Tamale, Larabanga, Mole National Park, July 9-15, 2009

Thursday, July 9th, 2009, Tamale, Ghana:
5:30pm, Alhassan picks me up at the STC station,
Tamale, heavy rains, we go to a restaurant and eat
jollof rice, 1.50 cedis, next day meet Alhassan's
friends, visit with Sumaila's mother, walk around,
clay ovens for bread, evening go to Muda's and
watch the arrival of Pres. Obama, dancers, Obama
goes over to the dancers. Eat T.Z this evening,
the local dish similar to banku, corn based with
okra stew.

Saturday, July 10: watch President Obama's speech
and visit to Elmina, eat at Catholic guest house,
chicken and fried rice.

Sunday, July 11: Take a nice long walk through
little neighborhoods, various celebrations going
on, funerals. Near the post office, I take a
photo of a little theatre showing an Indian movie.
The owner who lives across the street comes out to
ask what I was going to do with the photo. I explain
how I like Indian movies, I have friends from India, I
want to show them that Indian movies are popular in
Ghana. He is assured that I will not be making money
off his theatre and he is friendly.


Monday, July 13th, 2009, Mole National Park, Ghana:

Sitting at the Mole Motel on a cliff,
the overlook, viewing deck, comfortable chairs,
breezy, shady, two watering holes below,
Antelope, Kob running around below, grazing,
"Grazing in the Grass"--Hugh Masakela
vast canopy of rolling dark and light greens,
reds, hazy summer, rainy season, windy.
A worker comes by and says, "Come at 6am
tomorrow. The elephants will be down there
drinking water.

I just finished drinking four cups of coffee,
Nescafe with condensed milk, two lumps of sugar,
wild, exotic bird sounds. I ate breakfast overlooking
the pool. Two small birds perched nearby. They sang
a beautiful song. The staff was very friendly and helpful.
I ate a mushroom, onion, and cheese omelette for 3 cedis
with four pieces of toast, jam and butter. It tasted
great, first omelette I've eaten since February.
German and Dutch tourists are here. I'm in a dorm,
12 cedis a night.

Last night, slept at the Salia Brother's Lodge
in Larabanga, slept on the roof, open air, chilly,
amazing stars, shooting stars, milky nebulae,
moon arriving later, almost full, waning,
morning azzan, 4:30am, bus stopping honking
its horn 4:45am, the red orb rising around
6am, the ladder, crooked tree trunk with notches,

From Tamale to Larabanga, bus seat #60, last row,
boarded at 1:30pm, sat next to Cecelia, seat #61.
She's a JHS teacher, visiting her family in Damongo,
not married, 33 yrs. old, no children, I congratulate
her. Bumpy, wild ride on the big orange bus.
Bumpity, bump, bump, almost get me in the giggles.
The bus arrives at Larbanga around 6:30pm, stops right
outside the Salia Bros. Lodge.

Mole National Park, July 13, 10:30am:

From the overlook, I just saw a couple elephants below
in the woods/bush. One with big tusks. Talked with
two young Dutch guys who did volunteer work
at an orphanage in a village near Kumasi for one month.
Created a pitch, tried to get a bulldozer to level the
pitch but the bulldozer only made it worse. Kids loved
having them there. Four elephants just came down
the watering hold, swam through the small lake,
submerging, spraying, Kob, Roan antelope, Defasse
Waterbuck running on open grasslands. I love this
place, this lookout, this shade, this wind.
I just told Jeema, the park ranger who stopped by,
that this is paradise and he's fortunate to live here.

The walk here from the Salia Bros. Lodge, took
photo of goat with bucket around its neck, Yakumb
Salia walks with me a ways. He talked with last
night about his porject he's working on, an internet
cafe for the lodge. He wants to buy 3 computers.

A student on a bicycle rides with me most of the
rest of the way, 16 in JHS Form 1, wants to be a
doctor. His school is just inside the park,
loves football, plays on a team, tells me about
library projects he's a part of.

On the road to Mole Park, 6:45am to 8:00am,
pay 10 cedis at entrance, park fee, see antelope
along the road, guinea fowl crossing road,
warthogs, a warthog along side of the road passes
me, I snap him, a couple Ghanaians walking nearby
assure me he won't charge, I see a beautiful Kob
antelope resting with wonderful twisting horns,
ready to take a photo, he runs away, elk size.

----
At the overlook:
Kob playing, antelope along the watering hole,
jump into the water playing around, big splashes,
one crocodile starts slowly swimming towards them, a log.
Another swims towards them from the far end. The antelope
stop playing and remain motionless spotting the croc.
The croc stops also and remains motionless.

A baboon comes up from behind and lifts the lid
of the plastic garbage bin. Then, knocks it over,
nothing inside. Me and the Dutch guy are only
15 feet away and its got us trapped, so we're
a little nervous. Luckily we don't have food.
The baboon heads toward the swimming pool, swimmers
at the table get up to move away, I hear a crash,
the breaking of glass. Later, I go to the bar
and a guy comes up to me and says the baboon
jumped on their table while they were sitting
there.

Large black bird with amazing red wings
flying around, lots of hooting bird sounds,
a pair of long-tailed, flourescent, dark,
ultramarine blue birds fly by, sweet winds,
nature's flirting breath, egrets, herons,
eagle-like birds.

2pm: three elephants back in the water
playing and swimming. Six elephants all
together near the watering hole.

Early evening, waiting for my guinea fowl
at the Mole Motel restaurant, walking with
the waiter from the viewing deck to the
restaurant, two warthogs nearby, one tries to
face down the waiter, ten feet away. The waiter
stomps his foot and steps toward the warthog.
The warthog scurries away.

Sunsetting at Mole with swimmers in the pool,
eating a quarter quinea fowl, very good, drank
a Castle Milk Stout, sounds of splashing, quiet
peaceful,

Back at the overlook, 7pm:
Dark silhouettes crossing the open
grass area, must be a herd of fifty or
so. They must be African buffalo.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009, Mole National Park:
I wake up at 5:30, go to the viewing deck,
all alone overlooking the two watering holes
and open grassy area. The day gets lighter,
layers of misty trees, darks and lights for
miles and miles in the background, brown kob,
bushback, antelope start going into the green
fields.

At 6:45am, I head over to the info center for
the safari. On the way, I come across a troop
of baboons on the road, many young ones, babies
on mothers' backs, maybe 20-30 go by on the road.
Some look at me and hurry past as I snap photos.

While waiting to go on the safari, two elephants
come out of the bush, big tusks, many people
waiting to go on safaris, a group of South
Koreans get too close and the ranger tells them
to back away. You are supposed to leave 50 meters
between you and the elephant.

Ten are in my safari group, a large family from
Belgium, four kids. We follow the elephants and
stop when they stop, take photos. The youngest
Belgian child, maybe 7 or 8 yrs. is leaning over
vomiting. The ranger in his green army fatigues
and rifle is concerned. The mother and father
say they want to continue because the boy wanted
to go so badly. He looks very sick. We go pass
various staff quarters, warthogs are amongst the
people preparing for the day.

As we head towards the bush, many green monkeys
ahead of us are running away. Then, we see Kob
and go deeper into the bush, Roan antelope,
Defassa Waterbuck (two colors, our guide tells us).

We start seeing herds of Kob and an occasional
Defass Waterbuck, beautiful white patterns of
lines and dots, aboriginal tattoo-like. They
see us, they run further into the bush, some
go around us. We start walking down the valley,
one large herd of Kob gallop past us. The Belgian
boy is vomiting along the way.

When we get to the bottom, out guide shows us
a sandy looking area, white and tan rock, shale,
and sand. One area looks carved out in a semi-circle.
He explains that the animals come here to lick salt,
"nature's salt lick, God created". Elephants and
antelope come here. The mother starts to carry the
boy.

We start walking towards the open field and the
watering holes, many more kob all around, an elephant
going into the bush. We go to a viewing platform,
many birds at the second watering hole. Then, we
walk to the first watering hold. Two elephants
are there bathing. We take photos and watch awhile.
The boy is looking terrible. Then, five more elephants
enter the water, loud sounding splashes. They all get
together and splash around, submerging themselves,
tusking each other a little, resting their trunks on
each other or twisting the around each other. A croc
is in the water a little ways away, 10-15 meters. The
boy's smiling. He's looking better. We go around the
drinking hole and stumble onto another big tusked elephant,
maybe 10-15 meters away, our guide takes his rifle off his
shoulder and tells us to go around. I get a good photo.
Then, we head up the cliff back to the Mole Motel. At
the info center, I pay the safari fee, 6 cedis and give
the guide a 1 cedi tip, about $5.00 all together.

I bathe and get breakfast by the pool, another mushroom,
cheese, and onion omelette with a pot of coffee. I watch
the elephants walk across the big grassy area. Then, it rains
for about 20 minutes, grey day, cool, a little breeze. The
safari walk felt good.

Eating a late lunch/early dinner around 3ish at a
nearby chop bar, rice and beans, stew, a hard-boiled
egg and beef. I eat with a Spanish couple. Afterwards,
read the paper, three warthogs come to visit, go under
the table a few feet away, a big mama comes close, four feet
away and then gobbles up something on the ground,
crunching sounds like a bone, a baboon watches about
40 yards away and then goes to a nearby table and watches
the cooks. They don't serve him. He moves on.
I wait for my afternoon coffe. It's quiet except for
some splashing and a generator fridge sound, clanking
of glasses, The Spanish couple are going on an
afternoon safari.

Evening, drinking Castle Milk Stout(Smooooooooth)
at the restaurant outside, the baboons are eating
bugs, winged bugs by the hundreds buzzing about the
flourescent lights. Baboons go into the ladies room,
then climb on the wall, lizards on the wall too, frogs
eating bugs on the ground, bugs losing their wings,
a baboon comes nearby.

Wednesday morning, July 15th, 2009, Mole Motel:
7:15am at viewing platform, many green monkeys in
the trees around us, eating leaves, some only 15 ft.
away, babies, tails hanging through the trees, arms
outstretched, munching on leaves, baboons come up
from behind me and another guy, antelope and warthogs
roaming and grazing below. I go and eat breakfast 40
yards away by the pool. The waitress tells me there
are elephants in the back. I go to the side and see
there are three heading towards me, big tusks, eight
warthogs are also there, grazing, kneeling to eat the
grass. Two elephants go by the motel rooms and eat
the light green hedging. A man chases them away. I
go back and order breakfast, the usual. A baboon
comes up near the table. I stand up and it moves away.
The waitress tells me they're after my sugar and gives
me a large silver tray to scare them away. Two baboons
pass by, lean over the pool and take a drink. A Pata
monkey? walks within a few feet of me. She has a baby
clinging to her chest. The waitress shoos her away and
tells me this one is injured, she's limping. Two beautiful,
large, black birds in the trees in front of me, red wings
and yellow beak.

Later in the morning, I buy a couple gifts at the gift shop
and walk back towards Larabanga.