Watch Out For The Wildlife (Mole National Park)

Baboons by the pool.

Mole National Park was another memorable adventure.  We arrived at the hotel only to discover that the hotel was booked up.  The hotel solved the problem and Courtney and I, along with the other members of our group, were guided down a “secret path” that looked like it had not been used in a  while.  Courtney and I both thought that we were being guided into a forest to be murdered in Africa, but luckily we were not murdered.  We arrived at a nice looking house with a gate out front and then we were invited into the living room.  There were enough couches for all of us to sit on and we were not sure where we were staying or what was going on.  We thought the room we were in would make a wonderful place for all of us to sleep, although some of us would have to sleep on the floor. Then Nathan, a professor who traveled with us from the University of Ghana, told us that there are 3 rooms, so the guys will have the master bedroom because there is a bathroom attached to it, and the girls will divide into the two other rooms and share the bathroom in the hallway.  We looked at the rooms and they were the nicest we have seen since arriving to Africa.  Now this may not be a big deal to some people, but we thought it was pretty exciting.  We were staying in The Presidential Suite!  No big deal.  When people from our group ordered food or drinks from the bar we had to say which room we were in and whenever the words Presidential Suite were mentioned heads would turn.  We enjoyed our time by the pool and enjoyed cheap meals at the staff canteen, while enjoying the luxury of the air conditioned Presidential Suite in the evenings.

Warthogs by the path to the Presidential Suite

  Our first day in Mole National Park, the same day we arrived, we were sitting by the pool and were joined by some baboons.  Many people think “oh baboons they must have been so cute.”  NO!  Baboons are not cute, they are ugly and violent and they have very large teeth that could rip you apart with rear ends that look like festering blisters.  So we were joined by some baboons at the pool but they were scared off by a waiter.  Then as we were leaving the pool we came across some warthogs enjoying some grass. Wildlife in Africa is never too far away when you are in a national park.

Elephants on the walking safari

The next day we woke up bright and early to do a walking safari.  We saw many bushbuck, waterbuck, and elephants.  It was a nice safari but it did not compare with our previous safari experience; although it was good for the rest of our group to see African wildlife.