Mole National Park

This past weekend, the girls and I set out for our first real adventure. We decided to head to Mole (Mo-lay) National Park for a walking safari in hopes that we might see some elephants!! Mole is a huge wildlife reserve with a wide variety of animals and birds. It might be a far cry from the famed Kruger National Park in South Africa, but DEFINITELY worth the trip.

On Thursday, we set out in the afternoon. We hitched a ride to Bolgatanga with some Center employees, and from there we took a tro-tro to Tamale. A tro-tro is a 12 man van that they manage to cram 18 or so people into. It's a tight squeeze, but usually makes for a speedy trip down to Tamale, the North's regional capital. In Tamale, we ran into this guy who lead us to our hotel and claimed he could get us tickets for the early bus to Mole. Little did we know, he was a hustler! That means he didn't show up at our hotel at 4 am (as promised) to take us to the bus station to get tickets. Instead, we made our own way there and begged the conductor to give us tickets. The 5 am bus finally left at quarter to 6, and no thanks to our friend Mo, we made it on the bus!! Unfortunately, we had to STAND on the bus the entire four hours down roads that can only be compared to the infamous Dirt Rd. up to Beaver River. I've truly become a master of sleeping while standing.

We finally arrived in Larabanga, a town right outside Mole, at about 10 am. By 11 we had our sore feet propped up by the pool!! It felt so nice after a month of sweltering Ghanaian heat to jump in a (surprisingly) clean pool that overlooked a vast expanse of Mole National Park. You could see the bigger water holes that are usually full of elephants. Unforunately, we didn't see any of the big guys neither at the hotel nor on our walking safari!! Instead, we saw warthogs, baboons, birds, crocodiles, and different antelope-type animals. Being from upstate NY, I was rather unimpressed by the "deer", but nevertheless, it was fun trudging through the reserve with our armed ranger Mohammed.

I hate to say it, but one of the highlights of the trip was the grilled cheese sandwich. See how easy to please I am!! I had not seen cheese at ALL in Navrongo, so I was SO excited by the prospect of a grilled cheese with tomato sandwich. It was delicious! We lounged out by the pool, manging on grilled cheese sandwiches all day on Saturday and were visited by baboons!! These vicious little creatures actually stole a guest's bag and tried to run away with it. Luckily, they are afraid of the Ghanaians, so the man was able to get his bag back. Another baboon, in an attempt to steal some food, grabbed and smashed a glass Coke bottle by the pool area. And to think, Rafiki always seemed like the lovable chill guy in the Lion King.

On Saturday night, we stayed in Larabanga with the Salia brothers. The guide booked talked about being able to sleep on the roof at the Salia brothers' as one of the nicest experiences one could have in the Mole area. However, because of the rain, we had to sleep at a different lodge owned by the same brothers. It's actually a school compound that has individual grass roof huts for the school volunteers or travelers. It rained at night, and I was shocked that no water came in!! It was a pretty good night (except the bathroom was 100 yards away), and we made the 4 am bus back to Navrongo...this time, with seats. It was a great weekend full of adventure, and it certainly had its fair share of "Oh, this is Africa" moments. Sometimes you just have to roll with it!! Can't wait for the next adventure.

Children at the Salia Bro's school in Larabanga
Mole National Park
Chillin with some Pumbas (warthogs)
Crazy Baboons!!