Vomit attracts warthogs: A weekend safari
The highlight of this weekend trip to Mole (MOE-lay) was seeing elephants, petting warthogs and encountering aggressive baboons. But I didn't see allll. When my parents come to visit, I would go back just for the pool and obroni restaurant. They have fries and a wonderful hilltop view overlooking the wooded savanna. You can take that picture of Africa with the giant sunset and the bush, and maybe even catch an elephant in it (Not really. The sun doesn't appear any larger here.) What more could you ask for in Ghana? Wild animals are hunted to extinction and trees are cleared for farming everywhere else, so you really can't ask for more.
Mole National Park is the largest park in Ghana and is one of the few places where large mammals are found. Unlike in some east African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and others with large populations of wildlife, Ghana's is just about limited to parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Though the park is just 50 miles west of my site, you would be lucky to see an antelope roaming near villages. That antelope would certainly be shot soon enough. Not even parks effectively deter poaching. Mole is a huge park, but the developed area for visitors is on the far southern edge, leaving the majority of it a vast open bush without much in place to deter poaching other than biting tsetse flies. Mole makes it easy to see elephants, baboons, some monkeys, warthog, antelope and birds. If you're looking for huge herds of water buffalo or zebras like on Planet Earth, then you should look elsewhere.
To define the setting, don't think of a vast open country of grasses (i.e. Lion King). This savanna is more like a short, thin forest with patches of grass here and there – but a lot more trees than usual. Most of the trees are small, and we found some that the elephants knocked down. At least here in west Africa, the coastal area is mostly savanna mixed with rainforest, followed by a rainforest climate maybe 50 miles inland. As you come further and further north, the forest gradually thins and becomes more dry. Trees become less and less, and your stereotypical open grassland with prancing zebras, essentially what looks like the prairie in the mid-west, is found more in Burkina Faso to the north until you reach the Sahara. Large, clear-cut rice farms around my site will have you confused with the natural vegetation. So that's what it looks like. I just feel that when we think “savanna”, we think of an endless plain of grass with picturesque baobab trees.
A couple of PCVs from my group were working on a malaria project further up north with some guys from USAID a few weeks ago, and they invited us to join them on their trip to Mole. I thought they were American expats until just before they came to pick us up. Hanging out with non-PCV Americans is fun because they are literally loaded with money (we don't get paid very much, and our budget becomes very limited when traveling).
These guys were the complete opposite of what I've grown to expect from Ghanaian men. I suppose I've just spent too much time in the village where it's shameful for a grown man to cook. One must take control of the female. But no, they were well-educated, paying for our food, casually drinking and cooking. Not just cooking – but buying fresh food way beyond the PCV budget and spending hours a day preparing delicious versions of local Ghanaian dishes. Food is a major player in this trip.
There's a few differences between the Ghanaian vacation and the American one. Or perhaps not the American one, but the PCV one. We got to the Mole Park kind of late. It was already dark, but our friends started cooking tilapia and a tomato stew outside our hotel right there on the lawn. That night was the longest because we prepared stews for the next day. We took the furniture out of our rooms, and it was a lot like tailgating. It seemed almost as if they were trying to impress us by cooking and eating so well. This is the main difference – where I'm coming from the village and would rather relax by the pool with a burger and fries overlooking the real savanna, they found their pleasure in cooking. I'm not complaining – they were awesome to have invited us and to feed us. It's just a notable difference when Americans seem to be focused on preparing food as fast as possible, or find pleasure in being served cheeseburgers and fries and beer next to the pool. I'm glad I got to go, and I didn't even do the malaria project.
So I'll cut to the chase here. The next morning we went on our safari and saw plenty of animals and elephants, after some searching. We had our own car, so we brought our guide and a couple of Dutch girls with us. There were baboons, some monkeys, a variety of antelope, many many warthogs and two elephants. Mole is home to lions, water buffalo and leopards, but these are a bit more difficult or impossible to see. It was awesome to see the elephants, but as we were out, there was this large group of SHS students from Tamale that ended up joining us in the elephant search. Ghanaians aren't exactly good at being quiet, so even though we got maybe within 50 yards of the elephants, our guide said we were too loud and scared them into the forest. The next day, the same elephants came out again to swim or elephant baf that we were able to see from the motel.
Our guide seemed a bit concerned with all of us being so close and loud. He said these particular elephants, living so close to the motel were used to seeing people, but if we encountered ones further in the park, they may not treat us as kindly. They're quite large animals that would be best not to irritate. However, if I had to die in Ghana, getting mauled by an elephant would be the first way I would choose to go.
There's also tsetse flies; the first I've seen in Ghana but there weren't too many. I was wondering about when I would encounter these biting flies since they're not at my site. I guess they're somehow only focused around the park – apparently one reason why the area is sparsely populated. We sport an over-abundance of filthy diarrheal disease-spreading flies in Tamaligu, but none of them bite.
I say food is important because the next day, plenty of warthogs came to inspect where we were tailgating. A few second and third-year PCVs met us who were making a country-wide Ghana trip before going home. That night, one of them brought himself to slap one of the warthogs on the ass. It was a mother with two of her babies. The warthog became upset, but didn't mind enough to go too far. All they care about is food, so to tame a warthog, all you have to do is feed it. At least the ones that hang out around the motel aren't as mean as they're made out to be, so our evening turned into warthog petting fun. The cautious mother, however, kept her distance and refused to come too close. These warthogs must have told their friends and extended family about us, so the next morning when we were cooking our last meal even more showed up, almost in intimidating numbers. We were probably that group of annoying guests at the Mole Motel, feeding animals, cooking on the lawn and maybe staying out a bit too late with music on. Warthogs love vomit.
It was a good trip with lots of wholesome encounters with wild animals. The baboons are considered a nuisance because they're more deliberate than warthogs. The staff were chasing one who stole an empty beer bottle, only to have it broken. Empty beer bottles are worth money to sellers – sort of like a deposit because they recycle and refill the bottles. Once when we left our food unattended, a baboon came and stole cookies!
For northern Ghana, Mole is the biggest attraction and makes for a great trip for a couple of days. Animals, burgers and fries, a pool, comfortable beds, running water and great views. That's all.
