From then on, I anticipated our trip to Mole. Around the house, Mole (pronounced mo-LAY) was a charged word, always getting a reaction. Some girls would say, “It’s gonna be so awesome. It’ll be worth all the driving once we get there.” Others would say, “Have patience! Take your iPod to keep you occupied when the transportation breaks down.” And still others would say, “I heard about some robberies up that way, so if you do go, don’t travel at night.” In the weeks leading up to Mole, I was a little wishy washy, and even considered not going. After all, I hadn’t spent a weekend in Elmina since June 24 – 26. I’d been working hard all week tying up loose ends at the school. I was tired and having trouble getting money from the bank. I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with the hassle of getting all the way up there. In the end, I reminded myself, “It’ll be an adventure,” and went for it. I’m glad I did.
Mole National Park is in the northwestern part of Ghana. Although not quite as incredible (or expensive) as safaris in other parts of Africa, Mole is well known in Western Africa for its diverse animal population. What should be one of Ghana’s star attractions, Mole is not only really out of the way, but it is also really hard to get to. Using only public transportation, the one-way trip from Cape Coast to Mole would take 14 hours at the least.
Four of us packed up our things Thursday and began the journey after work that day. We decided to get the first leg, a three hour ride to Kumasi, out of the way that night in order to reach Mole by Friday night. Even though I had already finished my work at the school, the other girls could only miss one full day of work (Friday), plus a few hours on Monday if necessary. We stocked up on plantain chips and settled in for the trip to Kumasi, which was very smooth and uneventful. We reached Kumasi at a reasonable time and got a taxi to the Freeman Hotel, where we had made reservations earlier in the week.
Had I been in the U.S., I would have taken one look at the Freeman Hotel and walked (quickly) away. The building was nice enough, but dingy and dimly lit. The staff was very friendly, though, and after showing us our rooms, one of the guys drove us to a nearby restaurant and picked us up when we were finished.
Back at the hotel, it was nearly 11 pm. We split into groups of two, used the sink located in my room to get ready for bed, and said goodnight to each other. Jeannie and I shared one of the rooms while Pip and Emma took the other. I later felt bad, but was also glad to have chosen the one I did when the other girls said they were, or just imagined, being bothered by mosquitos all night. Exhausted from the week, I slept just fine. We woke up at 5 am in order to be out the door by 6, and we sleepily made peanut butter and banana sandwiches using the ingredients we brought with us. Surprisingly, we were checking out at 6 – right on time.
One of the guys from the hotel walked with us to the busy road to help us get a taxi. We told him we were trying to get a fast car or bus to Tamale and wanted to go to the Kejetia station. No problem. Soon we found a cab who only wanted 50 pesewas (30ish cents) each to take us there. Not complaining, we jumped in. Soon, he dropped us off at what was not the Kejetia tro-tro station, but a taxi station where we could get a different taxi to the actual tro-tro station. We were a little disgruntled, but found another one quickly, negotiated the price, and set off again. Soon, he dropped us off at a tro-tro station, and showed us a bus labeled “Tamale.” We thanked him and headed toward the ticket stand. On the way to buy our tickets, we noticed that the bus was huge (like a Greyhound), and very empty, even though the drivers were standing around promising us it would leave soon for Tamale. I knew that that bus wasn’t going anywhere until it was full. I also knew I didn’t want to be the first person on it and then have to wait for an hour or so for it to fill. We looked around for different options to Tamale, but there were none. I finally got to use some Twi and spoke to a man who admitted that the big bus wasn’t scheduled to leave until 1pm. It was 6:40 am at this point. He also admitted that this was not Kejetia station, but a different one with only one option for Tamale. Realizing we needed to go to yet another station, we negotiated with another taxi driver and set off for Kejetia.
The third time must be a charm, because the last driver took us to the right place with no problems. We soon found a bus similar to the one from last weekend labeled, “Tamale Express,” paid our 8.5 cedi ticket fare, and hopped on. The bus sat four across with two rows of two, and a row of five across the back. Thankfully that row was open, so we snagged it. Even though the driver told us we were leaving, “now, now, now!” at 7:00, we were still sitting there in the station at 7:45. The bus was already pretty full when we got on, but the passengers kept getting on and off, buying snacks, bringing them back to family members, and then leaving again to make a phone call. Knowing that we had a full day of travel ahead of us, we were antsy to get on the road. Finally, everyone took a seat and stayed in it and the engines started. We were all pretty packed in. Only then did even more people board the bus – holding stools. About twelve additional people packed in the aisle, plopping their stools down and settling in for the six hour ride to Tamale. Suddenly my cramped seat with a headrest didn’t seem so bad.
The trip to Tamale was long, yes. We stopped a few times for gas, snacks, and the other. Midway through the trip, the bus was trashed. Empty peanut shells, hardboiled egg shells, palm nuts and banana peels coated the floor. Afterward, I’m sure they had to clean out the inside Tom Dunlap style by taking a hose to it.
Finally, we made it to Tamale. If you look at a map of Ghana, you will see that we were pretty far north, which was obvious to us when we got out of the bus. Immediately after disembarking, one of us remarked, “Wow, it’s hot!” And even though the sun shone brighter and hotter, the humidity that plagues us in the south was absent. And while the south is predominantly Christian, the north is mostly Muslim. The streets were littered with mosques rather than churches and men wore caps and long dresses. The women in the north did not dress any differently than those in the south. In Tamale, we drove past a group of men kneeling for prayer outside of a mosque, which I thought was pretty neat. Travelling only to mostly Christian countries, I have never had the opportunity to experience anything like that before. Although we were only in Tamale for a short time, it was a pretty cool city. There were fewer cars and more bikes, especially motorbikes, often driven by women. The people were very respectful of us, and we managed to get out of Tamale without a marriage proposal.
In Tamale we had a decision to make. All of the tro-tros to Mole had left for the day. It was 2:15pm. We did not want to spend the rest of the day and night waiting for another tro-tro to leave. The road from Tamale to Mole was slow going, though, and if we wanted to make it before dark, we needed to leave soon. We finally decided to call one of the private companies in my guidebook and see what our options were. We settled on paying a decent amount to hire a driver with a 4x4 to take us the rest of the way.
Soon, we were in the truck heading toward Mole. We couldn’t get over how nice it was, even though it was no nicer than a typical pickup truck in the U.S. The automatic door locks and windows worked. The doors opened from the inside as well as the outside. The horn beeped when the driver pressed the steering wheel. In taxis, I often play “Find the Horn” with myself. I try to figure out which button might sound the horn in each car, because it is never just as easy as pressing the steering wheel, which probably broke long ago. Some of my favorite places for the horn include the windshield wipers, the button for the flashers, and the turning signal.
Pretty tired from the day, we sat mostly in quiet as we drove the dirt road to Mole. We passed a number of mud hut villages, which was also very cool. There were goats and cows everywhere along the road, and we had to swerve to miss them almost as much as we had to swerve to miss the gigantic potholes. The trip that takes between 4-8 hours in public transportation took only 2.5 in the truck. We made it safely to Mole in plenty of time to check in, watch the sunset, and order some dinner before taking a dip in the pool. I joked that I looked like an oompaloompa (sp?) after getting out of the car – my eyebrows, eyelids, and chin were covered with reddish dust from the road.
The Mole Motel was much nicer than our hotel in Kumasi. We had three beds in one room – two twins and a double – and our own bathroom with green toilet paper that smelled like Irish Spring soap. We had a decent meal at the hotel restaurant and hit the hay pretty early, all exhausted from the 10-hour day of travel.
On Saturday morning, we awoke at 5:30 to get ready for our safari. Earlier in the week, Pip had mentioned that she was really excited to see the “hogwarts,” aka warthogs. And see them we did. On Friday night, we were a little shocked when we saw our first warthog picking through the trash can near the check-in desk. We squealed, took pictures, and didn’t get too close. By Saturday morning, though, the hogwarts had lost their novelty, and we were all excited to see some different animals on the safari, which started at 7. Our group of four combined with some other small groups of German and Danish girls, met up with our tour guide, and headed off. Immediately, we began to see animals – baboons stealing things from the staff housing in the park, elephants eating from trees 30 feet away, and yes, more hogwarts.
The safari took us through the park, up and down hills, across streams, and finally, to the watering hole. We took a seat and waited patiently for animals to appear. It was a beautifully cloudy morning with a nice breeze. Unfortunately, that meant the crocodiles would not sun themselves near the hole, so we just had to live with the image of them sitting in the hole and waiting for someone to get too close before SNAP. Thankfully, no one got too close. Some elephants did show up, though, and we got to watch them drink from the hole, which was entertaining in itself. We sat for awhile, just watching, and letting the experience sink in. All in all we saw a good number of animals, including elephants, warthogs, baboons, another kind of monkey, and a bunch of antelope, which wasn’t bad considering Mole doesn’t even have giraffe or zebra or many of the other African animals one might find on a safari elsewhere. By the end of the safari, we were content with that we had seen and plenty ready for breakfast.
We spent the rest of the beautiful day (the clouds disappeared soon after breakfast) lying by the pool, reading, and listening to music. The weather has been cloudy in Elmina recently, so we took full advantage of the good “sun day.” We got a kick out of watching the baboons sneak up to the outdoor restaurant to steal things. The sugar bowls were a hot commodity and one guy even lost his breakfast omelet to the monkey. He was ticked, and I would have been too – the restaurant did not have particularly fast service. It’s likely he had to wait a long while for that breakfast to get stolen.
Rather than wait a long time for an expensive and non-traditional meal, we decided to order dinner from the staff canteen. Not only were the meals half as expensive and twice as big, they were much better, too! I ordered banku (basically a starch ball made out of yam and corn, I think) with groundnut soup, which they served sans utensils with a bowl of water for me to wash my hands before and after. We enjoyed our meals and the more laidback atmosphere and left dinner feeling satisfied.
We cleaned up and then headed back over to the restaurant for a beer and game of Bananagrams. We played for a while, enjoying the beautiful night and reflecting back on our other trips, finding it hard to believe that we were reaching the end of our last real trip together. I guess time flies when you’re having fun.
After weighing our options for getting home, we decided to just call our driver from Friday and ask him to take us clear to Kumasi. We really wanted to make it back to Cape in one day, and without a driver, that would be impossible. Although this option certainly did not save money, it did save time and frustration, so I was more than fine with it. We didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn, and I was looking forward to sleeping in.
“OH MY GOD YOU GUYS, GET UP!” From a deep sleep, I pulled myself out of bed with lightening speed. Extremely disoriented, I looked around to see what could have possibly made Emma yell like that. It wasn’t too long until I figured it out – an elephant was lazily grazing from the trees no more than 15 feet from our back porch. We threw on some clothes and scurried outside with our cameras, still rubbing sleep out of our eyes. The elephant hardly seemed to notice us snapping pictures and giggling in amazement. Bored with that tree, he turned around to face us, and I swear, if I had tried, I could have reached out and touched his trunk. But considering we weren’t technically supposed to be any closer than 50 meters from the elephants, I wasn’t going to push my luck. We watched him for a long time as he munched, and soon, other people noticed him as well, coming out of their rooms to oogle.
Still amazed at what we had seen, we packed up our things and headed to breakfast. Our driver arrived soon after, and we were on the road again. Our trip from Mole to Kumasi took only six hours, which was nice. We got to Kumasi in plenty of time to grab some snacks and get a tro-tro back to Cape. By this time, we were completely ready to be home, and the 3.5 hour trip was fine, but plenty long. I tried to sleep, but couldn’t help but be a little grossed out each time we turned a corner and a stream of water rained down on my leg from the air conditioner. Our driver kept proposing to me and calling me “wife.” He even offered to give me a massage, which grossed me out just as much as the air conditioning fluids.
I loved reading this, Amy!
ReplyDeleteJudy F.