Wednesday 21st – Sunday 25th (Part 2)

We arrive at the sanctuary visitors office about 24hours after we set out for it. Seems pretty relaxed. Look over the rates, arrange for a tro tro to bring us to our rooms (like 30 minutes away on another awful road) and shop for something easy to cook for dinner. For $2.10 we pick up spaghetti, tomato paste, sugar, pepper, sal, sugar, onions, garlic and groundnut paste (sorta like peanut butter) We make it to our rooms safely which was basically like little cabins. Mr. Adams (our guide) gets me a couple of pots and bowls, sets up a camp fire for us and I whipped up the first meal I’ve cooked in 2 months. It was actually pretty decent, nothing I’d make again, but I wasn’t embarrassed to serve it to my friend and Mr. Adams. After dinner by flashlight we hit the hay.
Drea and Cristin obsessed all morning as to whether we’d see hippos. During the rainy season it’s particularly hard to see them because the water level in the “Black Volta River” is much higher. After Mr. Adams was done praying we grabbed a canoe and rowed out. We had serious doubts but within 15 minutes we spotted our first hippo’s ears. After a few minutes more hippos came out to play and we saw 3 of them just chilling there, blowing water out of their nose. Little known fact. Hippos don’t drink water. They absorb water through their skins and spew out what they don’t need. They also take water through the grass. We made it back to shore within and hour and played the waiting game for our Tro to pick us up again. We hoped to take the 3-4 hour trip back to Mole in time for the 4:30pm after noon hike. Of course this is Ghana so that didn’t happen. Although we were back to shore by 9 our tro didn’t pick us up to almost noon. No matter we made it to Mole by 5:30 or so. Checked in to pretty decent dorm style rooms and ordered a lousy Western style excuse for African food dinner. Spotted warthogs running past my room.
In the morning I was first greeting by the buzz of the Men’s dorm light switch and the guard calling for the morning walk. I was further greeted by a family of baboons passing just steps from my room, in search of food. I felt vindicated for hours of travel. Our Armed Guard (legit shotgun) was kinda weird and obsessed with Antelopes, but over all he was a cool guy. On a two hour foot safari of the national park we saw elephants, antelope, at least 3 types of monkeys, warthogs and more birds than I can remember. The obvious crowd-pleasers were the elephants. The only other time I’d seen them that close was a Circus at Newport Mall in Jersey City, NJ. I recall not liking it very much because it was wicked hot and the elephants didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves. Here the elephants are free to roam where they please so we saw a couple just chilling around the park and then about 6 more playing in the watering hole.
Small hike back, decent (though long awaited) breakfast and spent some time in the hotel pool. Drea and Cristin soon became a spectacle when two schools, including one Muslim, came to visit the park : “ I feel like we’re the elephants” says Cristin. At some point I stopped of at the “staff canteen” were the park staff takes their meals and drink. Everything was much cheaper and the food was much more authentic so we decided to place an order for dinner there. With nothing much to do the 4 of us played cards with some of the staff and enjoyed watching monkeys and warthogs run around freely. One particularly brave baboon stole a coconut from the canteen, but upon being chased threw it back. Dinner was awesome as promised (A giant rice ball in peanut soup) and after dark we headed back to the rooms. There was another guy staying in the female dorms so the four of us just chilled there until I was ready for bed. Apparently one of the other park visitors was ready to go to sleep early because she said something kinda snippy about “getting up really early to catch the bus home”. Cristin, never one to take any lip exclaims “Curt, I think that was a hint you should go. A really rude German hint.”
Sunday is a lot more smooth. Catch our bus round 4:15 am, long bus rides, more ghanain movies, Andrea thinking she has malaria (she’s feeling better today so probably not), Cristin paying 20 peswas to use the bathroom (she even got a ticket), terrible roads but we make it back in our door in Accra by 9:45 pm. Really glad I took the trip, and definitely my best of the summer. I can do without extended tro-tro rides for the next few years though!