Week 5 - Volta Region Part 1

Indiana Jones got nothing on me!

Probably the most adventurous weekend I've had in Ghana yet! It began on Friday morning at 4am. We left our place and headed to the Volta Region which is on the western part of Ghana. We arrive and instantly the adventure began! Deciding to stay at the paradise mountain lodge the first night, our "heartily" crew really no idea or any expectations of what would lie ahead.
Our Trotro (the transportation system in Ghana) dropped us off at Fume in front of a giant mountain where we had to walk up to get to were we were staying. After walking for an hour we finally arrived and what a beauty it was! Literally the six of us in our group stayed on top of a mountain on our own (other than the people who were working at the lodge of course). Later that afternoon we all decided to take on this so called "nature walk". Sounds easy right...not! We were dropped off halfway down the mountain where a path began having nothing but water, a map, cameras and a walking stick. At first the walk seemed to be relatively easy, easy enough that Chris and Tharni chose to wear flip flops. At the time, I was having an absolute blast! Common, how often does one get to venture into a jungle on their own without a guide. As we walked 45 min into the jungle, the path began to get steeper, more dangerous and incrementally more exciting. At one point Thomas, Chris and I repelled down maybe 2-3 stories down a rock wall to find a waterfall which was a hidden gem of Biakpa.
Everything was going great until we hit a point where the path began to split. One wrong turn can really make a difference. As we walked on, i recalled feeling a bit nervous for we had no idea where we were on the map. The path began to get bushier and bushier, splitting at times into three different paths. My heart began to pound because i knew (although i didn't want to admit it at the time) we were actually lost in the jungle!! The sun was going down and we had no idea where we were; definitely a recipe for disaster. As we hit the one hour mark from the turn of no return, a man with a large machete yelled at us asking "where are you going?". He explained that we had been going the wrong way and we had to turn around immediately. What a relief I said to the others but it soon became apparent that I spoke to soon.
We finally found ourselves on the map and just as we thought we were home sweet home, we ran into another barrier.... a giant mountain with no path to be found. Thomas and I frantically ran up the steep mountain side trying to find anything that resembled a path but clearly there was nothing. We climbed down and collectively came to the conclusion that the best plan of action was to go back to where we began. After maybe a little more than 4 hours in the jungle lost and confused, we finally found the street which led to the lodge! We were finally on the right course home and more importantly, we were not going to have to spend the night in the jungle! And that my friends was our first night...