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Published: January 6th 2005
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After stopping in Leo, Burkino to make some Christmas phone calls home to friends & family, it wasn't long before we were crossing the border into Ghana - and you wouldn't have known it was Christmas Day at all - everyone was very low key, which was a refreshing contrast to the UK. We were making our way to Mole National Park in the north west of Ghana - we were promised Elephants, Monkeys, Antelope & possibly some Lions! It wasn't long before we left the dry plains behind and forests started lining the roadside - and with them came the humidity. We camped in a clearing after watching the most amazing sunset and spent a very hot & humid night in the forest. We deliberately decided to take some back roads to the National Park and we weren't disappointed as we drove through some really remote villages and met some lovely people. Everywhere we stopped to say hello or ask for directions we were greeted with 'Hello, how are you? What is your name? Where are you going? Can I have your address please?' And what a joy it was to start speaking english again. We made a quick stop
for a drink at a local bar - marked by a white plastic bottle atop a stick at the side of the road ?? - and hastily drank our cokes when we realised just how merry some of the locals were. They tried to force the local fire water on us, but we managed to escape, after an obligatory sip - it was like 100% proof cider!
We finally reached Mole National Park on Boxing Day and were overjoyed to find that the campsite was on the top of the hill overlooking the central park lakes - and we had it all to ourselves. There was also a swimming pool, bar & restaurant. We were also mightily relieved to discover that they took US dollars in payment and that the exchange rate was almost 9 cedis to the dollar (we'd really lost out in the french speaking countries with the Central African Franc where we'd found our US dollars were virtually worthless).
We arranged to go on a 6.30am morning walk through a small section of the park (it's Ghana's largest at 4840 sq km) with a guide the next day and settled down for the night in
our roof tent - and the most amazing tropical storm of thunder and lightening. From our vantage point on the top of the hill we could see the storm travelling for miles, until finally it was overhead - bit scary under the canvas but it was the first rain we'd seen since Spain and we were overjoyed.
The rain kept up all night and when we woke at 5.30 the next morning everything was very dark and damp. I attempted to get up and dressed in the half light(cursing the fact that I'd forgotton to re-charge the batteries for my head torch), when all of a sudden I felt loads of tiny stings/bites all over my body - I soon discovered that I had ants in my pants - fire ants I presumed - as the sun came up, we realised that there were thousands of them all marching in unison, right across our campsite - and in the dark we'd both stepped right into their paths. I'm afraid I threw a bit of a wobbler and cursing and screaming ran to the washroom, where I attempted to remove the little critters, who'd managed to get just about everywhere!
Our Guide arrived, complete with a rifle slung over his right shoulder, wellington boots and a lovely long scar down the left side of his face! He explained that we would walk around the central lakes and park area and would hopefully see some elephants, antelope and monkeys. Well, we did see plenty of deer and antelope - but they kept their distance. The guide took us to one of the lakes and explained that it was full of crocodiles...but they would only venture onto the lakeside once the day had warmed up! It was at this point that we started to wonder if there were any elephants in the park...and then we saw their enormous footprints in the mud - and a short while later came upon one lone male in the bushes. It was 'medium sized' according to the guide and we got quite close, but it didn't break cover. Still, I'm quite proud of my pics. And that was that - tour over. After breakfast we did some washing and lazed by the pool, and then were amazed to see about 4 for 5 elephants swimming in the larger of the two lakes - they must have spent a good 2 or 3 hours there, and we were able to witness it all from our campsite with my binoculars.
I'd been warned to watch out for the baboons when I'd hung the washing out - and it wasn't long before I made my first acquaintance with one...he ran past me and sat down on a concrete step nearby. I managed to get a pic before he calmly got up to reveal a pale green conical turd where he'd been sitting!
Later that afternoon the baboons were growing in numbers and getting friskier and we had to chase a number of them away from the car - one of them even managed to jump onto the back seat when our backs were turned. But we hadn't seen the last of them yet...as we went to bed that night we suddenly realised that there were loads of them sitting in the trees nearby, watching us! Neil, starting to get a bit annoyed, got his 3 million candle power spotlight out...and threw sticks at them. "Careful!" I warned...I wouldn't make them angry if I were you." Famous last words...we were abruptly woken from our slumber at 5.30am the next morning, when we quite literally came under seige to the baboons! As I peered out of the roof tent window in the half light I realised we were completely surrounded by anything from 20 to 30 of them and they were getting cockier - jumping onto the roof of the landrover and climbing up the ladder to the roof tent. It was a little scary and I'm afraid I blamed Neil for provoking them the night before, so it was only right, in my view, that he went out to tackle them. He bravely did just that, and after a little bravado they soon dispersed. We then realised that we'd been the morning's entertainment for half the other guests in the motel, all rising for their early morning tours!
On check-out we marvelled at what great value the park was - we'd spent less than $40 US dollars over the two days. Although we both agreed that they could do so much more with the guided tours; we'd enquired about taking our own vehicle into the park, which we could have done for just the cost of hiring a guide, but we would still have covered the same area we'd walked. We learn't that not until February when they burn the shrubland back is the park more accessible.
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