For over a decade, Kwahu, which is located in the Eastern Region of Ghana, has been the go-to location for merrymakers in the country to celebrate the Easter festivities every year, aside the regular church conventions that characterize the period.
I have been to Kwahu twice, but this time, the experience was quite different from the rest.
In previous visits, I was part of the usual crowd going up and down the Obomeng township, where various businesses and vendors showcased their products and food on opposite sides of the road, with loud music playing at every joint with enthusiastic people enjoying themselves.
But this time, my team and I (made up of family and friends) decided to do something different, and that was to go site seeing.
We had heard about the famous canopy walk and zip line which serves as major tourist attractions at Kwahu, so we decided to experience it. We were 15 in all, made up of 12 adults and 3 kids. This number attracted a discount. Instead of 30 cedis for the zip line and 20 cedis for the canopy walk, we paid 20 cedis each for the zip line and 15 cedis for the canopy walk.
I must admit that the festive season brought a lot of tourists to the site, which if properly managed, could play a major role in boosting the country’s tourism industry.
After making the necessary payment, we set off only to realize that we had to climb 877 steps to reach our destination. This part turned out to be the most difficult part of the experience. After we were told, we returned to the reception to arm ourselves (with water) for the “journey”.
It wasn’t an easy climb.
Not soon enough, we had climbed 300 steps. After conquering the first 300 steps, there was a post encouraging us to keep going which reads “you’ve covered 300 steps! Great progress”. The next 500 steps (it seemed like forever), are also marked by a sign of motivation.
Most of us literally dragged ourselves up the remaining steps.
By the time we were done climbing all the 877 steps, we were all exhausted, and treated ourselves to some good fresh chilled palm wine, relaxed a bit before we started on the canopy walk.
CANOPY WALK AND ZIP LINE EXPERIENCE
The canopy walk was the shortest I had climbed as compared to the canopy walk at Kakum National Park in Cape Coast (which is by far the scariest to me), and the walk at the Legon Botanical gardens at North Legon in Greater Accra.
The Kwahu Obomeng canopy walk has only three segments. I did not see it as an adventure though, because it was not as high as I had anticipated.
This made the climb very easy and comfortable for me, except for the occasional shaking of the canopy by the wind or the movement of others on the canopy.
Within minutes we were done with it, and started descending the stairs to go and try the zip line.
By this time, our legs were numb and shaky.
The zip line was also not so high, but that was my first time trying it so it was scary. One by one, we tried the zip line and soon it was my turn.
I always thought I was acrophobia, until I experienced the zipline.
At first I wanted to act all confident, strong and not frightened by the thought of hanging in the air for about 50 seconds. But that thought alone was working my nerves, and when it was time for me to go on the zip line, I became hesitant.
The guard pushed me unknowingly to prepare the next user as I was “wasting time”. But as soon as I was in the air and admitted that I could see the ground, I relaxed and became comfortable. When it was over, I actually felt like reliving the experience all over again.
We had a great experience, and it was definitely worth the time.
This year, I enjoyed the tourist sites in Kwahu, and acknowledged that there is definitely more to it than the usual loud music and relaxing to sip some beer and chew ‘khebab’.
The other thing I wanted to experience was the famous paragliding, but for lack of time we could not make it there.
One thing I noticed was that, most people were not in the know of these other beautiful sites in Kwahu,
The Ghana Tourism Authority must indeed manage these tourist sites at Kwahu very well, by creating more awareness to improve patronage.
In this case, the GTA could create another festival within the year to draw more tourists to the area.
One commendable thing is the good roads that lead to the various tourist sites I visited at Kwahu.
The roads are in good shape unlike other tourist sites across the country with bad roads.
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citinewroom.com/Ghana
