What a trip!

And so it began on Sunday.... the Canadian and the Aussie hitched a ride to Accra with one of the Americans heading back home. Yes, it was a tearful start the journey, as we had to say goodbye to our dear friend, Megan. Hopefully by now she has returned home safe and sound! We continued on our way to purchase a ticket at the STC station in the heart of Accra. Much of my experience comes from the small aspects of a journey, one namely being able to purchase anything out my taxi window. I am continuously amazed at the variety of products that one can purchase! Need some new running shoes? A ironing board? Or how about a shower scrub? Truly, one can accomplish shopping for all home goods in one simple taxi ride, however returns or exchanges are a bit out of the question. Once we arrived at the STC bus station, we purchased a ticket to go all the way to Tamale for a mere 160,000 cedis ($20). To me, this seems like a ton of coin considering I can purchase an entire meal at a tro-tro station for under $1 but hey, to travel across the entire country in a reliable bus with AC (yes, AC!) for $20? I'll take it! Because all the tickets are sold out the day of, Sarah and I had to purchase a ticket for the next morning at 11am. With an entire evening ahead of us, Sarah and I chose to adventure to a different hotel to stay the night. Now, when I say "hotel" most of us would think Best Western or some equivelent motel/hotel form but please... think dirtier and more unsanitary! I would not take off my socks for fear of acquiring a fungal infection, nor would I actually touch the toilet seat, to be graphic. Showering was completly out of the question, as was sleeping on the side of the bed closest to the wall. Unfortunately, I claimed the "free side" and sentenced Sarah to an unrestful sleep staring at the smears and unidentifiable dirt on the wall. Nothing could stand in the way of our excitement, however and we were cheery and excited for our travels up north. The bus ride to Tamale is worth an entire blog in itself! It is almost impossible for me to put into words an experience that I will most likely never forget. The entire ride, which initially was suspected to be roughly 8 hours, was horribly ruined by blasting Nigerian films and air conditioning to intense that it almost hurt. I speak with genuine utter honesty when I say that Sarah and I had to huddle together to share body heat - it was that cold! This physical suffereing was combined with a form of psychological torture that is unique, I suspect, to Africa. Imagine, if you will, sitting under one of two working speakers on the bus, pumped to their maximum volume in order to keep the driver awake (people here, i will admit, have a disturbing tendency to fall alseep!), for 13, I repeat, 13 HOURS, listening to and watching Nigerian films. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of watching such films, I will quickly describe their content and tone. Typically, the stories are about a family who has a daugther who falls in love wtih a poor boy and gets pregnant. Instead of talking or discussing such issues through, the entire movie is filled with shouting! No one speaks at a normal volume! The boy yells at the girl, the girl yells at her parents, the parents yell at the baby and the baby WAILS for hours on end. I do not lie when I say that Sarah and I could not hear one another when we were trying to chat. To top it all off, the series of films we watched were titled: "The pains of love" parts 1 AND 2 and "Everything we touch is blessed" (again parts 1 & 2). For your true Ghanian experience, I may purchase one of these cinematic rarities for roughly $2 for all to see when I return home!

Soooo after 13 hours of complete and utter insanity, Sarah and I got off the bus only to realize that at 1am it would be slightly difficult to find a taxi or a hotel to take us in. But no fear! A small 14 year old boy helped us find our way (Ghanians are quite helpful at times) and we checked ourselves into the Picorna Hotel - yes, another beautiful name attached to a complete dump. Oh, before I continue on, let me backtrack to one of our bus stops. Sarah and I desperately needed to use the washroom, which is a curse when stopping in small towns, but with no choice but to use the public facilities, we each paid 500 cedis ($0.05) to use the "female urinal." I will go no futher into describing such an event, as it has permanetly scarred me, but I will proudly state that I am confident in my squatting abilities.

Sarah and I awoke the next morning only to be completely pumped about heading to Mole National Park (a savanah type park filled with 4090km of animal reserves where one can safari around to see elephants, crocodiles, babboons, monkeys and many other awesome animals!) After 13 grueling hours of Nigerian films and coldcold AC, disgusting bathroom adventures, and two sleeps at icky hotels we were FINALLY going to get to our destination spot and see some elephants! The ride from Tamale to Mole was an incredibly bumpy and dirty one. Being a warm sunny day, both Sarah and I were wearing sunglasses. When we arrived in Mole and stepped into the reception to claim our hotel for the next two nights, we laughed hysterically at one another for the amount of red clay and dirt that was caked on our faces. It was the first time since arriving in Ghana (or ever, for that reason) that I looked as though I had a genuine tan. After all the pervious descriptions of our adventure, it might have su ggested that our trip was doomed, a tragic attempt to travel, but alas, we collected our key and opened the door to our room and stepped into heaven! Our room was at the top of the cliff looking over two watering holes where the elephants came to water at dusk and dawn. Two metres from the door was a swimming pool- not 100% clean but cool and blue none the less. Needless to say, we were happy as clams. We spent the rest of the day talking and swimming our little hearts out!

Oh, dear me, my vast internet time has run out and there are others in line for computers. I will continue writing about the adventure tomorrow, as the best parts are still yet to come! Hold tight!