"You wait here", I was told "I get some things". When he came back with the 'things', I realised that I was about to walk off into deep undergrowth with a moneybelt and expensive camera, alone with a man carrying a machete with a foot-long blade. And yes, I hesitated, if not for long.
Generally, the best time to see animals is early morning or late afternoon when it's cooler and they tend to be a bit more active. So what exactly I was thinking of heading there shorlty after 1.00 I don't know. As expected, it was fairly quiet, though briefly, about half way round the trail, we saw some shaking branches in the tops of the trees - a group of monkeys had been resting in a clump of bamboo by the path and were scurrying to safety higher up. Apart from this the park, as well as being free of tourists, was very tranquil and peaceful. The lake sits behind the Owabi Dam, apparently built by the British sometime in the 20s, and where most of our water in Kumasi comes from.
After walking along the top of the dam, we headed back to the park office. 'If you have money left you can give me some dash,' the guide kindly offered, presumably anticipating my appreciation at the machete only being used on branches. If you have money left? Well I will have money left, but I might need some of it....................still, fair's fair, so I paid the entrance fee of 5 cedis and gave 2 cedis as a tip. Inexplicably I then received five receipts for 10 cedis each, though I declined to lecture about audit trails and proper accounting controls. It didn't seem the right time, although if AfID want to add Ghana Wildlife Parks as a partner I suspect they could use some help. I walked the mile or so back to the last village and found a 'classy' blue Chevrolet tro tro to take me home.
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