Over the border to Burkina Faso

We left Mole Motel and got to Larabanga; the nearest village to the park. We wanted to see the mosque but the villagers were adamant that we had to pay to even go near it ... fed up with so much hassle early in the morning we went back to the 'bus stop' to wait for our bus to Wa. I found a cafe nearby to get a coffee for myself & Maddy whilst she & Dani got the cream crackers & vegemite out for breakfast.

The bus arrived, full, we were offered standing room only and managed to arrange ourselves on the back step. Further along the road a witch doctor jumped on board telling us of a stone which was a miracle cure for scorpion bites, a string which would prevent pregnancy ... he did well, had us all in stitches & seemed to sell a lot ...

Eventually we arrived in Wa. We wanted to cross the border to Gaoua, Burkina Faso a little further north in Lawra over the river so needed to find someone to stamp our passports but being Boxing Day, immigration was closed. We also needed some food, drink & money ... but it was all proving a bit of a problem, so asking a pharmacy that was open to change money the owner sent his son with us to another pharmacy that would do a black market exchange. We settled ourselves in the tro-tro station and got some food & drink and I went of to ask around about transport/immigration options. I discovered that our only real option was to get a tro-tro up to Hamale, the border town in the very north-west corner of Ghana.

Getting on another packed tro-tro we 'sensibly' paid for 4 seats to give us a little more room, it was a long 80km and 2.5hrs on dusty roads to Hamale, Maddy & I had the task of unbraiding Dani's hair en route! We finally pulled up at a police post to discover the driver didn't have a licence and the police needed a bribe to let him continue into town. As soon as we got out we had some guy offer to show us where the border was, we wandered down to it with him and went through the ridiculous formality of showing our yellow fever card - something I've never come across when leaving a country! Our passports stamped we were outside the immigration office when another guy showed up claiming to be Burkinabe and would organise transport the other side. I smelt a rat, his French wasn't very fluent and he was determined to stick with us saying we'd get a lift with his brother. We trudged the 500m between the two borders with Dani saying 'I think I'm going to like Burkina more' and Maddy & I hoping she was right and that we'd all enjoy it more than Ghana.

Burkina's formalities were a lot more relaxed with a lot of welcomes from the immigration officers, it was already 4pm. We spotted a shop nearby and I discovered that the owners were Mauritanian .. we had a chat bought some warm drinks and waited for our guy to return from his 'brothers house'. He told me that I would have to go to his brothers house to negotiate the fare; I refused, asking the brother to come to us if he wanted any business. He turned up and demanded 40,000CFA to get us to Diebougou 60km away. We were getting a lot of aggression from the Ghanaian 'brother' and finally they walked away. I found out where the gare routiere was and left Maddy & Dani with the Mauritanians and our packs to find out if we could get a taxi ... or else it was back to immigration & sleeping on their floor for the night!


On my return I was stunned to find the 'brothers' back, harassing the Mauritanians for telling me where the gare routiere was; they were incredibly aggressive and it finished with the Ghanaian brother getting on the back of a scooter screaming 'I'll burn your shop down'. Watching a herd of cows go past, we wondered what to do when M.Sala turned up, I'd talked to him at the gare routiere and he offered us a minibus and driver for 18,000CFA eventually ... we were on our way in Burkina ...

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!!!