February 22, 2020, hike through the rainforest

This morning at 5:30 am, I took the Trotro to Boti Falls. Everything went smoothly on the way there. In Madina, I could leave directly because I was the last one. The Trotros only leave when all seats are occupied. In Koforidua, I had to change again. However, all taxi drivers rushed towards me because they saw their chance to take me to Boti Falls. But the Trotro driver was pretty cool and scared them away by claiming that I am his wife :D Since the Trotro I had to take departs from a different station, he kindly drove me there and helped me find the right one. Then it was another hour of driving to finally arrive after a total of 4 hours of travel. Since I was very early, I even had my own tour guide who was really cool and told me a lot. First, we hiked up to Umbrella Rock. Back then, people used it in battles with other villages to keep an eye on the enemies. From up there, you have a really good view of the rainforest. However, the path to get there was also a real challenge. At the beginning, you could still call it hiking. The landscape was still pretty barren because there was a bigger forest fire there. But later on, the ascent was sometimes super steep and you really had to be careful to step on the right stones to not slip. That was more like proper climbing. When we finally reached the top, we were all sweaty because of the temperatures here. On the way, we came across some butterflies, lizards, and bright red bugs. Fortunately, no snakes, although there are said to be many there. After that, we went to the 'Three-headed palm tree', a palm tree with three heads. Each year, only one head bears fruit and the next one is due the following year. It looked really cool. After we had also conquered the path through the rainforest on the way back, we went down exactly 250 steps to the place where the waterfall should be visible. However, because of the Harmattan and the long time without rain, there was unfortunately no waterfall to be seen. Normally, it is a 'twin waterfall' that only unites during heavy rain in the rainy season. Nevertheless, the descent was definitely worth it because it was really beautiful and impressive down there. You could admire the huge rock wall with the vines hanging down. The return journey home took a whole 5.5 hours and I was really exhausted afterwards. But still, the journey was very exciting because I could see so much of nature. However, I was shocked when I saw part of the rainforest on fire and large columns of smoke rising into the air. Unfortunately, I don't know the cause, but often the fire is not natural and slash-and-burn is being carried out.