Rope Bridges/Ocean

Thursday we took the bus to Cape
Coast, which was about a 3 hour drive each way. Our first stop was the rope bridges, which was scary and exciting. From the spot we parked, we hiked up 600 feet to the top of the tree line, where 9 rope bridges waited. I felt a little more comfortable when I found out that 2 engineers from British Columbia designed and constructed the rope bridges. Our tour guide assured us that "most of the time" the bridges are safe.

For some reason, I was imagining that the bridges would be stable. Boy was I wrong. Here I am, 400 feet above the ground, taking my first step on these ropes. "Oh, SHIT!" and "what the hell am I doing" were the only things coming to mind. We had boards to walk on, but we were swinging around. I was pretty certain I was going to fall to my death several times. But what did I have to worry about, the tour guide did say that the bridges were safe most of the time. I decided I needed to suck it up and just do it. It actually helped if I focused on the scenery and blocked out how unstable the ropes were. Later on, I was shown several pictures taken of me looking extremely concerned.

The next place we went was Cape Coast. Cape Coast is beautiful! We ate lunch on the beach, played in the ocean. When I first got there, I decided to start climbing the rocks because the ocean was crashing up against the rocks. I wants to get my feet wet and get "misted". There were crabs and other ocean creatures. When I got to the very edge next to the ocean, someone started calling to me. I turned around and saw this teenage local trying to tell me that what I was doing was very unsafe. I disagreed, but decided to listen to him and head back in. Just as I turned around and started walking, a HUGE wave came in and drenched me. I probably would have fallen in if I was still standing in the edge.

Of course, the ocean had tons of plastic bags everywhere. We played for a good hour. Then we got a tour of the castle at Cape Coast, which has a really interesting history. We we able to go into the slave dungeons, which were very small and very dark. After the tour, we shopped in the street markets. Cape Coast is wonderful!