Bamboo Cathedral at the Ankasa rain forest

Near the border between Ivory Coast and Ghana is the Ankasa rain forest.  It is a hidden treasure because it is out of the way and not visited that often.  However, being married to Gregg means I lead a high adventure life.  As we entered Ankasa, we met our guide, "Joseph."  We also got a glimpse of the very muddy roads from the recent rain.  

We went on a nature walk to see the Bamboo Cathedral.  It was breathtaking.  These clusters of bamboo are 30 feet tall and as they lean in toward each other they look very much like the arched ceiling of a cathedral. 


On our walk we saw a poisonous black millipede and a red and black non-poisonous millipede that were each about 8 inches long.  Others saw a brown tarantula and a snake as big as your arm.  Nobody could tell what kind of a snake it was and quite frankly I'm glad I didn't see it.

Of course it had rained in the rain forest shortly before our arrival and the roads were very muddy in spots.  In some places it was so muddy that we had to get out and walk to lighten the truck as it drove through the mud.  On our muddy hike the guide pointed out elephant tracks.  A mother and baby had left tracks not too long before; no sign of the elephants now of course.  

On our drive out through the mud, we had our windows down to listen for birds.  All of a sudden we heard a loud pop and a hiss; you guessed it - we popped a tire in the mud. Joseph told us to gun it through the mud to higher ground where we could change the tire.  Joseph earned a handsome tip that day for getting muddy as he helped us change the tire.  We were fortunate to find an "African truck washing station" not too far from Ankasa.  Three young Africans spent an hour making the truck spotless and sent the completely flat tire to be repaired (on the back of a motorcycle).  We gave away several Books of Mormon and Bibles that day to the repairmen and audience at "What a Friend Auto Parts."