What a trip! (Pt 2)

So as I was describing in the previous post, Sarah and I spent the remainder of the first day swimming and chatting to the other visitors at Mole. Although the general chatter to other foreigners is satisfying in itself, Sarah and I, however, had another motive for our friendly chat. Despite our repeated attempts, however, to appear clean and polite, we were unable to convince anyone that giving us a lift to Tamale or Accra in the next few days was good idea. Darn!

The following morning, Sarah and I awoke at roughly 6am to sit atop the wateringhole in hopes of seeing some elephants before we began our safari walk. Alas, we did not see any and as the story goes, they usually only come out to the hole at dusk and dawn so we were a bit disheaertened that we had missed them. We met up with a guide who took us in small groups of 3-5 through the park. Our guide's name was David and he was dressed JUST as you'd picture a safari man to be dressed! Khaki colored top tucked into khaki pants with large black boots. To top it all off, he had a gun the length of his leg strapped to his back "in case of...." (who knows what!) Anyway, we began our walk along the hot hot desert plains seeing only small warthogs and monkeys. As we got progressively disheartened that we wouldn't see any elephants, we entered through a clearing only to see about 20 meters in front of us... a young male elephant! He was deliciously enjoying several young trees for breakfast and eloquently posed for us long enough to take pictures before trampling his way into the brush. We kept walking, seeing some monkeys and warthogs until we circled around to two watering holes. There were a few crocodiles sitting by the waters edge and a few more lurking in the watering hole with their eyes sitting just above the water. As we approached the second watering hole, we saw about 8 or 9 elephants taking a bath!!! It was truly one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen! It was amazingly comforting to know that these giant and surprisingly graceful creatures have SUCH a vast place that they can live their lives unthreatened (unlike so many animals, mammals and even people in Africa). After watching for a half hour or so the elephants moved out of the water and we eventually made our way back up to the hotel.

True to style, nothing seems to go the way that we expect it and after having such a "moment" with the elephants were were destined to have an unfortunate, or as we say here, "interesting" incident with some other creature. Sarah and I were sitting by the pool talking to one of the Irish people we met when I decided to grab us a water from the canteen. I walked across the pool deck towards the canteen when Sarah started yelling, "wait! stop!!!" I stopped for an instant... and just as the moment allowed, a large baboon (up to my hips) jumped from the changing-room roof onto the pool deck and ran to steal someone's lunch off the table!!! Yes, I realize that in the face of danger, one may overexaggerate the size or the scary-ness of their encounter but believe me when I say "up to my hips." He was MASSIVE and easily would have taken me down if I hadn't paused for a moment! Now THAT would have been an entire blog in itself - being jumped by a babboon but lucky, I escaped that. Just as instinct would have it, I bee-lined it back to the other side of the pool and let the babboon steal the unfortunate soul's lunch - I wasn't about to ask him to stop or leave!

The following morning, Sarah and I boarded a bus back to Tamale and from there, back to Accra. The ride from Tamale to Accra was a gift from the Ghanian Gods! It was as though they had punished us too harshly on the ride there and felt a tad bit guilty, as Sarah and I found ourselves in the lap of luxury! There were no Nigerian films, the AC was at a reasonable temperature and there was even a spare window seat that Sarah and I could stick our arms out at trotro stations to get food! Yes, we were SO desperately hungry that we ate street/tro-tro food not once, but twice on the ride home and surprisingly (and luckily!) did not get sick!

No trip can be finished without a journey to the Cultural Market in Accra. It's a large center where you can buy all the "cultural" things like drums, masks, statues, bracelets, cloth and the list goes on. It is, however, as trialing and as frustrating as running a marathon with people constantly grabbing onto you! Shop keepers naturally want you to visit their store but instead of using the common-sense approach of whistling or asking the tourist to step inside, they paw and claw at you to drag you into their shop. It truly is like trying to run a race when everyone is hanging off you and dragging you back! I had to supress any instinctual reflex to put someone's grabby arm in an "arm bar," as that would not have facilitate the process. But in the end, I survived the experience (nearly) and have come away with some small things for home!

Overall, it was an amazing (but often trialing) adventure! Sarah and I are heading to Ho to "renew our visas" (when you apply for a 90 day visa, they give you a 60 day visa instead so you have to pay more $$$ to renew it!) and then back to Woe! If you've read this far, thanks! It's been a long post! Congrats to everyone at home for finishing exams and take care!