Ed's Visit- Part 2

The highlight of Ed’s visit for both of us was our time spent at Mole National Park going on the cheapest safari in Africa. It’s hard to beat seeing crocodiles, warthogs, monkeys, baboons, antelope, bucks, and West African birds. Plus we saw 11 elephants total and 6 up close and personal. But the travel there wasn’t easy and pretty much was the lorry ride from hell. When we arrived at the station, we bought some of the last seats. In one respect this was nice because it meant we didn’t have to wait forever for the lorry to fill and we were soon on our way. But it also meant we got stuck with the crappy seats nobody else wanted. I was in the second to last row in what’s called the jump seat- which is a seat in what should be the aisle so it’s not a ‘real’ seat in that it usually doesn’t have a seat back and is very uncomfortable. Somehow Ed got stuck sitting in the very front not on an actual seat but a wooden seat. That being said he got to experience Ghana travel at its worst. They were even trying to stick two people instead of one sitting on the engine block where Ed’s feet were but then he wouldn’t have had anywhere to put his legs so thankfully that didn’t happen. The road is notoriously bad once you get off the main drag until you reach Damongo- and it was pretty horrid. Ed and I texted back and forth about how miserable we were! But we reached Damongo and then shared a taxi to Mole National Park motel.

 One of my fellow volunteer friends Elyse and her Ghanaian friend/counterpart Burkina were with us for our first two nights at Mole which was a lot of fun. Randomly another volunteer Jim was there too with his family visiting from America. I can’t adequately describe how perfectly the motel is situated above the park but you can look out at the watering holes and it’s a lovely view. We were pretty tired from travel but still went on for an afternoon safari walk. This walk (I think the only one of its kind in Africa) consists of trekking through the park with an armed guard/guide looking for wildlife. The first day we were so excited to see warthogs (of course because of Pumba- good job Disney), bucks (like deer) and elephant tracks which all later became commonplace. After the walk we were all exhausted so crashed right after bed.

The next morning we decided to take a driving safari since we had enough people to do so cheaply once the four of us joined with Jim’s family. Since its harmattan right now the temperature is cooler so we were actually freezing riding on top of an SUV in the early morning. But we saw some cool animals like a big roan antelope and red…. Again we saw elephant tracks, fresh this time, but no elephants. It was Elyse and Burkina’s last day so we were thrilled when, after our swim time, we spotted two elephants from the motel at the watering hole. Our guide in the morning Osman found us to take us for a walk to see them up close. It was so exciting! They waited for us at the watering hole and we watched them for a while and took lots of photos. When they left the watering hole we followed. It was amazing to track elephants through the bush! Osman has been at Mole for 20 years so was super knowledgeable about elephants, the park, and all the wildlife. We also saw green monkeys and lots of birds. Baboons were all over the place at the motel and actually are quite pesky, trying to steal peoples food ! That night we had a Lion King viewing party since neither Ed nor Burkina had seen it before.

For the last two days at Mole it was just Ed and me. Originally we had planned on staying only 3 nights but added an extra night since we loved it there so much. We really enjoyed the walking safari instead of the driving so we did two more. While watching lunch the third day we spotted two elephants and called up Osman to see if he would take us for another walk. He was at home but rushed over with his son in tow to take us out. It was his son’s first time going on a walking safari and seeing an elephant which we thought was pretty cool. This time we got to see one elephant using it’s trunk to eat leaves off a branch and then the other one bathing! I think that was one of my favorite things we got to see. Of course we took photos of Osman and his son to commemorate the occasion and plan to mail them the pictures. At one point the boy grabbed Ed’s hand while we were walking to see the elephant toward the water which I thought was cute (and also surprising since kids are always terrified of me here). It was a big day for him I’m sure- seeing elephants and white people! On our last day we went with Osman on one final walking safari and saw a ton of crocodiles at a pond near the motel. Then we followed him to a salt lick where he thought elephants might be but he ended up getting a call from another guide saying they were back at the same old watering hole. We booked it there and got to enjoy seeing two more elephants. This time we watched them drink water and it was nice because I actually sat on the ground to just soak it all in instead of being obsessed with trying to get good photos. It’s such a beautiful place and it was a wonderful experience so I was also taking all that in as well.

That night we went to bed very early to prepare for our 4AM bus ride. It was a struggle getting up so early but it was much more comfortable of a ride than on the way there. Plus we could actually sit next to each other! When we reached Damongo, we waited on the bus for a while and a small girl decided to try and share her breakfast with Ed. She got so close to his mouth with her food and I was again cracking up because kids are mostly terrified of me. Ed said it’s because I try to hard which is probably true! But I also think kids just like him. The end of a trip is always sad and this one was no exception. If you’d like to see more photos of our trip just let me know since Ed uploaded a bunch to an album that I can share.