Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Ancestral Caves

On Wednesday, we took a field trip to a nearby town to hike to the Ancestral Caves. It was a great hike (evidently one of the most strenuous in Ghana, but still nothing compared to any hike I've done in California.) with some good climbing and scrambling. The caves were small and sometimes disappointing, but the bat cave was amazing, with dozens of bats swooping past my head in the darkness. We were also able to see into Togo (in the distance) from the hill above the caves. I guess you can walk there via the trail and avoid all the border hassle of crossing on a road. The Volta Region is really beautiful and lush...my region up north will be starkly different.

path to the ancestral caves


entrance to cave 1

climbing down from cave

entrance down a ladder to cave 3

Lauren coming down into cave 3


Ancestral Cave 3

all of us in cave 3 (the bat cave)

this image is courtesy of our Ghanaian guide, Francis, who knows how to photograph a bat

along the trail

more views

entrance to cave 5

view from hill above the Ancestral Caves

Lakbe village


9 comments:

  1. WA WA WA WA WA
    this album titillated my Indiana Jones instincts pretty bad, and the butterfly was the icing on cake!

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  2. There were so many butterflies!!! But they were all too fast for me--I was chasing them all over the place, trying for a photo. Africa is so beautiful.

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  3. kate it's great to read your blog. my son is in the education/ict group and when we talk to him he talks about the areas you address in your blog, which is great to read your description of your new adventure. hopefully my son will start blogging once he is situated in his site in september.

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  4. Glad you like it---there are only a few ICT guys, and I work fairly closely with all of them in training--Steven, Travis, Paul, and Devon! If you are Paul's parents, Paul and I went to school at UCSD at the same time. Small world. And if you are Devon's parents, I grew up in St. Louis too. Small world. But I bet you are Travis's. :)

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  5. Oh, and Sam, my fellow Cali!

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  6. Would you add your bat photo as a citizen-science observation to the AfriBats project on iNaturalist (www.inaturalist.org/projects/afribats)? AfriBats will use your observations to better understand bat distributions and help protect bats in Africa.

    Please locate your picture on the map as precisely as possible to maximise the scientific value of your records.

    Many thanks!

    PS: it's an Old World leaf-nosed bat, genus Hipposideros

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    Replies
    1. Many thanks for accepting the invitation! Please have a look at the comment on iNaturalist:

      http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211407

      and add it to AfriBats.

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    2. Sorry to bother you again - please check on iNat how to add it to the AfriBats-project and to modify the identification. Thanks!

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  7. Hi Kate: you've shared your observation with iNaturalist, but it is not yet part of the AfriBats-collection. To have it added there, please click on "Accept invitation" next to your observation (you need to be signed in for that):
    http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211407

    Let me know if you need help with that! Many thanks for your interest.

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