Christmas Elephants

Christmas Eve we woke up in Tamale in a super king sized bed. Dani had the middle spot and a good nights sleep whilst Maddy & I were on either edge both battling during the night to stay on the bed as Dani did her best to hog it all!


We went off shopping in Tamale, Dani & I trying to find somewhere for breakfast, which wasn't easy - I was either blind or Tamale seriously lacks somewhere for a coffee in the centre of town! We wandered around the market, sent e-mails home whilst Maddy organised our bus tickets to Mole National Park, she managed to get the final 3 seats! We eventually got back to the hotel to pick up our packs and headed back to the bus station to be greeted with chaos. The Mole bus was (as we'd heard was normal) 4hrs late, we waited in the sun for what seemed like forever before it finally pulled into the bus station.

Yet again the journey was fraught; a Ghanian man who didnt have a reserved seat decided to sit on Dani - all hell broke loose and 2 Danes on board with us also tried to help out, she found it all rather amusing; I was fuming!!!


Arriving at Mole Motel in Mole National Park I was thrilled that something had gone right. I'd rung from France in November to reserve a room, something I never normally do; preferring to do my own thing rather than being time pressured by reservations. However this year was a bit different and for a 12yr old from New Zealand to see elephants for Christmas would be a bit special! We were given our room key only to find warthogs blocking the way to the room which made it all the more real for Dani ... We had a meal with our new found friends Aksel & Marie, the Danes before heading back to the room to finish the whisky Maddy had brought with her & the gin I'd bought in Casablanca airport. I was madly wrapping Christmas presents on the veranda outside our room whilst Dani was sleeping probably convinced that we'd forgotten it was Christmas & that she wouldn't get any presents!

We awoke in our hospital ward like room, enormous with an en-suite bathroom but no running water at 6am to go out on a bush walk at 6.30am. Dani woke with a flashing Christmas hat on her head, a stocking full of wrapped presents at the end of her bed & the day started well.

Joining Aksel & Marie (who were staying in their tent!) we wandered over to the park office and met DK our guide and started the walk being told not to drop any litter. Fair enough! So the first place he took us to was outside the staff quarters which had a lot of warthogs, baboons & monkeys all drifting through the staff rubbish dump, full of tins, plastic and other environmentally unfriendly objects.



We didn't see that much wildlife with our guide, DK bushbuck, crocodiles, kob antelope, baboons, monkeys & warthog and after almost 2hrs walking we headed back up the hill to the Motel which overlooks the watering hole below. I decided that Christmas Day was laundry day; the water was back on for a time so I was filling buckets so I'd have a bit to do the clothes in when we heard knocking on our door & someone screaming 'there's elephants'. Everyone rushed to the viewing point over the waterhole and sure enough there was an elephant. DK returned and
took everyone down to the watering hole, Dani got within 30m of her Christmas elephant! I was standing at the top of the hill watching them all when I spotted 3 more come out of the bush ...

We spent the afternoon by the pool, having lunch, being proposed to by a Chinese construction worker and watching other guests being attacked by a few thieving monkeys!!!

Long, long road trip ...

Leaving www.busuainn.com at the crack of dawn we had a taxi organised to take us directly to Takoradi tro-tro station for 13 cedis and from there picked up a 'Benz bus' (Mercedes Benz minibus) to Kumasi. Our intention was to get to Tamale for the night so that we could stayed in Mole National Park for Christmas.

We sat in the minibus for 5hours to Kumasi, it was a long Sunday and listening to political speeches the whole way was incredibly boring hearing voices drone on and on!


Arriving in Kumasi we took a taxi to the other side of town to the Tamale tro-tro station to find another Benz bus that had 3 seats left. I was concerned that if we didn't take them up on the final 3 seats we'd be stuck in Kumasi for a while; but we decided that 30minutes sitting on the side of the street, getting some sustenance before getting back into a crammed tin box was preferable. I do my best not to travel at night; the best way to find yourself in an African hospital or worse due to the amount of accidents on the road.

Eventually the second Benz bus filled up and yet another argument started over the cost of our luggage with the driver wanting the same price for our packs as we'd paid for our seats ... I refused to give in and finally got the 'normal' price! On this part of the journey we met some lovely Ghanaians who helped us out, including one who decided to pay for the use of the loo & to buy more food for the journey, refused to be repaid; it was great to see there were some friendly Ghanaians!

It was a long dusty road from Kumasi with endless roadworks heading north, the dust covered us all. We finally pulled into Tamale at 9pm and wandered off to find somewhere to stay for the night.

We headed straight to the Al Hassan Hotel. I had my doubts when I asked the nightwatchmen at the National Bank of Ghana next door about the place; smirks on their faces. Passing a lamp post complete with a drunk woman dancing around it, my fears heightened. We walked in the door & it was spick & span .. polite guys on the desk .. Maddy & Dani went off to see the room and Maddy told me to get the phone out immediately as we'd better start ringing around. Dani's nose was screwed up as the room had smelt so bad ... we organised another place and got out to get a taxi. Only then did I tell Dani that she'd been to her first African brothel!!! We ended up at a great place the other side of town called Las Hotel, our room felt like it was underground but it was 'clean enough', had a TV in the room and a great chinese restaurant on the roof, so we had a good meal the night we arrived!