…. then please
let me be first in line!
So here we
are on our first day at the National Park. We got up all bright eyed and bushy
tailed and started our guided safari walk through the jungle. First off were
the numerous warthogs (ugly but delightful little fellows) who stay in families
so there’s always mum, dad and 3-4 kids. Then equally numerous bushbucks (with
white stripes and spots) and kobs ( no stripes/spots). Green monkeys who are
quite shy so ran away when they saw their intrepid cousins. Crocodiles were lazing
pool-side then glided in to the watering hole to cool off. Then the best bit –
one pretty large African elephant. He was covering himself in mud, spraying
himself and was perfectly happy to be the centre of attention.
So after
three glorious hours we returned to the Motel where we sat poolside (bit like
the crox really, gliding in from time to time …), quietly contemplating our
very special morning, until a baboon appeared and pinched my water pouches that
I’d just bought! More and more of the family appeared, one of them even
slapping Linn 1’s arm when she tried to prevent it from taking our stuff! Quiet
resumed, after lunch sitting at the viewing platform for hours looking at the
stunning views, all of us congratulating ourselves on being there (no mean
achievement, given the journey!). Slight mayhem when English Tom called us to
say that there was an elephant behind our row of chalets, so we all dashed over
and managed to get within 10 metres of the large fellow.
Again, he
(a different one) didn’t mind us watching, taking pix etc, but this is because
it was a Savannah elephant (more placid) and not
a Forest elephant (more aggressive) and was a
male (surprisingly, more placid) and not a female (most surprisingly, more
aggressive. Imagine coming face to face with a female Forest
elephant!!)
Having had
so much fun, I decided to go on a second early morning safari walk, despite the
fact that I’d been up since 4 a.m. saying goodbye to Linn 1. This time we saw
Mr E early in the safari so spent ages watching him playing, spraying and
moving very slowly – although (not many people know this) elephants are the
second fastest animals in Africa after the cheetah. Caught up with the usual
suspects – monkeys, deer, warthogs, crox … and had a lesson on the jungle from
finding out that the aardvark makes its home by building a complex system of
tunnels, then will abandon it to make a new one, and the old one will be used
by poachers to hide and then pounce on their unsuspecting victims, similarly
the lions and hyenas will do this. Then there are the footprints – the
elephant’s is highly identifiable so the guides can calculate what time they’ve
passed by, by looking at other animal’s foot/paw prints e.g. we came across an
elephant’s print that had a bandicoot’s print on top. As the bandicoot is
nocturnal, the guide knew that the elephant must have passed through several
hours earlier, in the dark, and therefore would be too far away for us to catch
him up.
We also
learned that they burn old leaves from the trees, in the dry season, to enable
new leaves and shoots to grow very much faster.
Back to the
Motel and time again to sit at the viewing platform – this time greatly
rewarded by watching a family of 8 elephants swimming and playing together in
the nearby watering hole. It felt a complete privilege to watch these animals
at play in their natural habitat.
Day 3 saw
me spending the first two hours sitting on the viewing platform with two
others, silently contemplating how peaceful it all is and how peaceful I felt,
how lucky I was/am to be here fulfilling my dream and that all will be well …
We were again lucky that our elephant friends came out to bathe, cooling off
and playing together.
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I then got
taken to the nearest village, which is famous only for its allegedly 15th
century mosque which is reputedly the oldest mosque in Ghana – along with
several others whose inhabitants also claim this level of maturity. My driver
and guide was Enasuah, a 19 year old with a pretty cool motor bike. SEE THE PIC OF ME ON THE BACK - I NEVER THOUGHT I'D HAVE THE NERVE BUT HEY, I'M HERE IN GHANA SO ANYTHING GOES! He wanted
to introduce me to his “sister” who works at an orphanage on the way to
Larabanga (the village with the mosque). When we met, she wanted me to work as
a volunteer (where have I heard this before …. ) and of course to donate some
money. It’s a bit like that here – they see an Obruni as Rich White Person.
Anyway, we were soon on our way and found the mosque which was surprisingly
interesting, architecturally speaking – see pix. Enasuah didn’t seem perturbed
by our difference in age, as he kept putting his hand on my knee during the
5kms ride, which I kept brushing off, in the end telling him how old my two
sons were – that shut him up! It’s a bit like that here – they see an Obruni
and think that we’d love to be their “friend” and apart from knee-touching, are
desperate to take your mobile phone number!
Anyway, to
end - Molé is truly somewhere to find peace and harmony and to make friends –
everyone is there to soak up the beauty and we all exchanged travel stories,
experiences and advice on where to go, where to stay, how to get there.
Molé is a
must on anyone’s itinerary when visiting Ghana …
