Shai Hills

Visited Shai Hills, a national park about three hours away from campus the weekend after the Cape Coast trip. You must hire a guide to walk with you throughout the park, but it is impossible to know where you are going without doing so. First I saw the olive baboons- they are very used to humans and you can get relatively close to them; they also hang out about 200 meters away from the park entrance. Next, we took a trotro to another entrance and began walking towards the sacred bat cave. It is a BEAUTIFUL walk across the savannah and takes around 45 minutes. The bat cave itself is very narrow and smelly, but there are thousands of bats that live there! Many years ago, a tribal chief lived there during war times- the entrance to the cave has boulders strategically placed so they can be rolled down the hill at intruders. The walk back was my favorite part- saw antelope running across the savannah! They are so graceful. I definitely had the thought, "Wow, I really am in Africa..."