What a Day and it is Just Now Noon!

So my day started out early this day, got up at 5:30 to go on a hike through a nature reserve. This is the sight that we were given at the beginning of our adventure.

The hike we were taking was through a Game Reserve which is part of the National Parks System here in Ghana, we didn't get to see any game but we had a very good walk and a lot of fun. This is for my friend Earl who loves to photograph bugs. So Earl this guy isn't eating anything but I wanted you to see an African Praying Mantis.

This is our trail through the bush of Africa, we are in a subtropical rain forest. Not sure what that means exactly but it sounds cool. I love how the sun lights up the top of the grass in the foreground of this image.

This is the largest of the game that we saw while we were hiking. We heard monkeys in the forest but we could not see them. We tried hard but they were well camouflaged.

My hiking comrades Morgan and Nicholas. Nicholas is here as a short term missionary also.

Another shot of our trail, in this photo you can actually see a discernible trail.

This is by far the coolest thing that we saw, I think it is called a Pitcher Plant. I have not had time to look on the web to see if it is or not. Anyone out there know if I am wrong? In the next image you can see just how large this thing is. It supposedly will eat large bugs and small lizards.

Isn't she beautiful!

There were lily plants scattered all throughout the trail but only a few of them had flowers on them.

O.K. Earl here is another one for you, this is an African Walking Stick of some kind.

These flowers are the prettiest wildflowers I have seen since I have been here. The Lillie's are the second prettiest.
Well the hike is over but the adventure is not, we walked from Dzakpo Village to Helekpe Village through the African Bush it was AWESOME just being there. The thrill of not knowing if we would see an animal or get bit by a poisonous snake was very cool. Nicholas and I got bit but Morgan was lucky enough to get through with no bites. O.k., o.k. so we only got bit by driver ants but let me tell you what, they are a nasty bunch. They have been known to bring down animals as large as cows. They were the only dangerous things we saw, which is probably good. So anyway after the 10 mile hike which took us 4 hours we were all very tired. We finally got to the truck that was supposed to bring us home, a 30 minute ride from Helekpe to Ho or a 3 hour walk. We got about 10 minutes into our trip when Jerry said, "I think something is not right with the truck." He got out and looked at the front wheel and said "it is breaking! I think we need to drive very slow." Needless to say we never got far, as you can see in the picture the frame of the truck is literally ripped apart. The roads here are hard on cars. So we sat in the heat of the day for an hour waiting for a ride.

Jerry finally found us a ride in a truck that was passing by and we road in the back of the truck to Ho. You can see the broken down truck as we drive away, note the missing wheel on the passenger side. Jerry is in the foreground of the photo.

Morgan was excited to ride in the truck as it I let her stand up as we were driving. It looks like Morgan has a bug bite or two on her elbow. Can anyone say Anti Itch Cream?

This is Morgan's view from the back of the truck.

I am throwing this photo in just so that you at home can see what the kids do here without T.V. Shortly after I took this photo 3 more kids got books and were reading as well.


Well this is not a typical day here, we don't always go hiking through the bush but the unexpected is very typical here. Hope you enjoy the photos of our hike. On another note, I finally got the barrels this week, only a few things were missing. A bag of M&M's, several jars of Nutella, Flour Tortilla Shells and Several jars of Parmesan Cheese. We think this is all that was taken, about $100.00 worth of stuff. My tools however were all there.

Gary