Ghana Round Up

This will be our last post about Ghana. For completeness I just want to mention a few more things about our time there before we move on to our time in Brazil.

One thing that actually took place before the trip to Mozambique and Eswatini was our final trip to Mole National Park in the north of the country. We flew to the nearby airport and met our driver for the 2 hour drive to the park. This time we chose to stop at the ancient mosque (Larabanga Mosque) that’s just off the main road. It was a really interesting place and surprisingly small compared to what we imagined from the photos we’d seen before. Other than a few colonial era buildings, there are very few old structures remaining in Ghana so it was surprising to see something so old. It is thought to have first been built in 1421 and is considered the oldest mosque in West Africa. It is built of earth and so needs constant repair but was in OK shape when we were there. If you’re going to Mole National Park it’s well worth the visit and is literally on the way.

The elephants of Mole did not disappoint although our best view started a bit oddly. We got one of the rangers to take us for a walk as usual and there were two other young women who joined us. The ranger proceeded to march off into the forest at a great pace with hardly a look back to see if we were keeping up. We were and it was lucky that we were all fit enough to manage the forced march. I assume that he knew where the elephants had headed and was able to track them. Sure enough we came across a group of about 6 or more individuals with one very large male with huge tusks. 

Typically in Africa when you’re on safari and you see an elephant you are in a vehicle. As there are no big cats in Mole, it is safe to simply walk around. We found it a very special experience both times we were there that you could simply walk around and then bump into elephants while on foot.

The other highlight to mention from that trip were the crocs! Typically, when you see crocs they are barely moving but at the local watering hole in the morning they were extremely active thrashing around catching fish. The pond seemed absolutely full of them and remember – we were on foot!

A few other highlight wildlife shots from Mole:

While we were in Myanmar I made a birding friend from the German Embassy – Frank. After completing that assignment he was supposed to go back to Berlin as part of his rotation. Instead they used that time to send him on 3 month consulting trips at different German embassies around the world. I was pretty jealous as he got to go birding all over the place and as we are in a yearly competition of who can see the most birds I had no chance. Amazingly he was asked to go to Ghana for 6 weeks and so we went birding every chance we got, which was great. This time contributed to my own ‘big year’ and in the end I even managed to beat him (it’s 2 – 2 now). 

Nothing much else of note happened in our last year in Ghana that I can think of except to say that Lindsey landed a job at Graded International School in São Paulo, Brazil which is an amazing achievement and a fitting, hopefully last job in her great career. 

There were many pluses in Ghana like a great house, a great car, great birding and some great colleagues and friends AND Ghana allowed us to figure out how to go on safari without breaking the bank (despite also breaking the bank when we went to Kenya). Most importantly, Ghana has given us the chance of our next adventure in Brazil and as I write this I can say that we are loving it. Next stop, São Paulo!