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We got up at 5 am to pack and load the four-wheel drive. At 7 am, we waved goodbye to Bobiri Forest Reserve and set out on a 14.5 hour drive to Hohoe. I had never been on a car ride this long. There was a lot of sitting around, doing nothing, and brain wandering off. It was already our 6th day in Ghana and not a glimpse of a Goliath Beetle. The possibility of returning home with nothing became more real with each passing day. It was nerve wrecking. And there was nothing we could do but sit in the car passively. By 10:30 am we arrived in Kibi, a town adjacent to some really nice patches of forests. We visited the local Forestry Department and greeted the officer on duty. We showed him some photos of the Royal Goliath Beetle and Chief Goliath Beetle. He shook his head, but said he would pass the photos to local hunters and loggers who spent considerable amounts of time in the forest. If they ever saw one, they would call our cell phone. We continued driving eastward until noon. We came across a very large restaurant on the side of the road. It was time to stretch our muscles and put some nutrients in our stomach. Q-san and I had fried rice and fried chicken with Shito on the side; I could never get tired of it. Andy decided to try something different. He ordered a large pizza. It was a nice sunny day. The restaurant had some concrete flooring on the outside. Many lizards congregated contently on the warm concrete kissed by the sun. When they had had enough sunbathing, some simply ventured into the restaurant to cool off on the tiles. The lizards and I were in two very different states of mind. They were satisfied and had nowhere to be. I, on the other hand, was on a time crunch and desperately searching. In a way, I was jealous of them. After the delicious lunch, we drove into the unknown again. The scenery mainly consisted of grassy plains with sporadic trees. Occasionally, a forested hill could be seen in a distance. Later in the afternoon, thunderstorm clouds started to gather. The further east we drove, the darker the sky got. At 4 pm, we reached the west bank of the legendary Volta River! If there was no error in the historical collecting data, this was where Goliathus atlas lived! Even if we didn’t find Nickerl’s Beetle, having made a pilgrimage to its origin would be considered an accomplishment of its own. The traffic came to a complete halt. Everybody was waiting for the ferry to cross the Volta River. It would still be a while before the next ferry arrived. There was enough time for us to get out of the car to explore. I exuberantly pushed on the car door, but it would not open easily. I thought it was broken or something. As it turned out, the late afternoon had gotten extremely gusty. Layers and layers of thick thunderstorm clouds darkened the sky. It was going to downpour soon. Andy, Q-san, and I used the little time we had to explore the river bank market as much as possible. All kinds of foods were sold here. Many mobile vendors carried their products on their head as they navigated through the traffic. One in particular really caught our attention: giant river prawns. We bought two large bags of them. We couldn’t wait to cook them up this evening in Hohoe. Not long after, the thunderstorm began. We ran back to our four wheel drive and waited for the ferry to load our car.a
©昆蟲論壇 -- 昆蟲論壇 >[
After we parked our four wheel drive on the ferry, I excitedly ran out to the deck and looked out. The water was dark but clear. I could not see the bottom and began to wonder what giant fish lurked in these mysterious waters. I also imagined how the giant freshwater prawns we bought might have swum in Lake Volta. Soon after, the ferry began to propel towards the east bank. Along the way, I spotted a fully forested island in a distance with mature trees. My imagination instantly ran wild. Maybe that island was never subjected to deforestation. Maybe that island was a time capsule. Maybe the animals and plants on that island had never been altered. Perhaps Nickerl’s Beetle still lived there! I wish I could explore that island. But the ferry kept moving and the island became smaller and smaller. The sounds of car engines starting and commotions pulled me out of my fantasy. The ferry had arrived at the east bank and passengers were getting ready to move on. We drove off the ferry and continued our journey. Mac had one rule in Africa: no night time driving. Many roads didn’t have street lights and dividers. He had witnessed night time accidents before. However, we were running out of time. Mac decided to make a rare exception. We would drive to Hohoe in the dark. I would never forget. After sunset, the road to Hohoe was not just dark, but absolutely pitch dark. This allowed me to see the brightest starry sky that I had ever witnessed. It was so gorgeous that we had to stop the car on the side of the road and step out to admire with open mouth. The sky was saturated with stars. I could not even begin to count how many there might be. It was a breezy and chilly night, perhaps about 20 degrees Celsius. Interestingly, although Ghana was in the Northern Hemisphere, summer was its coolest season and winter was its warmest season. As I looked around, everything was dark. I began to wonder if there were beasts ambushing us in the darkness, such as lions. After all, this was Africa! However, West Africa had undergone significant ecological changes due to human activities. Lions were believed to be extinct in Ghana. If there were any survivors, they would be in Mole National Park in northern Ghana. As astonishing as the night sky was, we couldn’t spend too much time appreciating it. It was getting late and everybody was tired. Plus, it was not safe to be standing on the side of the road. We had to move on. We continued driving through rural Ghana in darkness. Finally, we arrived in Hohoe at 9:30 pm.VN
©昆蟲論壇 -- 昆蟲論壇 LaT2Uq
After checking in to a local motel, we asked the motel chef to cook our fresh water prawns. We had not had dinner. The combination of hunger and novelty generated huge anticipation. The chef asked us how we would like the prawns prepared. “Boiling would be plenty good,” I said. Not long after, the originally black prawns had been turned into red. They looked fantastic! We all eagerly tried them. Then we looked at each other with awkward facial expressions. Shockingly, the result was very disappointing. Despite their large size, their meat was very small in the shell and had a mushy texture. Worst of all, they had a strong muddy taste. I went on to try a second one. Andy and Q-san quit after the first one. Very quickly, we reverted to fried chicken and fried rice with Shito on the side. After dinner, we discussed the itinerary for tomorrow. Mac told us that we would visit Wli Waterfalls, the highest water fall in all of West Africa and surrounded by nice forests. He was sure the Royal Goliath Beetle lived there. We then retreated to our individual rooms for the night. I quickly fell asleep from exhaustion. In the middle of the night, I woke up from an itch on my arm. I was still half asleep and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Was I getting an allergy from the fresh water prawn? Suddenly, the buzzing of a mosquito had me instantly awake and jump out of bed! Mac had warned us not to get bitten by mosquitoes. Although we were taking Doxycycline daily as anti-malarial, there was still a chance that we could contract the mosquito-borne disease if bitten. Mac had contracted malaria before and it hit him hard with a high fever and extreme lethargy. He laid around and couldn’t do anything. I quickly located the mosquito against the white ceiling and smashed it. Blood stain confirmed I was bitten. Images of me coming down with malaria populated my head. Was this how my expedition was going to end? I tried to calm myself. Not every mosquito carried malaria. And even if the mosquito that bit me did, perhaps the Doxycycline would kill the malarial parasite. There was nothing I could do at this point but stay optimistic. I went back to sleep.6
©昆蟲論壇 -- 昆蟲論壇 zYc
We met for breakfast at 8:30 am. We had toasted bread and omelet with hot chocolate. Today was our 7th day in Ghana. After breakfast, we set out for Wli Waterfalls on foot. We arrived at the foothills of the waterfalls at 10 am. It was a sunny day about 29 degrees Celsius. We came across a stream with very clear water. Numerous women in traditional garments were singing and doing laundry standing in the stream. Their colorful fabrics and cheerful attitude greatly boosted our morale. As we explored the forest, we noticed the trees here weren’t as tall as those in Kakum and Bobiri. The forest here seemed sparser and less humid. We appeared to have entered a drier climate zone. If there were Goliath Beetles here, they should be easier to spot and catch. We searched thoroughly and listened carefully. We saw all kinds of insects. But again, there were no signs of Goliath Beetles. By noon, we made it to the Wli Waterfalls. We could hear it from a distance. When we stood next to it, the sounds generated from water plunging 80 meters were so loud that we couldn’t hear each other talking. The visibility was also hindered by the massive mists generated by the raging water. Wli Waterfalls was also famous for the giant colony of straw-colored fruit bats that lived here. Several thousands of them clung to the cliffs of the waterfalls. It was a magnificent sight to behold. We continued searching for Goliath Beetles for the rest of the afternoon. We showed local residents photos of them, but nobody seemed to recognize them. It was hot. We were tired. We were thirsty. We decided to call it a day. Searching for Goliath Beetles in the jungle was an exhausting task. The biggest challenge was how much water to bring. The more water we brought, the longer we could explore. However, the more water we brought, the heavier our backpack. It was always a dilemma. Back in the motel, Q-san again voiced his concern. He sternly said, “Brother Jonathan, we are here for beetles. We are not here for sightseeing. Why did Mac take us to see waterfalls? We need to immediately go to where Mac caught 9 Royal Goliath Beetles in 2007.” Q-san was right. We were running out of time. We had a meeting with Mac and expressed our thoughts. The name of the location was Jesikan, a town further north of Hohoe. Going there was not a problem. But from Jesikan, we would need to meander through several dirt roads and villages to reach the forest where Mac caught 9 Goliath Beetles in 2007. It had been eight years. Fine details were difficult to remember. Only one man could take us there. His name was Richard. He had studied butterflies in Ghana for decades and knew the area like the back of his hand. In fact, Mac had been calling Richard ever since we were in Bobiri Forest Reserve. His wife told Mac that Richard had been travelling. If we were lucky, he would return to Hohoe tomorrow.uj
©昆蟲論壇 -- 昆蟲論壇 lIKQ]
Our fate rested on one man. There was nothing we could do but wait for his return. After dinner, we decided to go out for an evening walk to aid digestion. In a distance, we saw a bright street light. We were curious if it had attracted any insects. As we were approaching it, I noticed a big brown bulge on the street light pole. As we got closer, I was fairly certain that it was a beetle of some kind. When we got to the base of the pole, it was a big rhinoceros beetle with long horns. Although it was not a Goliath Beetle, we were still excited to see a giant beetle that we had found on our own. Andy started shouting with joy. This caught the attention of the local people. A few of them gathered to see what was going on. We could tell one them was a little drunk. We could also smell the alcohol on him. “You want it?” he asked while pointing to the rhinoceros beetle. We said yes. He knocked the rhinoceros beetle off the street light pole with a bamboo stick. Then he offered to sell it to us for 100 Ghanaian cedis (about $25 USD at the time). We already had several rhinoceros beetles from Mesomago, so we kindly declined his offer. Perhaps bolstered by the alcohol, the man became upset and started shouting at us as he paced back and forth: “You white people come to Africa and take our things and make us poor. I will destroy this beetle. You cannot have it.” We were startled by tonight’s unexpected confrontation. We quietly left the scene and retreated to the motel. After this encounter, we stopped venturing outside after sunset. Back in the motel, my brain kept taking me back to the man’s words. I thought about colonialism of the past. However, there were numerous existing issues that I didn’t know about at the time. In my subsequent trips to West Africa, they would unravel in front of my eyes one after another. Pressure was escalating. On the one hand, I was still a little shaken from tonight’s incidence; not all Africans welcomed foreign visitors. On the other hand, we were running out of time. Would Richard take us to Goliath Beetles?-e>F
©昆蟲論壇 -- 昆蟲論壇 eb6QCx
The next morning, Mac took us to Richard’s residence. It was across from the bustling local market. His wife told Mac in the morning that Richard had returned. We waited outside of his home. Anxiety permeated through the air. Our entire expedition depended on this man. Would he agree to help us? At 10:17 am, he walked out of his home. He had a distinct appearance. He had a big goatee on his face and was wearing a t-shirt, blue jeans, and brown leather dress shoes. In front of me was a man that knew precisely where to find Goliath Beetles. I had come from the other side of the globe to be connected with this man. Mac had us all sit down in a bar to get acquainted with Richard over Malta Guinness, an immensely popular non-alcoholic beer in Ghana, which also became our favorite drink. We would order it every time we visited a restaurant in Ghana. Richard specialized in butterflies. He had been helping Western scientists with butterfly research for decades. While in the forests, he would come across Goliath Beetles. After some small talk, we asked if he could tell us the way to the forest that held Goliath Beetles. He began to describe the roads to the Forest of Djin Djin, where the Royal Goliath Beetle dwelled. It wasn’t too long before we realized the directions got too complicated with too many dirt roads with no names! “Take us there now,” said Mac. My heart rate escalated with injection of adrenaline. I was not expecting Mac to say that. Neither was Richard. “Now? I don’t have change of clothes,” replied Richard. I prayed Richard would agree. “Just get in the car. We can buy you clothes when we get there,” answered Mac. Out of the blue, Richard hopped into our car and we were on our way to the Forest of Djin Djin. I didn’t think I had ever been so crammed in a car. Mohammed was the driver. Q-san was in the passenger seat. The back seats used to be occupied by me on the left, Mac in the middle, and Andy on the right. Now with the addition of Richard, the back row was beyond crowed. At any given time, two of us could only sit on the edge of the seats. The four of us in the back rotated sitting on the edge for the next 6 hours until we got to the Forest of Djin Djin. Along the way, many dirt roads were full of potholes. In response, Mohammed swerved left and right to avoid them, which caused us in the back to sway left and right into each other. Despite Q-san having the passenger seat, nobody was jealous of him. The space in front of his legs was fully packed with fruits and canned sardines. He had to put his feet above the glove box. My body was very uncomfortable. But my mind was very happy. We were on our way to catch the Royal Goliath Beetle! At 4 pm, we finally arrived at the Forest of Djin Djin. We literally drove until the road ran out. I could not wait to stretch my arms and legs. A thunderstorm had just passed. As I eagerly stepped out of the car, I immediately felt the humidity and the cool air. The temperature was about 20 degrees Celsius. I looked around me. I was surrounded by cloud-laden forests. This was the closest I had ever been to fantasy. We were in the remote wilderness of eastern Ghana where it bordered Togo. Residents here rarely got foreign visitors. Very quickly, we were swarmed by curious villagers.wTb%5#
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2022/03/14 04:25:26am 
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