Blogs from Mole National Park, Northern, Ghana, Africa
April 25th 2011
Hey, sorry it has been a while I've been off traveling up north, and haven't had any access to the internet for some time thus this will be a long one! Sorry! I think, for the first time, I'm not going to be chronological and start off with the north. On Wednesday me, Louise and Bret all went up to the Northern region to see an orphanage in a place called Yendi, look around Tamale (3rd largest city) and of course go to the Mole National Park - the largest National Park in Ghana. We quite optimistically got up at 5am to try and catch the 8am bus. Fatal error. Despite getting to the bus station at 7am (after waiting quite a long time for a tro from Achiase), we didn't manage to get on a ... read more
September 1st 2010
9/1/2010 Happy September! Over last weekend was our big five-day trip up north to Mole National Park. We left early on Thursday morning in our big blue van and headed north to Kumasi, which is the seat of the Ashanti Empire. It took about four hours to get there and when we finally arrived we went on a tour of the city and got to visit the Manhyia Palace Museum, home and office of former Asante Kings. It was really cool to see all the ancient artifacts of the kings and we also saw all of the former kings thrones and festival clothing. After that we headed over to the Cultural Center where there was a traditional Asante dance performance going on. There are several studios at the Cultural Center of drum carvers, potters, painters, and ... read more
August 6th 2010
Accra - Kumasi - Bole - Larabanga - Mole National Park - Tamale My plan is to do a round trip from Accra, the main destination being Mole National Park. The park is normally accessed from the town of Tamale (to the East of Mole) as there is a bus from there direct to the park, but as that would entail doing that stretch of road twice, I decided to try and approach from the West instead, and go to Tamale afterwards. Monday 2nd August Had a lie in because there are plenty of buses from Accra to Kumasi. I packed and caught to tro-tro to the centre of Accra then walked to the bus station buying some food for the journey on the way. As luck would have it a Kumasi bus was just leaving. ... read more
August 14th 2009
Who knew that travelling could be so fatiguing, almost 24 hours of bumpy dirt tracks can be a gruelling task, as six volunteers ventured North of Ghana in what was only going to be an exhausting but brilliant trip. Starting our trip at Kenneshi Station at 14:30, full of joy and anticipation, we bought supplies for the trip and we were on our way, who would have thought our morale could instantly decrease so quickly. There are again no points for guessing who I was lumbered with as a coach buddy, yes Catlady (Hollie.) I don’t know how but every time this happens, this time it was the Coach Company that held my destiny. So a twelve hour journey to Tamale, with a girl that’s attention span is as long as a Goldfish, the torture had ... read more
March 30th 2009
Plans…who needs them?! That was the moral of the story last time. The moral for this tale? Never give up. Now where was I? Oh yeah, Mole (pronounced Mo-lay). We arrived at the park mid morning Sunday. Needless to say that after thirty hours of traveling, all we wanted to do was sit back and relax. And that was indeed all we did. The Mole Hotel sits on top of a hill overlooking a man-made watering hole; providing the perfect vantage point for viewing the abundant wildlife the park has to offer. The motel also gains high marks in my book because it has a pool. I haven’t been that excited to see a pool since I was probably ten. The remainder of the day was spent swimming and resting. We even saw a few elephants ... read more
March 23rd 2009
I wrote this blog entry after my trip to Mole the first weekend in March. Sorry it's so late! This past weekend, my program took us tot the northern region to Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana (after Accra) and the center of the Asante kingdom and to Mole National Park. It took about 5 hours to get to Kumasi and then another 7 to reach Mole, which is about 2/3 of the way north. Ghana is about the size of Oregon, which gives you an idea about the traffic and conditions of the road. The road to Mole from the main highway was 81km of the bumpiest dirt road I have ever experienced. That portion of the drive took us 2 hours and twice my head hit the top of the van due to ... read more
Safari Jane Part 2 "Holy Mole!"
Published: March 20th 2009Africa » Ghana » Northern » Mole National Park
March 20th 2009
So we finally arrived in Mole. The funny thing was that the first people we saw by the pool were the Canadian couple that we met at Green Turtle! Small world! They spent a week in Mole and told us all about the animals they saw so we were really excited. We went by the pool and hung out there for the rest of the day. It was pretty cool because right behind the pool there is a look out over the savannah and we saw some elephants out by the watering hole. Yup! Real live elephants, and not like the ones out in the zoo, wild ones!! It was so exciting, I couldn’t wait for the safari in the morning. We spent the day relaxing by the pool and took a nap trying to recover ... read more
February 24th 2009
After the long and treacherous journey to Mole National Park in the Northern Region of Ghana last year, I vowed to never go there again. Despite not seeing elephants at the park last year, the 19 hour (or more) journey on Ghana’s worst roads was just not worth it to me. Strange enough, when Poppo propositioned me to join him there as he acted as a tour guide for the Volunteer Abroad January and February groups I decided I would go and I WOULD see the famed elephants. Our departure from Accra began at 5:00pm sharp. The group, all 11 of us, headed for the OA bus station for our trip to Kumasi. I was once again reminded why I am not fond of traveling with large groups of people: everyone has their own schedule, their ... read more
You can't just take any bus up to Mole.
Published: November 7th 2008Africa » Ghana » Northern » Mole National ParkNovember 7th 2008
Our trip up to the Northern part of Ghana started off by our ISEP director telling us that you can’t just take any bus up to Mole- which makes one wonder why. Well, we found out why. Through this trip, I found out just how reliable the transportation is in Ghana- about as reliable as a teenage girls emotions are- completely unpredictable. We went through 4 vehicles on this trip up north. Friday started out hopeful- there was this nice, air conditioned bus waiting out in the parking lot. I brought a blanket, last time I got really cold on this bus. Well, the air conditioning did not work too well this time, but it was OK, still had plenty of room in the bus. So we made this trip up north a two day one, ... read more
What happens in Larabonga stays in Larabonga
Published: September 3rd 2008Africa » Ghana » Northern » Mole National Park
September 3rd 2008
I'M BACK!! After a five day journey I have returned to wonderful Legon and even after a decent night's sleep I'm exhausted. I've been working on 6 hours sleep most nights which means that I have been having very long days. But it was all worth it because our trip was awesome!! We left Thursday from Legon to head north to Kumasi...a drive that takes several hours. With the exception of a flat tire the trip went smoothly...and we were luckily apparently. There is a joke to the effect of that you should allow for the time to get to your destination and double that time to deal with all the breakdowns. And the saying isn't far off. As drive along the road, there are toppled over, rusted up, burnt out cars. Periodically, you'll see a ... read more
