Carpe Diem: Mole Mole Mole Mole Mole

On Sunday night at around 6 o’clock we got home from Mole National Park after an 18 hour car ride. We left at 4 a.m. Yikes. The trip was phenomenal: definitely one to remember. But we did get off with a bumpy start. Regardless everything worked out and we had a fantastic time.

We left on Thursday morning so we had to get two days off at the Babies Home. We had a one and a half hour trip to Kumasi and from there waited around three hours for the bus to take us. It never left. We were told it was leaving at 9 as we arrived at 7:30. 9 came around and there were four passengers on board. Three of them were us… So we made a few phone calls and in the end the bus driver helped us find another bus that was leaving sooner. He even walked us there, paid for our tickets with the money we gave him for buying our tickets to his bus, and we were on our way! People here are so nice! He helped us even though it put him out three passengers and 60 cedi. We were on our way within the hour. Our bus however, smelled like, well it just smelled awful! I’ll spare you from the details on that one. It was really bad. But we were just happy to be on it.

Arriving in Tamale. We got there in time to visit the market. It was unlike any market we’ve been to much more confined and dirty and squishy and just no fun. It was easy to get lost, feel trapped, and run into people (usually with bowls of dried fish on their heads). We weren’t there for long. Our hotel wasn’t too bad. Running water, a fan. Then that was that. We were so excited to go to the National Park the next day!

The next morning. We were all set and ready for the SYTO bus to pick us up at 7 in the morning and took our stuff outside and waited for again, a vehicle that never came. We waited it out for a couple hours due to “Ghana Main Time” as they call it. (everyone is always late here that’s just the way things are) We ended up calling them and through a sequence of calls and uncertainty we found out that they sent a text to everyone saying they’d be at the hotels at 5 am for pick up. None of us got that text. They ended up getting someone to come and get us. We arrived at around 1 after an extremely bumpy trip in a truck filled with six people.

That day. We went on a walking safari, which is just a fancy description for a hike. We saw mostly antelope, but some monkey’s and warthogs too. We were hoping for elephants. We saw their tracks, which fed our hopefulness. Then we heard them! I was so excited! But I only saw one for a second then the trees hid him. We weren’t able to get any closer because they were near the water and they get dangerous when water is around apparently. The scenery was beautiful through! It was so green! But it the terrain varied in different places, some areas had lots of swirly trees, some with plains of grass, some swampy areas, and some with just lots of dirt. Our eyes never got board. We booked a room for the next two nights in the female dorms. There were four sets of bunk beds I believe and then two Australian girls were on mattresses on the ground. Lobke and I decided we wanted to enjoy the nice weather and scenery so we dragged our mattresses outside and slept on the porch. I don’t know if it was such a great idea because animals just roam around like it’s nobody’s business. But we were safe. And we woke up to the beautiful, hazy tropical scenery.

The rest of that day… We went on a jeep safari. We sat on top of the jeeps, but it was safe I can assure you , there were seats up there and everything. And we just drove. I felt so liberating. I absolutely loved it. We didn’t see a ton of animals. But it was still fun when we did. Then the jeep stopped and we got out and walked. We didn’t really know where we were going, and then suddenly behind some trees, there were elephants about 10 feet away from us, wild elephants. It was the most incredible thing. They’re so big and calm and beautiful! I loved it! That was my favorite part of the trip to Mole. We were there for a while enjoying them and then set back off to base. After that we went canoeing. It felt like I was in Disneyland on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the Indiana Jones ride. The trees were twisting through each other and shooting up this way and that, they had no pattern, or sense of direction or anything. After that we went to a Muslim mosque in a nearby city whose citizens live in mud huts. The mosque was alive before America was. It was made in the 1420’s and is still used today. Then we went back to the hotel. Where we swam, ate, got crackers stolen out of our hands by very assertive baboons, and later our empty drink cans swiped from us by the same baboons, and just relaxed.