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Published: March 30th 2009
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Team Mole
Meet the crew- Bethany, Loren, myself and Melissa Hey All!
Sorry for the long delay, the internet here at times can be such a pain! Anyway... with my batteries recharged, it was time for another high flying adventure. And this time I pulled out all the stops. The destinations? Mole National Park, the largest wildlife refuge in country and The Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary. The team? Loren, Bethany, Melissa, and myself. This trip was so big; I’ll have to spread it out over three entries. Hope you’re in a reading mood, because this might take a little time. In fact, this is another entry where it wouldn’t be a bad idea to grab a snack or something… I mean…I would…but that’s just me…anyway, let’s do this!
We departed ISH around five thirty Saturday morning, and caught a tro tro to our first bus…which didn’t happen because both the seven o’clock and eight o’clock buses to Tamale were already full…sweet. Time for plan B. We back tracked to the Nkrumah Circle, an enormous transportation hub, and also one of the filthiest places I’ve ever been. At any rate we were able to hop onto to a bus heading to Kumasi. Air Conditioned, spacious, comfortable, it was a welcome
Hungry? Why Wait!?
Great thing about Ghana - no matter where you are, you can always find what you need! alternative! The first hour and a half we were treated to a random sermon…in Twi…good times.
We arrived in Kumasi by mid day and traveled to two different bus stations before finding transport to Tamale. The first station the bus had already left…Plan C anyone? So we tried the second…but that bus wasn’t going to leave for another seven hours. Okaaaay, Plan D! Well, the third time was the charm as we managed to capture a Mass Metro Bus ticket. And even found time to grab some lunch, and relax before boarding. All in all we only had to wait for about an hour and a half or so. Also witnessed a fight between two middle aged women on the bus. Definitely a moment where I wished I understood the native language. Any who it was a tiny scuffle that I guess got resolved; hard to tell when you have no idea what’s going on. We departed Kumasi, continuing our trip north towards Tamale.
It was a seven hour bus ride, so yeah, lots of fun. One of the most fascinating things to watch was the transition from the mostly Christian centered culture of southern Ghana to the
Tamale Station
Not the most comfy place to sleep...but hey, it was free! more Islamic influenced culture of the north. One thing that because extremely evident we one visits this country is just how much religion permeates the Ghanaian culture and lifestyle. Taxis and Tro Tro’s all have bible verses written on them or shops will name themselves “God’s Glory Hair Salon” or “The Holy Ghost Chop Bar”…intriguing… so as we moved further north, the Islamic influence was easily evidenced in the shop names, architecture, and fashion.
It was about eleven o’clock that night when we finally arrived in Tamale. At this point we realized we had a couple of options... our bus that would take us to Mole left the station at six in the morning the next day, but our travel guide recommended arriving at the station by at least four thirty to make sure we got a seat. So, we decided to try and find a place to sleep for a couple of hours before heading out. However, even though we would only be sleeping for maybe four or five hours we still ran into problems. The proprietors of the Tamale hotels are not fans of four people staying in one double…even if it’s big enough, and we’d only be there a couple of hours. So after pleading with one guy for a good twenty minutes we eventually gave up. The fact that it was three girls and one guy probably didn’t help our cause either, but hey life goes on, move on to plan E. After visiting two hotels and failing at both, we went back to the bus station, located the area where we could buy our tickets the next morning, and set up camp. Yup, we slept at the bus station…well, as well as I could sleep. We joined an already large group of passengers also hoping to jump on the bus. So yeah, it was dirty, uncomfortable, dark, smelly, saw a few rats, but it was definitely still a fun experience!
Turns out, that even if you sleep at the bus station it does not guarantee you a ticket…… apparently in order to have a ticket for the bus to Wa, you need to go to the station the day before and write your name down. Too bad we had no way of knowing this…and even if we did, we arrived too late to even attempt it. Oh, Ghana! Oh well, no big deal, plan F it is. If we can’t sit on the bus, maybe we can stand. Sure it’s a long journey, but seriously, we just wanted to get there. So we waited for a good forty minutes to see if we could purchase a ticket and stand on the bus. During our wait, plan G fell into our laps. We ran into some random guy who, I guess had a Tro Tro going to Wa…so needless to say we jumped onto that situation. How’d it happen? No idea, I’ll attribute that one to God’s graciousness and goodness. Though it is kinda funny how we jumped into a random van with some random stranger…in America that would not fly, in Ghana…hey it could lead to something good! Or something bad…but we hope for the good.
The road to Mole was bumpy, dusty, and indirect. Since the Tro Tro was going to Wa we were forced to disembark at the infamous village of Larabanga. Known for drawing both extreme positive and negative reviews from travelers, a few of the locals have been known to prey on unsuspecting travelers, giving them “tours” of the local mosque or “helping” them acquire cabs or accommodations. From what we had heard from other groups that had gone, we knew we didn’t want to spend any extended time there. Fortunately we managed to grab a taxi to the park in about twenty minutes.
So after scrolling through plan after plan, missing a couple of buses, witnessing a fight, sleeping at the bus station, and spending thirty hours either, walking to a vehicle, sitting in a vehicle, or waiting for a vehicle, we finally arrived at our destination! Wow, getting there really is half the fun…
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