A Broadening Mind: We’re Officially Tourists!

The next place we visited near the end of our journey was Cape Coast, which is also located near Takoradi on the south coast. It is easily a day trip’s distance away from The Green Turtle Lodge. The town itself was much more congested and modern than the cities up north, but we didn’t have the best experiences with some of the locals. Many places were very dirty, and we continuously felt like people were trying to rip us off or sell us drugs. Despite these setbacks, the city itself looked pretty cool in some parts.

Probably the most popular tourist spot is the Slave Castle. Located right on the Atlantic, it was built in the 1600s as part of the “slave triangle.” The castle doubled as an outpost fort and a holding area for captured slaves to be held until transport merchant ships came to pick them up.

The original structure has been preserved for visitors to see and walk through. We took a tour that showed the dungeons and the living quarters for the soldiers, which was very interesting. The dungeons are essentially cramped stone rooms, and the amount of people they supposedly fit into them is unfathomable. It was way too dark to take pictures, so all the ones I have are from the outside.

Here’s a picture taken standing with my back to the Atlantic and looking in. The governor’s quarters and the chapel are visible on the second floor, and the slave quarters are on either side on the bottom.

This was taken from one of the raised corners of the castle looking down upon their defenses to the ocean. They must not have been entirely successful, as the fort changed nationalities several times throughout its history!

And here’s a shot of the city of Cape Coast from the governor’s balcony. It wasn’t on the tour, but we kind of sneaked up there after our guide left us.

To see a more panoramic view of the city from this same spot, check out this video link.

Later on that day, we took a taxi to visit Kakum National Park. They have many walking tours available, but we were short on time so we only did the canopy walk. This consists of about half a dozen suspended bridges which were originally built for bird watching, about 100 feet off the ground. The guide warned us that we weren’t going to see any animals because they had moved to another part of the park because of frequent visitors, and boy was he right. The experience was still worth the small fee and time investment because of the good views. But I wouldn’t recommend traveling to this part of Ghana specifically to visit the park.

This is what it looks like from the middle of a bridge and looking straight ahead. The mix of downward view with the swaying and creaking would definitely make this a frightening experience for anyone afraid of heights.

And here’s a side-view shot of people walking it. The guide specifically told us not to bunch together like they’re doing, but I guess some people prefer to live dangerously.