Places of Interest in Accra and Ghana - Kakum National Park

Canopy walkway at high point

Kakum national park is a section of the Upper Guinean Rainforest and is about 60 miles west of Accra as the crow flies; by road the journey takes about 3 hours. The effect of agriculture, clearance for urban development and trees felled for wood, by loggers has all had its effect on the original expanse of the Guinean forest, and now in Ghana rainforest exits as isolated pockets of vegetation.

One way of protecting land as they have done in the U.K is to declare a land expanse as a National Park, and that's exactly what they did at Kakum. The park thus protects and is home to a variety of animals and insects including bongo antelopes, forest elephant, duiker, bushbuck, squirrels, leopard and colobus monkey.

in 1995 a suspension bridge walkway, was installed as a tourist attraction complementing the already established tourist centre. At the local Mesomagor village, visitors can experience typical, rural Ghanaian life; overnight stays can be organized with park management or local tour operators.

Also at the tourist centre is a rain forest café where international and Ghanaian dishes can be sampled such as Red, fufu, and banku. The campsite area can accommodate 12 adults or 16 children, but visitors must bring their own tents, mosquito nets, and sleeping bags, and there is an exhibition centre and shop.

Visitors refreshing themselves with coconut

The revenue from "eco-tourism" is used to help protect and maintain the park, and has had considerable success with around 1000 visitors in 1991 increasing to over 90,000 tourists per year by 2001. Increasing the interest and awareness of its own County folk was confirmed when a census declared that 80% of visitors were in fact Ghanaian.

That's probably quite a feat since my experience with my wife who lived all her life in Kumasi until she was thirty has shown me, she has little interest and knowledge of wildlife.

The suspension bridge over 300 yards long actually and is constructed from netting, steel cable, and wooden planks, starts at ground level and steadily climbs , using several of the forest's tallest trees to link to. At its highest point the walk way is as much as 40 yards high, giving a fantastic view of the rain forest at its canopy height.

From this vantage point it's possible to spot some of the 550 species of butterfly and 260 or more species of birds. The species of birds that can be seen include weavers birds, white crested tiger heron, Congo serpent eagle, yellow billed turaco, black-throated courcal, and rufus fishing owl to name a few.

For more information the park can be contacted directly:
Ghana Heritage Conservation Trust
Tel. 00233 4230265
Fax 002333 4230264 Email: GHCT@ghana.com