GHANA DAY 9 - Mole Weekend

Day 6, 7, 8 and 9 - Ghana elective placement

TLDR: the weekend was brilliant! Look at the pictures 😉

Mole national park trip: Lake Bosomtwe, horse riding, trauma dump, monkey sanctuary, infinity pool, a gorgeous hotel, safari, village tour, night safari and a waterfall!!

WOW! what a weekend. It's been an absolute blast! Having spent time in the hospital during the week it was time to soak up some of Ghana and wind down a bit. This weekend was the Mole national park trip! It's a lot of travelling and so other stops are included on the way and on the way back to break the 15 hour drive up a bit.

We took a boat on Lake Bosomtwe to get to the riding stables. We rode part way round the lake and back to the centre through the villages. It was really authentic, really basic and they didn't have much.... But they were all so happy. The little people love having their photos taken. Then as we took the (very) small boat back the sun was going down making it a very pretty ride!

We carried on to the hotel we were staying at for the first night and had some food, drink and a bit of a trauma dump 🤣

On the road at 0530 we headed towards Mole National park via the monkey sanctuary. I have to say, I wasn't particularly bothered about this one... But it was brilliant and I'm glad I went on the tour. It was interesting to see how the colonies were arranged and how they applied boundaries to each other. The most interesting thing was that there is a monkey cemetary, apparently when the monkeys are going to die, they go to a place they'll be found easily and whoever is looking after them collects the body. A little coffin is made and the monkey is buried with honour. They are worshipped here.

We arrived at Zaina lodge and OMG!! SO gorgeous. They're doing quite a lot of refurbishment at the moment, but they still let us in the infinity pool so we enjoyed a cocktail in there! Rounding the evening off with dinner and a few games of cards we all went to bed excited for the morning safari!
I've always wanted to do a safari, and this morning didn't disappoint. We saw lots of wildlife, stopped for coffee and biscuits in a clearing and then had a close encounter with some elephants, and as a bonus a crocodile as well!

We were all on a high! We moved onto the Mole Motel and checked in. A far cry from Zaina with rooms that looked like army barracks 🤣 but their viewpoint allowed us to see some elephants frolicking in the watering hole below.

Next we were taken to the village and shown one of their main business ventures, Shea butter. It's absolutely gorgeous and so pure it'll last for years! They use it for so much here. Walking around the village was again (isn't everything this week!) Humbling. They use the income from the Shea butter they make to support the orphanage and some goes towards the school. The children are overpowering, little hands grabbing you and asking for things!
Thankfully there are quite a few in our group that loved the attention from the children and spent time with them, so I could sneak around and take some candid shots of everyone. I love the 'real-life' view, what I always try to do when I take pictures.

Most of these communities are similar, extremely basic facilities, dusty, houses that look like shacks and happy people. This particular village is quite self sufficient and also has a church, mosque, businesses and a school (which they are refurbishing, with money given to them by tourists and students)... However for water they still all have to go to the edge of the village!

Once we'd procured some Shea butter and been shown round we headed back to the Mole Motel to get ready for the night safari. We didn't see much, we were all hoping for a sighting of a leopard, but nothing.
0430 start this morning, and it is a 15 hour journey back to the student house in Takoradi. Hell of a slog. Not convinced many of us slept well, and some of us (including me) have woken up with colds, coughs and sore throats. So when we arrived at the waterfall, having travelled just under 4 hours without breakfast, the atmosphere in the van was 'frosty' 🤣🤣🤣

The waterfall soon changed that!! It was awesome and everyone had a great time 😊 and breakfast had been booked on the way up so we just collected it and carried on for the mammoth trek home.

I've had the best weekend! Loved being with my 'children', I've adopted the girls and am oddly protective of them 🤣 the more I get to know them the more in awe of them all I am ❤️

Back to A&E tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it, with a little trepidation, so an early night to prepare I think!!Leggi altro