Mole National Park

Feb 17th
It’s very strange to be so hot and to write the date as February. Temperatures have dropped slightly from the challenging 40+ as last night we had a violent dust storm and then some welcome rain that lowered the temperature. As a result we all slept much better.
I have been unwell- hence the gap in my blogging. Fortunately I am on the mend as a week ago the doctor at a hospital told me I did not have malaria but typhoid! You can imagine my initial reaction! However I knew that I had had every available injection and also that although I was ill, I was probably not dangerously ill. I took advice from Rebecca and had further tests at another hospital which were inconclusive but I am beginning to feel stronger. Although I stoll can't drink beer or coffee. I shall be an even more stringent follower of the local advice for food:
‘Peel it, boil it or bin it!’
Even the bread!
My illness means of course that I am falling behind in my self imposed timetable of school support. Very frustrating! However I had such care and kindness from so many people when I was ill that I feel very lucky. Betty dropped in with bananas, Kim and Tim looked after me and cooked wonderful meals, teachers from Kanvilli phoned and dropped in and Jim sorted out further tests.
I feel almost back on track now especially as I am working with the headteachers in my new school.

Mole National Park Sat and Sunday (7th & 8th Feb)
Liz, Kim and I rented a car complete with Hassan our driver; and spent a wonderful weekend in Mole. Mole was 3 hours drive away so we set off early at 6.00am!
It cost us 120 Ghana Cedi a day (about £40 each) but was well worth it for our air conditioned 4x4 transport and safe and knowledgeable driver. The alternative was to use public transport and to leave Mole at 4.00am on Sunday!

On our way we stopped to visit the famous mosque at Laranbanga, just outside the Park. The architecture is really impressive and in stark contrast to the poverty surrounding it. It is reputedly the oldest building in Ghana and the locals were very keen to tell us its history and charge us fees. At one time we were overwhelmed with offers of help- it was very useful to have Hassan who negotiated a fair price for us.

We set off again for Mole and finally arrived. We changed our booking to air conditioned rooms- (oh bliss); looked across the park and saw our first elephant at the nearby water hole (more bliss)!
We spent the next few hours being entertained by watching gibbons steal food and drink from picnickers around the pool and then whole families came to show off on our veranda. They were accompanied by a charming family of wart hogs (bush pigs) with their four sweet babies.
We had booked a ranger to take us for a game drive at 3.00 in the afternoon. Unlike S Africa and Kenya, Mole has few facilities for game drive unless you have your own vehicle.

James, our armed ranger, had worked at Mole for 30 years and was very knowledgeable. He explained that Mole was wooded Savannah and had been sparsely populated as it was home to the tsetse fly that caused sleeping sickness. He got out of the car to refill his water bottle from a stream and into the car flew a tsetse fly! Apparently the British were in charge at this time and decided to kill all the animals to prevent the spread of the disease. Later it was discovered that the problem was in the tsetse fly itself, not the anilmals, and clever scientists got the locals to catch all the male flies and substitute similar flies which has now eradicated the sleeping sickness parasite- so we were in no danger after all.
I was a bit concerned about James drinking straight from the stream but he assured me that as it was running water it was perfectly clean! James kept us entertained and pointed lots of cob(deer), bush buck(different deer), monkeys, gibbons, birds and a crocodile at the water hole! It was a such a lovely experience.

James joined us later for a cold beer and sat around the pool sharing our delicious supper of roast guinea fowls. There was so much left over that he took a ‘doggy bag’ for his family We arranged to go on a game walk the following morning at 7.00am.
Sunday
There must have been about 30 people ready for the game walk at 6.30 am and my heart sank at such a large group. To be really enjoyable and to see the shy animals the group needed to be small and quiet.
The first thing to be done was to equip people with large (and notoriously uncomfortable) rubber boots if their shoes were not enclosed. More rangers then arrived and James chose his small group of the three of us, Hassan and Jonas from America. Hurray!
We set off down the rocky escarpment and had an amazing time for the next four hours, watching the animals in their own surroundings, examining different types and different ages of droppings, learning about the plants, visiting the ancient sites of villages that had planted trees to shield them and keep them hidden from the slavers. So much to see but no elephants!
We stopped for a snack of crackers and water and finally arrived with sore feet at the hide over looking the water hole. We sat quietly resting, getting ready for the return uphill trek, when James motioned us to look to the side and magically we saw 2 elephants slowly emerge from the foliage, completely unaware of our presence. They came closer and one changed direction after he raised his trunk and ‘smelt’ us. We then spent an entrancing half hour watching, from very close quarters, as the elephants drank, squirted and just stood still. We then spotted three other elephants slowly coming down the escarpment to meet their fellows and exchange greetings by touching trunks.
It was time to go back. This meant walking around the water hole while the elephants were walking around the other way towards us! Mindful that James had said elephants can travel at 25 mph this was not a very comfortable position to be in. However we got close enough for some good photos and then got back to base safely ready for a long cool drink. What a wonderful experience! We were so lucky!
This weekend we go north to Bolga and from thence to Paga, home of the famous crocodile pool.