Latest adventure: Mole National Park

So last weekend was Mole National Park.

We met outside at 5am Friday morning to catch the bus, which only fitting of the national sense of time here, arrived about 5:30. Not only was it later than expected, it was smaller than expected. Instead of the tour buses we have used in the past, this bus was smaller, the only storage being the top of the bus. I can remember thinking at least it is going to be an adventure.

We finally departed about an hour behind schedule. Vivian, our wonderful tour guide/responsible adult, bid us good morning and informed us that the journey would take 10 to 14 hours. We were thankful for the air conditioning.

Most of the roads in Africa are dirt, and sorry roads at that. Solomon, our driver, did his best to get us there in a timely fashion and still keep the bus in one piece (easier said than done). I am sure that he puts Nascar to shame. He can dodge potholes, dogs, large rocks, and small children better than most drivers can warm their tires. Incredible.

We made a few stops on the way: breakfast at a reststop, potty break on the side of the road (most of us were tricked into believing there was actually a bathroom lol) midmorning, lunch and break at a market somewhere (ask about the toilet facilities later- we’d love to share), stopped for traffic/construction on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere, where we managed to buy 3 huge carrots for 1 cedi from a lady off the side of the road (I’m pretty sure the bus about bought her out) and about 10 oranges for a cedi (just in case you were wondering 1 Ghana cedi = about 70 US cents… crazy I know), and probably several other interesting stops before we got there.

So after 14 hours, several stops, and lots of naps, we finally reached Mole (pronounced Mo-lay)! It was almost 9pm. We ordered supper… we’ll most people did but Karlie and I had eaten so much on the ride already and we thought that 9cedi for a meal was absolutely ridiculous (spoiled by local vendors) that we decided to pass on supper and go to bed.

We got up early in the morning for our walking tour of a small portion of the park. As soon as we set foot outside, it began to sink it where exactly we were. Africa is most beautiful in the mornings. She cool and quiet, it is the best part of the day. As if the view over the thousands of Acres wasn’t amazing enough there were warthogs sniffing around right outside our rooms. Sweet!

We met our guide, DK, he gave us the rundown on the history of the park, and we set out walking. I wish you could see what we saw; it won’t sound nearly as cool to read it. First of all we saw some crocodiles around the watering hole but never managed to get too close because they all dove into the water. We walked further and saw all kinds of birds and deer-like creatures. There were cattle egrets, eagles, cob, waterbuck, and bushbuck. We continued walking. It was clear that DK was on the search for elephants and we were all hoping to see them as well. DK was very observant, he pointed out many animal prints in the dirt and even showed us the tracks of a leopard dragging its prey (how cool). He was a middle-aged man and looked like he enjoyed his job. He wore the green park uniform and boots, and he carried his gun carefully, making sure to never point it at any of us. He gladly answered our questions and was obviously very knowledgeable about the park and all that resides there. We had been walking for close to an hour when he said we would start back towards the watering hole and hope to catch up to the elephants soon. It was still only about 8am but the African sun was starting at its daily work. I think everyone was a little worried that we wouldn’t get to see any elephants. I think DK was more worried though. He was on his cell phone a lot with the other guides trying to find out if they had seen any.

We were walking along as normal when he came back to the back of the line and said, “this way!” He was pointing through so many trees we couldn’t see what he was after, but after walking a little ways we finally spotted them. ELEPHANTS! We quickly caught up to them and began taking pictures. DK instructed us to stay together and keep our distance, but we were so much closer than I thought we would be able to get. They were probably within 30 yards. Everyone was taking pictures and DK made sure we had the best shots possible. He called the other groups and told them where to find us and the elephants and everyone got a chance to see them up close. Crazy! We walked with them back to the watering hole. They were two males that DK said (without hesitation) were about 55-56 years old. We were very impressed with him, so our group decided to do a 4x4 tour with him later in the afternoon.

We hiked back up the hill to our rooms, only to discover there was a baboon strolling along the back porch of our motel, fervently checking every door to see if it was unlocked (glad we fixed our lock the night before). When he was unsuccessful he then began to raid the trashcans. Pretty soon there were a few families of baboons (babies included) running around our motel, really putting on a show. Only in Africa. We finally made it over for breakfast which was free (thank goodness) and then made our journey to Larabanga, a nearby town which is home to the oldest mosque in Ghana. We walked around the village there for a while, met the people, and took pictures of the mosque (built in 1410 from clay-mud- incredible)! Then we made the journey back to Mole to take a nap before our afternoon excursion.

Totally worth it. Even though the 8 of us (plus the driver and DK) were packed into the back of a Land Rover for 2 hours, the 4x4 tour was awesome as well. We saw a new deer-like animal, an owl, red monkeys, baboons, lots of warthogs, and a herd of female elephants!

We ate supper and crashed early Saturday night. We were leaving early again.
The journey back wasn’t too bad. We stopped at Kintampo Falls to check out the waterfall, some of us even swam. We also stopped for lunch in Kumasi (another large city in Ghana). But, as soon as we got outside of Kumasi on the way back, one of our friends got sick. He had been feeling ill for several days but this was worse. He was pretty sick for the next hour or so of driving and we finally decided to take him to a nearby hospital (Konongo –Something- Government Hospital). Two of the girls and Vivian stayed with him overnight at the hospital. Vivian decided there was no point in all of waiting for him so she was going to send us back with Solomon… except Solomon wasn’t at the bus anymore; he had reasoned that we would be here for at minimum an hour and had decided he would wait just down the street at a local bar. Nice. So know we were leaving and Solomon had just started drinking good. Lol. Oh Ghana.

(Momma, if you decide to read the next paragraph, please don’t worry… and please, please don’t tell Mummum)

Needless to say, we were all tired and ready to be back. The delay wasn’t helping our moods any, and apparently Solomon was feeling our pain. We asked him how long til we made it back to campus. He said 4 hours. Two and half hours later, we were back. To say the least, speed limits in Ghana are more of a suggestion than a limitation (speed limit: 80km/hr… current speed: 140km/hr). This was the first time we wore our seatbelts in Ghana. There were several points when oncoming traffic had to run off of the road to avoid hitting us. At least we were in a bus so no one challenged us. Surprisingly the only thing we hit on the journey was a small chicken… poor chicken (good thing Taylor wasn’t with us then).

Well, we made it back in one piece! It was a great trip. If you’re ever in Ghana, I definitely recommend Mole (but I recommend either bringing your own food or lots of money). 