The last tourist destination on our trip north with my in-laws was Ghana’s famous Mole National Park (pronounced MOH-LAY, like that delicious Mexican brown sauce). The park is Ghana’s largest wildlife reserve and is famous for its over 400 elephants.
Unfortunately, being rainy season, the grass is high and the elephants are scattered throughout the massive 4,577 square kilometer park. It’s in the dry season that you are guaranteed to see wild elephants as they gather at the watering holes when water is scarce. We did however, see evidence of elephants in the form of fresh dung… lots of dung.
What we did see plenty of were baboons and patas monkeys. They are everywhere! The baboons are particularly mischievous. They would climb on our truck and open anything left in the boot. They would try to go into the motel rooms if doors were left open. One even got into the motel restaurant kitchen while they were making our dinner!
The scariest baboon encounter was when we were packing up the truck. A big baboon climbed in the back and I went up to chase it off. The park rangers had told us just to stand tall and shout confidently and they’ll run away. I did that. And he didn’t run away. Instead, he jumped down, stood up and walked upright towards me. I kept shouting until he hissed and barred his teeth – it was terrifying. He had called my bluff. I retreated quickly and a ranger came running with a slingshot and chased him off. Whew… close call.
Ken, Trey and I went on a two hour walking safari one morning. In the afternoon we all went on a two hour driving safari into the park. Everyone except Heidi, KJ and I sat on the top of the vehicle. During the tour, blood-sucking biting flies invaded the vehicle and Heidi & I spent most of the tour fending them off and protecting KJ. We killed dozens and dozens but they just kept coming.
Some of the other wild animals we saw were warthogs, kob, roan, and waterbuck. We also so some cool birds such as the impressive Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, the odd Hamerkop and the beautiful red-throated bee eater.
The Mole Motel was a nice place to stay and Trey absolutely loved the pool. When we were not out looking for wildlife, we were in the pool!