Mole National Park, Ghana

The minivan that took us to Mole National Park was quite comfortable and the air con was very pleasant. There was one local lady in the van and we dropped her off 25 kms before the park. In the van were two young Swedish guys, one was doing an internship in an Accra hospital and the other was visiting him. Two English girls were also working in a hospital, one was waiting to join Doctors without Borders and work in Southern Sudan, while the other was headed for Madagascar to work with a voluntary group, then was headed for NZ where she had applied for jobs and the hopefully to join the British Antarctic group. A German and an Austrian lady were travelling for a few weeks in Ghana. A retired American lady was doing some volunteer teaching and as the teachers were on strike in Ghana she had taken the opportunity to visit the park and planned to head for Burkino Faso later.

Most of the road was in pretty good condition with only a few swerves to miss huge potholes. The last part of the trip was on a dusty, sandy, corrugated road and the van's two sliding door bounced in their frames letting in the red dust and clogging the air vents.

The lodge at the park was basic and clean. We had made a telephone booking so were put in a family room with 3 single beds. There was no generator during the day so the fan only went at night. All the rooms had screens on the windows and no mosquito nets. We are surprised with all the cases of malaria and signs telling locals to invest in mosquito nets that the accommodation sites for tourists don't have any.

The whole complex sat on an escarpment overlooking a large waterhole that was about half a kilometre away. The restaurant and bar overlooked the pool and John was able to swim but I couldn't with my scabby wounds. The food was very good and there was also a souvenir shop and a small shop for snacks.

On the first day we saw baboons and several warthogs around the camp. One day John went to the shop to buy some biscuits and as he was walking back with them in his hand a large baboon snuck up behind him and snatched a packet out of his hand, scratching him in the process. Another day the baboons chased me as I shooed them away. They bared their teeth at me and screamed and a whole lot of others came running to join in. After peeing on our verandah they eventually went away. I was lucky to get inside without being bitten or attacked. The baboons know that if they see a black person they will have stones thrown at them and so they run away. When they see the white tourists they know they will be able to steal food from them and then they will take photos of them and be nice to them!

The baboons drinking water from the air con on the deck.

The next day we joined a morning safari drive around the park. John and three others sat on the roof rack of the 4x4 and we headed off to look for elephants. Ghana recently had their highest rainfall for 20 years so there are many water holes in the park and the animals do not have to come to the one below the lodge. We only ever saw a few birds and antelopes at the waterhole near the park.

The guide didn't speak much English and when he saw some elephants we got out of the vehicle and followed their tracks. This one had a broken right tusk and it was difficult to photograph them in the trees as we had to keep a fair distance from them.

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We saw lots of carmine beeaters.

We also saw some boks and water bucks but not much else.

One day we joined a group and made a tour of Larabanga, a small Muslim village nearby the park. There are 4,000 people in the village and as the water table gets lower and the population increases there is a problem with getting water in the village. The locals take water from dams and streams and as a consequence get infected with guinea worm. This worm can be a couple of metres long. When a blister appears the skin must be cut and the worm has to be twisted onto a match stick. The stick is gently pulled and twisted to get the long worm out of the muscles. Our guide showed us about ten places where he had had guinea worm taken from his arms and legs and he now walks with a limp as a result of the infections.

Some of the local kids whose only English word is 'photo'.

Ground maize flour being dried after being mechanically milled.

Guinea fowl is a popular meal.

The women are toasting cassava.

These women have collected these kapok pods to sell for filling pillows.

Two women with wooden pestle and mortar pound cooked yams to a pulp.

The locals believe this mosque was built in 1421. The founder came across a mystic stone and threw a spear from the stone to this site and then erected the Sudanese-style mosque from mud and wood. We couldn't go inside as we were not Muslims but we had to pay to see it from the outside. The guide also had a whole list of facilities that the village was fundraising for and wanted us to make donations for them. As the men can have up to four wives and many children between them the list will be never ending.

It is possible to stay in a tree house beside the waterhole below the park and we heard that a group that had stayed heard leopard in the night and others saw their footprints. It is also possible to do an early morning walk.