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Northern Towns
The frequency of brick building quickly decreased as we travelled north. These mud brick buildings soon became the standard design on the landscape.Northern Ghana
The north of Ghana is completely different from the south; they are like two separate countries. The first contrast is religion. In the south almost everyone is Christian and there is an abundance of churches and stores with Christian inspired names while the north is predominately Muslim. There are many mosques and some towns claim to be 100%!M(MISSING)uslim.
Another change from north to south is the appearance of the people that live there. We noticed that the people’s facial structures differed from those in the south. Some people, who lived in the north, looked almost Asian.
As we drove toward Tamale and then to Larabanga the vegetation changed from secondary rainforest growth to a type of savanna, where the trees were much smaller and thick grasses replaced the stanch bushes of the south. Additionally, the buildings in the changed drastically; through our journey it became increasingly likely that the residents of the area would be living in mud brick huts. In the south, almost all the buildings are concrete or cindercrete brick, no matter how run down they were. However, brick and concrete became increasingly scarce during the journey. The road abruptly turned into a
Appropriately Named Bus
The bus' name was very appropriate for describing the trip, however, the journey was worth it. This bus later broke down and we spend two hours waiting in the dark for a new one. typically northern red dirt road after the Domongo junction at Fulfusu. I definitely carried some of this unique dirt along with me, caked into my shirt.
The Journey Northward
On Wednesday we arrived at the main STC station in Accra to board our FAW brand king-long bus. The buses name turned out to be quiet fitting as it was definitely a faw king-long journey to Mole National Park.
We got to the station at 5 am, even though our bus didn’t leave until 6 am because we had hear that seats fill up quickly and that seats are given away if the passengers don’t show up. It turned out our bus was delayed and didn’t leave until 8 am, which is quite typical of Ghana. Public transport is unpredictable at best. So, we eventually departed on our bus ride, which at best would take 12 hours to our first destination, Tamale, in the north. However, once again the worse case scenario prevailed.
After about the ninth hour of our journey the bus broke down. I don’t know much about buses, but there was a large hunk of metal that had broke lose, which generally isn’t a
Larabanga Mosque
This is the mosque in Larabanga that was supposedly built in 1421. It is in very good condition considering it is made of a simple mud and stick design. good thing. We decided to wait with the bus until the company could sent a new one rather than risking hitching a ride at night. Besides, we would have only made it to the next city down the road, which would have meant we wouldn’t make the next bus from Tamale.
After only two hours, our new bus arrived and we eventually arrived in Tamale at around 12:30 am. Luckily, we found a ride to a hotel with vacancy. Ironically, it was the probably one of the best places I’ll stay on this trip but we only slept there for two and a half hours.
Again, we found ourselves at a bus station at 4am to catch a bus to Larabanga. I’ll take a quote from the Bradt guide now that states that “the trip to Mole is tough by Ghanaian standards, since the only access road to the park is legendarily dusty and bumpy.” This was definitely true. I’ve seen worse roads but it was like the bus didn’t have suspension. Nevertheless, after four hours of breathing dirt we arrived in Larabanga.
The Larabanga Mosque
Larabanga is a small community of 4000 people, of which
Elephant Drinking From Pool
This elephant is called People's Friend because it is the only wild African elephant in Mole National Park that people can get within five feet of without it beating them to death. 100% are Muslim. Not surprisingly because the town was founded by a Muslim and centered around Ghana’s oldest mosque. The mosque was supposedly built in 1421, however, for reasons I won’t get into here, that date is extremely suspect. Even so, it is very likely that the mosque is at least 400 years old. That fact that it’s made of mud and sticks makes it’s age even more impressive.
The same guides that told us about the history of the mosque also offered us a ride to the park on the back of a motorbike. The charged 50,000 cedis, which is definitely expensive for Ghana but very much worth it since the other option was to walk the 8 km to the park under the African heat and the weight of our gear. The bike ride to the park was cool but what made the whole trip worth it was that as soon as we got to the park’s entrance there were a bunch of baboons hanging out close to us. And, as soon as we got to the Mole Motel we could watch elephants bathing in a water hole easily seen from the motel swimming pool. That was
Thieving Baboons
At the Mole Motel your food is in constant danger from Baboons. This one stole a whole plate full of pineapple. When I tried to scare it away it growled and slapped my butt. freaking awesome.
Mole National Park
On Friday we went out on a safari tour early in the morning. I really liked our guide, Francis, who was a quiet guy who was very knowledgeable about the wildlife. He took us on a two hour walk through the savanna. We saw Kob antelope, which look like a miniature white tail deer except for the horns. The horns are a single tine, which curve twice. There were also waterbuck antelope, which is somewhat of a misnomer since even the does and fawns are called waterbucks. They have awesome horns; they are really long with a single curve. But the most wicked thing was seeing the elephants bathing close up. They were awesome but it still wasn’t the highlight of the day. The night before I thought I wouldn’t see elephants any closer than I already had since we sneaked up to the waterhole without a guide. But then in the afternoon we got ridiculously close when one elephant decided to visit the motel.
We were just playing cards when an elephant walked up right beside the pool. When we were taking pictures he walked right towards us so close that
Mole Landscape
I decided to climb into a tree one afternoon to hanging out and watch the wildlife crossing the landscape below. I had to back up to get out of the way. Then it started drinking out of the pool while the rest of us took advantage of the photo opportunity. We ended up following it all the way through the motel grounds. I think it started getting pissed off right near the end though. I was about 10 feet away from it when it flung its head around and wiped its trunk towards me. We decided to leave it alone after that.
Later I had a close encounter with another animal. The whole time we were there the baboons had been hanging around on the motel grounds and they often would run up to the restaurant tables to steal food. Parenthetically, the baboons are afraid of black people but not white people since the black ground keepers always throw rocks at them to stop them from stealing while the white tourists just take pictures. Anyway, today when we came for lunch a baboon had taken a whole plate of pineapple from a table and was eating it on the ground. I decided I should scare it away so it wouldn’t take the plate or steal any more food. Except when I threw a water bottle at it it just growled and resumed eating. Then when I lunged at it it got up and while running past me it slapped my backside. So now I have officially been spanked by a monkey (of sorts). Regardless, it didn’t hurt and it was awesome.
Annoying Fellow Travellers
It was Canada day on Saturday, but I definitely didn't miss Canada that day. We went on safari in the morning again with Francis. However, this time the group was a lot bigger and quite annoying. They were entirely too noisy. I actually asked them to please whisper so they wouldn’t scare the animals away. Even still, it seems that not many people realize how loud walking through tall grass can be if you don’t pick up your feet. Nevertheless, we did see antelope close up and some more elephants.
Some time I have to wonder about some people. I think a large number of people ever never been out of a major city and once they end up in the country they do some ridiculous things. For example, on our safari that day I watched as the Dutch man with us bent over and picked up a giant piece of elephant crap. Apparently, he didn’t know what it was, which I am definitely astounded by. He’s just lucky it wasn’t really fresh. Then, it that wasn’t enough, to find out what it was he held it entirely too close to his nose and took a deep breath in to get a good smell of it. I think it was at about that time that the guide saw him and informed him it was elephant shite. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture but I’ll definitely have that picture in my mind for quite some time.
Later that day, Erik and I caught some lizards and frogs by the pool and outside the room. I put a toad in Erik’s bad just for old time sake. He enjoyed it. Erik also found the biggest beetle I’ve ever seen in the pool. He was going to take it home with him however, we found out it wasn’t quite dead. For several hours it had been perfectly still and we carried it around, had it on our table at lunch and then on the desk in our room. Then it decided to start living again so we put it back outside.
Well…to rap up, the journey to Mole and back was definitely long and grueling, but it was well worth it. I would recommend it to anyone that will be in Ghana.
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