A waterfall and Monkeys

  Welcome to the Everything and anything blog guys, Please don't forget to share the posts and also to subscribe. 😊😀So yesterday Friday the 13th of July 2018 I experienced a different side of nature I never imagined I would, I'm actually excited, thrilled and so eager to get this post on the blog. As you might have guessed from the title and the post banner this is another travel blog post that I actually planned to write on the bus on our way to these wonderful locations in the Volta Regions of Ghana. Summer 2018 has been equally eventful as it has also been tiring, looking forward to one more event before it finally gets stale and I have no idea what to do next. I'm getting major throwback vibes from this post, because in primary school when we go on "excursions" we always write an essay about it😂.

My school organized this trip and initially I didn't have the vim to go, but my fav was like I might like it and I'm so grateful to her for actually convincing me to go and making sure I go. Maybe now would be a good time to actually express how grateful I am to God for Gracie. As early as 5:30 am we were ready and as at 6:10 am we had left East Legon, it was going to be a long ride (App. 4-5 hours). Once again I really didn't know what to expect from the trip or the locations, but I was sure of one thing I was going to enjoy myself no matter what. We tried playing cards but we soon got tired and eventually almost everybody in the bus fell asleep. Fam, If you can sleep comfortably on a road journey to that region (Since its one of the few I have been to), then you're a badoo, because the potholes were terrible and half the roads are nothing to talk about. I eventually got tired of the bumpy ride and just randomly asked for doughnuts on the ride, spoke a little and spent the rest of my time marveling at how beautiful all the shades of green are.

At around 10 am we got to the first location, honestly the journey felt like 6 hours with all the bad spots, but the driver was actually careful and responsible. The Wli Water falls in the Volta region is said to be the tallest water fall in West Africa and to see it would require a 20 minutes hiking to the lower falls and another 1 hour and 30 minutes getting to the upper falls.  Forgive me I forgot the Ewe names of the mountains and the waterfall. After a brief introduction from our tour guide we started the 20 minute hike to the waterfalls and for some reason I was right behind the guide asking many questions and just amazed at how he maneuvered the path with so much ease.

We would have to to cross 9 bridges to get to the waterfall and with each bridge you got to witness a different part of the forest, I remember crossing one bridge and meeting a piece of rock just sitting pretty on the side of the road with drops of water coming out of it and also after crossing another bridge saw half trees that lay by the side and how most parts of it had been cut into planks. From a distance you could also see the waterfall,  as we got closer to the waterfall I could hear the sounds of birds and I said to a friend that was close to me, " can you hear all those birds?" and the guide corrected me saying they were actually fruit bats and although they are largely animals of the night some were awake. After trailing the guide I could now see and also hear the wonder and beauty.

 Most times when I'm around large bodies of water I tend to get lost in the flow and sound of it, this waterfall was no exception. The way the tiny drops of water landed on your skin and just made you feel so cool and calm was just nice, fitted with benches and one of the best views you might ever get, this reserve is beyond beautiful. Being my first waterfall experience I wanted to take as many pictures as possible and that was exactly what I did. We also saw like a million fruit bats just casually handing around and sleeping... It had this WOAH effect on everyone that could look hard enough to notice them.
Unfortunately we didn't spend as much time as we would have liked but it was awesome experience there.

Heyyyyy

 After being in such an open space, with fresh air and feeling sooo free, the journey down was actually very terrible for me. I started feeling like I was in a very tight corner (the paths were not too wide), everywhere I looked were huge rocks or dense miles of forest, I just had this intense urge to vomit and to make my pain more perfect my fat legs began to itch me. Its safe to say I was among the last people to get out of the forest and I didn't die

The next Place was the TAFI  ATOME MONKEY SANCTUARY🐒, a 30 minute drive (Cause bad road) from the Waterfalls. I and my fav ate on the bus before getting there cause we were actually very hungry. On our way there people bought bunches of bananas to feed the monkeys with. I was a little bit scared of the idea of a monkey jumping on me but I had convinced myself that as long as they don't bite I would give it a try. The town people were friendly and were definitely used to tourists.

Mona Monkeys

The type of monkeys that are at the sanctuary are called the Mona Monkeys and they often live in groups and have leaders. The first group of monkeys we met were very funny and interesting to watch. Although the guide taught us how to feed them, by holding the banana firmly from the middle so they could climb on your arm and eat, many of the monkeys were more interested in struggling for the banana and running away. Their sizes varied  and we also encountered some really greedy ones.We were told they didn't scratch or bite but a few of us had scratches from them. The first group were not so hungry and we decided to move to another group which took us through another long walk, passed a giraffe shaped parasite tree and paths of dense forests

Look how happy she is 🍄

 The new group of monkeys were definitely more hungry and many of them didn't mind sitting on your shoulder or arm enjoying their banana long enough for us to take pictures and videos. One even jumped on my fav and scratched her and also me in the other group. But it was an awesome experience and we got to Accra before it was even 8pm and I am still trying to shake off the excitement of yesterday...I'll let the pictures tell you the rest of the story.

I would actually rate this trip a 8/10........