What A Giant Mole!

It was Cath’s Birthday on Wednesday and Karen on Saturday and there was no better way to celebrate then to head out to Mole National Park so spend a weekend by the pool and checking out the wildlife.

We set off around 6:30 from Wa and reached the end of the paved road 100KM and an hour and a half later at Sawla. Up to this point we had kept up with the bus, but this was the last we were to see of it. We got some petrol and head off onto the dirt road. Now there are a lot of “bad” and “terrible” roads in Ghana and these words are thrown around a lot but this road was TERRIBLE. Sand, potholes and the worst part, corrugation which vibrates the bike so much your fillings fall out. Most of the time on the bike you can get around it but on this road, there were vast portions where there was no other option then straight over the bumps. Still I enjoyed the ride though for all my moaning and cursing. Was about another hour and a half from Sawla along the dirt road to Lawrabanga, a city knows for two things, the first being a large mud mosque and the oldest in Ghana, and the second is the fact that so many tourists pass through here that the people are a little pushy and usually have an angle. I would like to point out though that this is not all people and there are some very lovely people living there and that the mosque was ok, like the one I visited in Nakori, but you couldn’t go in it.

We stayed at the Mole Motel which is 6km away from Lawrabanga in the park and situated in a prime location up on a cliff overlooking a large open section of the park containing a couple watering holes. We arrived and saw elephants immediately and then I jumped in the pool. That’s right, there is a pool in the middle of this national park with the elephants conveniently located so they can be seen from the pool deck, it’s a well thought out pool (it is technically my local swimming pool as it is the closest one to where I live, a mere 3hours ride away). We met Lukas and Saunders at the motel, they had been there since Thursday and so had already done some tours and seen the place, mostly the pool. I spent most of the rest of the day in the pool except for having dinner up at the staff canteen (since they did cheaper Ghanaian food) where we were joined for dinner by a family (about 10) warthogs. The largest one was huge, and they have such long legs they must sort of kneel to pick up the food, quite humorous to watch.

This was the largest number of white people I had been around since I have got to Ghana. They were mostly all volunteers from various parts of the location. Many nationalities (Finish, Dutch, German, Danish, Spanish, and British to name a few, but of course the Canadians where there in droves and were the largest occupying nation. There are so many stories and they all varied so much, from the researcher working on a “sprinkles” type iron supplement to the solo Female backpacker who has worked her way down from Morocco. It was nice to interact with people with similar backgrounds for a change. There were a few Ghanaians there; we even tried to teach a few how to swim as most don’t know how, something that I always take for granted.

The next morning Saunders and Lukas headed home, and we set out on a walking safari at an hour 7:30 and had walked for over an hour before we saw so much as a dropping. First, we found foot prints, then some poop and then the creators themselves a heard of African elephants playing in the water. It was an amazing experience and it unfolded perfectly. As we walked up over a little hill by the water we saw two elephants on the opposite shore eating a tree and as we continued to walk up the hill suddenly five more appeared right below us in the water. We were the only group there and got to stand there and watch in quiet awe. They all moved to the opposite side of the watering hole and, so we followed. We found a nice place in the shade about 15m from them and just sat and watched. The other groups had unfortunately joined us, so the place was buzzing with the annoying two-legged animal.

There was a commotion behind us as our guide announced that it was Big Joe coming to joining the group. He was a very large old animal with one broken tooth. The guide said he wasn’t aggressive, so we didn’t have to move, and he passed by us about 10m away. Then we heard there was another elephant was coming, this one we had to move for and the guide hustled us away very quickly to let it pass. Once it reached the water we slowly returned, and the elephant was only about 5 meters away safely submerging its self in the water.

We sat and enjoyed the elephants frolicking in the water for a while then headed back up to the hotel where I spent pretty much the rest of the day in the pool. It was Karen’s birthday, so we had a nice meal by the pool with the stars out in force. Now I had been in the shade of an umbrella the entire time I was in the pool and thought this would save me. But obviously the bouncing rays where too much for me and I didn’t put on enough sun screen, I turned a bright red colour and at the point of writing this my whole upper body is pealing, not smart.

The next morning, we set out home, the ride back was the same as the ride here except we were ridding early in the morning on the dirt path. This meant the monkeys were out. It was such a surreal experience to see these monkeys leaping along next to your bike as you ride down the train. To have ridden a moto with a group of monkeys is not something I ever thought I would do.

Got home safe and sounds after a smashing weekend and like the elephants I think I will never forget the experience.