February 28th and 29th, 2020, trip to Cape Coast and the National Park

On Friday morning, I got up at 4:30 to leave as early as possible.
I'm glad I left on time because the journey to Cape Coast took a total of 6 hours. At the second transfer point, I had to wait for about 30 minutes for the
trotro to arrive. On the way from Kaneshie to Cape Coast, we also stood by the roadside for half an hour because the driver had to tinker with the engine and the front tire.
I don't want to know what was wrong with it.

After I finally arrived, I immediately made my way to Cape Coast Castle and also took a tour, which I can highly recommend.
Cape Coast Castle was, among others, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and finally British and is one of a total of 35 forts on the Ghanaian coast.
Unfortunately, the castle did not have a nice purpose because the locals were brought there, branded, locked up in slave dungeons for months, and then shipped to the USA and Brazil if they were still alive.
There, the slaves had to work on plantations to produce goods (e.g. cotton) so that they could be brought to Europe.
During the tour, we also visited the slave dungeons, and I have to say that it was really terrible. The dungeon for the slaves was pitch dark and only about
8m x 5m in size. About 200 male slaves were held captive there. This idea is truly unbelievable, to imprison so many people without any daylight for several
months in such a small space and chain them up inside.
The slaves only received food and water twice a day through a hatch. In addition, the slaves lived in their own dirt, which was about 2 feet high and consisted of food, water,
blood, vomit, and feces. Many of them also became blind because they didn't see any light for a long period of time.

What is really macabre about the whole situation is that the church was built right above the 'male slave dungeon' and the slaves could hear every day how the slaveholders conducted worship loudly above
them and praised things like 'God loves everyone' or 'We are all equal before God'. The slave ships on which the slaves were eventually loaded also had
names like 'Jesus' or 'Joy', how fitting...

We were told many other terrible stories, but it would take too long to write them all here. In any case, I found it very interesting and exciting to see it 'live', as we have dealt with this topic for about a year in English and I
even wrote my high school graduation paper on it.

Afterwards, I went to my hostel, which was 150 m further to the right directly on the beach. It was really nice there and the people were super friendly.
I also met two Swiss people with whom I went to Kakuum National Park (375 km2) on Saturday, and a 75-year-old grandma who has traveled to 112 countries since her husband died
7 years ago and is now on a tour through Africa. Very admirable!

In the national park, we walked on the Canopy Walkway. These are several suspension bridges that hang 40 meters above the ground and are connected by platforms.
It was a shaky but really worthwhile experience. You have a really cool view over the rainforest. After that, the 2 Swiss and I walked through the rainforest with our guide.
He showed us many different trees and explained their usefulness, and we saw a treehouse in the middle of the rainforest where you can spend the night.
Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals (except for a huge millipede and colorful butterflies) because they are only active at night or early in the morning. However, there are monkeys, antelopes,
African elephants, buffaloes, parrots, snakes, etc.

All in all, it was a really nice trip that was definitely worth it despite the long drive. And the hostel even had a real shower :D