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Published: March 20th 2009
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Well this past week I had quite the African adventure so I will have to split this blog up into pieces for your own sake. We finally found our way up north to Mole National Park and Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary. Its all the way in the upper west corner of Ghana so it’s a long trip anyways, but then throw in public transportation and you’ve got yourself some stories!!
I guess plan A would have started when we tried to go buy our bus tickets ahead of time on Thursday. Well we didn’t bring enough money because transportation is so cheap here we weren’t expecting to have to pay 20 cedis. We were just going to go the next day and get them, but other groups have gone the morning of and said they didn’t have any problem getting on the bus so we just waited. We left Legon at 5:30 in the morning to catch our 7 am bus. We got to the station a little before 6:30 to find out that all 3 morning busses to Tamale were sold out. Ugh…
So we go back to the tro tro station and found a private bus headed north
to Kumasi. We take it and figure at least were going in the right direction now. We don’t have to wait too long for it to fill up and we head on our way. The bus had AC which I thought would be nice at first, but then 30 minutes into our trip I was freezing to death!! I brought a cardigan and was covered with my towel, but still practically shaking. The other annoying thing was that one of the passengers decided to stand up and start preaching. And by preaching I mean he was screaming and condemning us all to hell in Twi. I brought earplugs, but even with the ear plugs he was loud!
We finally got to Kumasi which is about a 5 hour drive, but it took us a little over 6. We went to one bus station to get a ticket to Tamale. Well they only had 2 seats left and the bus didn’t leave until 6 pm so that wouldn’t work for us. So we walked over to the STC bus station and found out that the bus to Tamale only leaves once a day at 10 am!! Soo… this is what, plan
E?
The lady at the STC bus station tells us that there is a Metro Mass bus station where we can take a bus to Tamale, and they leave whenever the bus is full. These busses aren’t nearly as nice, but at this point that is the least of my concerns. We got to the bus station and were pretty lucky because the bus was almost full. We were able to grab a quick lunch of fried rice and chicken and an orange (trying to stay somewhat healthy!) before loading on the bus. While we were on the bus waiting to get on the road these two ladies started fighting! I have no idea what it was about because they were screaming in a different language, but I do know that bitch slapping was involved and it took several guys to separate them. It was pretty entertaining and I really wish I would have known what it was over. We headed to Tamale around 3 and arrived there around 11. The ride there was absolutely beautiful, the mountains are all covered with rainforest and little villages with kids waving as we drove by. There was one point where it
was about to rain and I wish I could bottle the smell out. I have never smelt something so amazing as the smell of African rain in the rainforest.
When we got to Tamale we tried to find a hotel but they were all kind of expensive and they wouldn’t let us sleep 4 in a room. They kept trying to make us get two rooms with 2 double beds in each of them saying that 2 people couldn’t sleep on a double bed? So since it was after 11 and we would have to be at the bus station before 3 am we refused to pay that much for literally a couple hours. We went to the bus station to wait for the bus and it turned out we weren’t the only ones with that idea. There were people all over the place sleeping on the benches or sitting there waiting for their early morning busses. We found a great spot next to the station in the light near a bunch of people. We hung out there for a couple of hours until people started loading up on the bus. The bus is supposed to leave at 6,
but my guide book recommended being there at 4:30 to ensure you had a seat on the bus because you can’t reserve your seat ahead of time. A group of friends got there at 4 trying to go to Mole and weren’t able to get on the bus and its pretty much the only way there so we didn’t want to risk it. It was 3:30 and we tried to get on the bus. Well as we were standing there we noticed everyone already had a ticket… what? We were told you couldn’t get tickets before!!! Well turns out that you are supposed to sign your name on some sheet the day before and get a ticket. Ugh!! I did not hang out all night for a bus that I cant even get on!! I was so mad! The conductor told us that we could stand the whole way if there was room. Well.. better than nothing I suppose. As we were waiting for all the passengers to load up someone from the bus company lead us to a large trotro that was also going to Wa and we could get off at the Mole stop. YAY!
So we got on the trotro and drove on a dirt road for 5 hours on one of the bumpiest dirt roads I have ever been on. I was so tired I leaned over on my backpack and slept the whole way. We got off in Larabanga and this is a town I have been trying to avoid if at all possible. The reason is that this town survives off ripping off tourists heading to Mole. There is absolutely nothing else up there so they know that they can over charge you for hotel rooms and taxis and there is nothing you can do about it. A lot of people have spent the night there but we decided to pay the extra and stay in the park because it just wasn’t worth the hassle. We were pretty lucky because there was a lady getting off the trotro at Larabanga with us and she told us to just go with her and she would help us out. She found us a taxi headed into the park because she was going there too. Her name was Janet and she was a little old lady who cooks food at the staff canteen at the park. It was really convenient that we ran into her because she told us we could order dinner from her instead of the restaurant at the park. The restaurant was about 10 cedis a plate and her food was only 3 cedis a plate. Plus she found us a great taxi driver to the park. So all the bumps in the road worked out and we finally arrived!! As with all things in Africa, getting there was half the adventure!
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daniel
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the smell in the air before it rains
Lived in Ghana till I was 16 and left for the US 11 years ago. That smell before it rains especially before a thunderstorm is what I miss most about Ghana. Can't really describe it. Its just great. Finally someone knows what I knew all these years!