sweet smelling soap or bright red dye. There were trees that if you had a guinea worm in your skin, you could chew the sap and apply it to the hole and this made the worm come out and gasp for air, when you were supposed to grab it and pull it out. Incidentally, if this sap were ingested it was fatal! He showed us a tree with huge buttresses which could provide shelter and protection if you were lost and which you could use to call for help by drumming on them. He also told us very seriously that we must not call out each other's names in the forest as the bad spirits would hear them and would be able to lure that person to their doom by calling their name.

After a while we arrived at some steps up to a low platform from which the complex of eight or nine aerial walkways started. George then told us how the walkways formed a network nearly a mile long, right up in the canopy of the forest, up to eighty meters above the forest floor. Then, possibly in response to the palpable and mounting tension that was emanating from Mandy and to a lesser extent from Amy he added that the walkway was carefully constructed by two Canadian Volunteers about ten years ago from strong materials including steel cables, netting and very strong rope and nets and that they were inspected every day by a team of engineers. He sensed (I really don't know how!) that his talk had done little to reassure Mandy and Amy so he decided to give a demonstration of how strong and reliable the walkway was and sprinted about thirty feet onto the first bridge, which climbed quite steeply, about 100 meters up to the first platform built around the trunk of a huge tree, and collapsed onto the side netting. We gasped in amazement as a voice rang out from the depths of the forest, "HEY! Don't run on the walkways!" Mandy had had enough of delaying and bravely led the way onto the first walkway, grasping her terror with both hands and stuffing it out of sight in her knapsack, from which it did not reappear. I was very proud of her.

The walkway was fantastic with superb views over the heavily forested gorge and made us feel almost part of the forest. Up amongst the exotic birds and flowers of the upper canopy we stood now and then in complete silence, overawed by the sounds and smells of the forest. An experience which we were all too aware is becoming rarer and rarer on this abused planet of ours.

Eventually we reached the end of the walkway and I even sensed a little sadness from Mrs. M. that the experience was over. Not quite over, as it happened. In the last platform, lying on a bench, fast asleep, was a young lad in shorts and a football jersey. George woke him up and introduced him to us as the engineer who performed the "Almost daily inspections." I'm not so sure Mandy would have been quite so brave if we had met him on the first platform.

We wound our way back along the forest track stopping again from time to time to look at more fascinating trees and plants, and the biggest millipedes we had ever seen, even bigger than in Borneo. There was even at a campsite where visitors were permitted to stay in tents overnight to experience even more of the forest's treasures. Treasures that after meeting the Mega-millipede, even the new, fearless Mandy was quite happy to leave undiscovered! At one point we noticed a thick, heavy scent drifting through a small clearing and Amy shouted out, "Hey George, What's that smell?" George panicked and shouted back, "Don't call my name! Remember the spirits". Amy turned to me with a glint in her eye, and said "Hmmm! I never knew that spirits smelled so good!"

When we got back to the headquarters we were asked to go and pay an extra 15 cides each, as Amy had asked for the "Combined Tour" and apparently we had been asked if we minded going with her. We hadn't realised at the time, but there was little point in arguing at this stage as we had benefited from an extra hour that we hadn't yet paid for, and besides, we might never have met the sweet scented forest nymphs.

We bought a very refreshing bottle of Fanta and left the park in search of our taxi. Fortunately we are getting used to Ghanaian ways by now and were not surprised to find that Kwame was nowhere in sight so we sat under a huge shade tree and enjoyed our cold drinks, watching the unfamiliar birds and lizards. Eventually Kwame turned up, full of apologies and drove us back to Hans Cottage. His car was not the usual Ghanaian taxi and had proper air conditioning. What Bliss!

We sat on a different part of the restaurant complex, close to a tree festooned with the nests of a colony of bright orange weaver birds, and their ceaseless and noisy coming and going created a pleasant backdrop for a relaxing afternoon catching up on the blog and just chillin! As evening drew in we shared a burger and chips (the first thing since breakfast) and then moved to a spot where we knew we could connect to somebody's wireless internet and download. And so to bed at about 8:00 pm and our last night by the catfish ponds of Hans Cottage.