Blogs from Mole National Park, Northern, Ghana, Africa - page 2

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

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

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

So I made my way to Kumasi, where my dutch friend Bobbi was waiting. We stayed there overnight and the following day we travelled by STC to Tamale. A dutch guy Niels joined us, not from SYTO though. He had been travelling around West Africa by himself! Anyway, the journey to Tamele was long (takes about 7hours) and breaking down in a small village after driving for 2 hours didn't help. we waited around the heat for the driver to fix the coach and then finally carried on our journey up north. It was dark by the time we got to Tamale, but I could see it was very different to the cities in the south. The Northern Region is flat and dry, with small trees, nothing like the tropical countryside in the southern regions. It ... read more

Next stop on our trip was Mole, Ghana’s biggest national Park. It’s shockingly hard to get from Weichau to Mole. Our bible, Ghana 4th edition, lied to us about this. I’ll skip the gory details, but after 2 bus rides (where the seat next to me was filled at different points by 2 deceased chickens, a live goat, several school children, and the occassional adult) and a really bumpy cab ride, we arrived in Larabanga, the village outside Mole. Larabanga also has the 3rd oldest mosque in West Africa, circa 1491. We stayed at the Salia Brothers’ guest house. The Salia brothers are pretty famous around Mole for their general wonderfulness, and my experience with them was no exception. We arrived ate some tezard (pronounced tz, pretty much like fufu, only made with corn and so ... read more