Day 8 - African Safari at Mole National Park

We've driven so far, all the way up north, two thirds of the country, an area that most foreign tourists do not visit, just to see elephants in the wild.  Mole National Park is one of the few places in Africa where you can see wild elephants.  When you think of safaris, most people think of East Africa or southern Africa.  Nobody thinks of West Africa or Ghana.  During our early morning safari walk, we were not lucky to spot any elephants, even at the usual watering hole.  We did, however, see a Nile Crocodile, several types of deer/antelope, birds, baboons, and other monkeys.  We were very disappointed to say the least.  Generally, people are able to get up close (50 meters) to the elephants in this park.

Early morning safari walk with our armed guide, Robert

We also did an afternoon tour in our mini-bus.  We drove around for two hours hoping to see elephants.  We were able to cover long distances by vehicle so we felt confident we would spot elephants.  Unfortunately, again, we did not see any elephants.  We did see all the other animals from this morning, but, no elephants.  We felt inflated and I could tell frustration was creeping up in my students, and myself.  We decided to do a night tour as well to see if we would have better luck.  The night tours are on the top of a jeep, in the dark.  We knew this would be a different experience but we were not optimistic that we would see too many animals and especially elephants because of the dark.

We did see a some animals in the dark due to their peering and glowing eyes that reflected off our bright flashlights.  Most animals during the day ran away as soon as they saw us.  During the night, they just stared at us, even when we were much closer.  The saying "a deer in headlights" is true.  We drove for over an hour but still had no luck spotting elephants.  I guess it was just not our day.  As our guide mentioned, it is rare to not see elephants in Mole National Park.  We definitely enjoyed the night safari on top of a jeep.  We could see the clear sky and all her twinkling stars, hear the sounds of the night and see the darkness that can really scare people.  As we were heading back to the information building where our tour started, our guide got a call on his cell phone that a local had spotted an elephant near the worker's homes a few minutes away.  The guide told me, but not the students.  We quickly drove in that direction and as soon as we arrive, there it was!  A lone, massive, male elephant.  He was peacefully grazing on the grass in the surrounding area.  His tusks were nearly three feet long.  Our guide told us that it was okay to flash our light at him to which the elephant did not care.  We finally saw an elephant, in the 11th hour.  This was unbelievable.  I could sense the excitement, joy, and relief in all of us.  We watched the elephant graze for almost 15 minutes before he went back into the bushes.  We could not have been happier.  What an ending to our day and visit.  Tomorrow, we drive back to Kumasi.