June 29 Safari and trip to Kumosi

The safari started at 7:00 am so we were told to gather at the guides station about 6:50 am.  We decided that since we wanted to make sure we were able to go we should be there at 6:30 am.  I  got up at 5:30 and discovered that the generator had been  turned off, so no electricity at all. Also, the  water was no longer trickling, it was completely gone.  I washed up with some  of the bottled water I had, dressed in whatever was on top of my backpack and went outside to look around.  It was beginning to get light so I  could see where I was for the first time.  I wandered around the camp for a few minutes and saw some warthogs wandering through.  I got a couple of shots.  Then I saw a monkey and  baby from  a distance, so got a poor shot of them.  I couldn't get too close.  A few others were up and around and then I heard someone say there was an elephant in the compound so I was able to photograph it from about 200 feet or less.  My new lens worked great.

Around 6:30 Chuks showed up and  a few minutes later I knocked on Jeff and Sue's door.  They said they were up.  More and more people were gathering by the guide station so I went back over.  There were two types of safari, walking and Jeep.  Chuks always does the walking safari, but I decided that my image of a safari was in a Jeep, actually a Land Rover.  They build seats on top of the 4 Land Rovers and there was room for 8 up there.  We were to arrange ourselves in groups of 8 because the group as a whole paid the  cost of the vehicle.  

Jeff and Sue came over a couple of minutes before 7:00 am and missed most of the orientation.  Jeff was not feeling well.  His knees bother him and the walk  to the rope bridges, up a very steep climb and steps took its tole on him.  In addition, he had been up several times in the night with stomach issues.  Anyway, there was a group of 6 that Sue and I joined on top and Jeff rode inside.  He didn't feel like climbing up.

We headed off and within 500 feet we encountered the elephant I had seen earlier.  We all climbed down off the Land Rover and got within 50 yards of less of the  elephant.  I got a few pictures.  We found out later that sometimes the safaris do not see any elephants.  We met up with Chuks on  the walking tour, his group walked around one side of a building and we drove around the other side when we saw the elephant.  After about 15 minutes we climbed back aboard and headed off looking for other animals.

We saw lots of warthogs, they are all over the place.  The  other common thing we saw were a couple of different types of antelopes.  We saw adult and some young several times.  Mole is a savanna, so it is open grassland and some small trees and bushes.  Much of the time it is quite easy to see the animals.  

We saw a large bird with  blue on its back  that the  guide called a Kingfisher and another colorful bird that I did not understand the name of.  Near the end we saw two more elephants heading to a waterhole, so we were able to follow them on foot and  see them very clearly.  Once they got to the waterhole, they mostly stood in the water and stared at us.  We were told we were very lucky to see so many elephants.  There are about 400 in the park and it is extremely large.  Most are not near where the  people  go.  

After about 2 hours we headed back to camp and had breakfast.  Still no water or electricity,  but seeing was no longer an issues since it was bright out now.  I realized that I never took a photograph of my room, but that is probably because I hardly saw it.  We discovered that there were pails of water in each room for bathing whenever the  water was out, a common occurance.  So we cleaned up a bit and headed out about 11:00 am.  It would have been nice to have a bit more time in Mole, especially after how long it took as to get there.  There are safaris several times a day:  one mid morning, one early afternoon, one in the evening and one after dark.  You can also sleep out in the savanna overnight.  They give you a sleeping mattress and mosquito netting and a guide, of course.  I would have gone on a walking safari at least.

There are three roads that lead to Mole National Park and Chuks and the driver, after some discussion, decided to take a different one than we came on.  The road did not have the deep ruts, slick spots, or speed bumps, but was very rough.  At times we were traveling at 10 kmh, about 6 mph.  So it took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the paved road again.  The first section of paved road was excellent, I would assume it have recently been completed.  After another couple of hours we were back to the rougher paved roads and speed bumps.  We arrived  at our guest house on the university campus in Kamosi (KNUST, I haven't found out what it stands for) at 8:30 pm.  The last two hours in the dark, but a lot of it was in the city.  We also drove through a thundershower.  It rained pretty hard for a while.  We were just pleased we were not on the dirt road.

The guest house is very nice, all the lights work, the refrigerator, fan and ac all work, and there is plenty of water and hot water.  The only thing that does not work is the Internet.  I did get the password, but it is down.  They said to check it in the morning, but it is still down.  I did find a plug in the room that I could recharge all of my equipment, so my computer, iPad and phone all have full charges.