Mole National Park–Walking Safari

‘Walking Safari’ doesn’t that sound ridiculous, like you’re going to get eaten by a lion? Luckily I survived but it was pretty touch and go.

 

This was actually one of the best things I have done in my life. Where else are you allowed to go wandering through a safari park looking for animals for about a fiver? So cheap and worth so much more.

 

I woke up early even for a 7am safari. I was excited like it was my birthday. Today was the day i would hopefully see an elephant in the wild. Pretty much the reason I came to Ghana (…maybe a little something to do with volunteering too).

 

 

Early morning view from the lodge

By now there were loads of people staying at the park. They’d all turned up on the tourist coach from Tamale late the previous evening. I was so happy I’d got here early and already been on safari instead of being on the bus all day. We got split into 3 separate groups for the walking tour. I went with my roomie and her friend who I’d hung out with the night before (benefits of staying in dorms). Weirdly I saw some girls there who I’d met at Green Turtle Lodge, although it took me a while to figure out how I knew them. Ghana is a pretty small country for tourists -you will see the same people over and over again!

 

We set off to the staff village where an elephant had been seen that morning. Unfortunately she’d already left by the time we got there and all we had to admire was her poop. The guide started following her tracks, showing us the footprints and where she had brushed mud high up along the foliage. It was quite a strange experience to be honest as our guide was very quiet and was only talking in his local language to 2 people who turned out to be students working at the park. We were all pretty confused but the students were amazingly helpful at explaining everything he wasn’t telling us and as long as he found us an elephant I would be happy! Tracking seemed to go on forever and I was starting to worry that we were never going to find one. We kept retracing our steps and going in different directions making us think the guide had lost his way. And then we got a call on the walkie talkie, the people who had gone in a jeep had found an elephant –too far away for us to get to. I was pretty sad at this point, and was even wondering if we could go back and get a jeep to find it. But we went down to the plains to see what else we could see instead.

 

As were walking we came across a fresh leopard print from earlier that day. Not exactly an animal I was hopeful of seeing on a walking safari! Luckily he didn’t materialise :).

 

Leopard Footprint

We were moving down the hill towards the waterhole I had visited the day before when we got a call from another walking group. The elephants were by the river, on our side, exactly where we were heading to. We started creeping along trying to be quiet when we rounded a bush to find 2 elephants right there, just a couple of metres away. i happened to be right behind the guide at this point and forgetting about the need to be quiet let out an “Oh shit!” –he wasn’t pleased. I was so happy we’d found them and never expected to get this close. They walked past us and then one stood for a while, posing perfectly for our photographs.

 

Our Elephants

“Look at my tail!”

Poser

The elephant eventually had enough of posing and walked off into the bushes. We started our walk back up the hill past the lodge to find that the elephants had actually decided to go for a swim. I had no idea elephants even could swim!

 

So beautiful

 

This was honestly one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s hard to believe that I was that close to these beautiful animals, in the wild. A walking safari seems like a ridiculous concept but I would recommend it to anyone. Go to Mole, you probably won’t even get eaten by a leopard.

 

Xx

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Mole National Park–Jeep Safari

I was so excited that I’d arrived in time for the afternoon safari. There were 3 Dutch people already going (who were super nice) so I was able to split the cost and go for the jeep safari with them. Even just climbing up to sit on top of the jeep was exciting. When else do you get to travel on top of your vehicle?

 

Nice view from up here…

We set off and hadn’t gone far before we saw antelope running off into the distance –my first safari animal!

 

Hey Deer

 

We bumped along the track, our guide banging on the roof of the truck to make the driver stop when he saw something interesting. A tree absolutely full of monkeys, then monkeys everywhere as they start running into the distance away from our car (a little more wild then the friendly monkeys at Boabeng-Fiema).

 

Guys, I’m on safari! Lifelong dream completed.

 

We continued on seeing more antelope before turning around to try a different route. This one had baboons! Swinging in the trees, just watching us, watching them. It was amazing to see –they really looked like they were wondering what we were doing outside their front door.

 

Hey Guys, What Cha Doing?

We carried on, crossing streams down into the valley where we saw a different kind of antelope, a lot of Pumbas (warthogs) and even a crocodile’s eyes peeping up in the water hole. I was excited to see a crocodile in the wild because it was the only wild animal I’d missed out when I was in Australia.

This made me feel like I was in the Lion King…

 

The safari was amazing and made me oh so excited for the morning walking safari where we might even see elephants –The reason I had embarked on this crazy solo journey.

 

On a side note, the food is amazing at Mole National Park. We went for a beer and dinner after the safari and I had the best chips I’d had in Ghana. So delish.

 

Xx

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Boabeng Fiema Monkey Sanctuary

I was so excited to go here. Whenever I go to a new country one of my main objectives is to see as much local wildlife as possible. In Boabeng Fiema the monkeys are considered to be sacred and are not allowed to be harmed as what happens to them, will also happen to you and you will suffer. They are considered to be equals and there is even a monkey graveyard where they are buried. As they are not allowed to be harmed monkeys pretty much have the run of the villages, with so little fear of humans they will happily steal the locals food.

 

As we bumped along the dirt road to the sanctuary I was staring at the trees trying to spot the first monkey when we turned a corner and they were all playing in the road ahead. The first of the many, many monkeys I saw that day! As we drove through the village there were the extremely friendly Mona monkeys on one side and the shyer Colobus monkeys on the other. We stopped to quietly watch them, and then realising how curious they were about us, we threw them some of the bananas we’d bought en route.

 

Mona monkeys nomming on our bananas

 

 

Colobus monkey hiding in the trees

We drove up to the sanctuary, which you can actually stay the night at –it’s where I’d been hoping to get to the previous day before fate intervened. I paid my 10C fee and 2 guides took us on a walk through the forest where I saw the cutest baby monkeys as well as the monkey graveyard. Priests and priestesses are also buried alongside the monkeys with one who apparently lived until they were 120 years old. Somewhat disbelieving I asked how this could be possible and they told me it’s because people used to live a healthier, more natural life when they just lived off the land. An interesting thought.

 

 A long, healthy life

 

Unfortunately it was a pretty short walk as we had to head back so I could travel on to Kintampo but I did practically shake hands with a monkey :).

 

 

It was amazing to see wild monkeys up close like this. The traditionally beliefs of the local people have had a huge impact on the conservation of these animals in Ghana. Elsewhere it would be extremely rare to see even 1 monkey hiding in a tree, let alone taking a banana out your hand. The villages have stumbled across an impressive conservation method –if only we could convince more people of the value of wildlife.

 

Xx

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February Visits

It might actually be a month ago today that Laurie (my brother) and Abi (his gf) came up to Edinburgh! I am super slow at updating this blog. We had a fun time though and all went to the zoo on the Sunday. Obviously the pandas were amazing and super cute so I’m going to fill this post up with pictures of them. Yay pandas!

I need to go back soon –I was thinking about how much I wanted to when I woke up. Too much work right now though! Who wants to be a final year? (Probably me as soon as I graduate –I’ve got the fear). Anyone here are some lovely pandas for you :D.

Hiya

Chillin

Snoozin

 

Lookin

(So cute –love the mickey mouse ears)

 

And here’s just 1 that isn’t a panda….

Laurie and I at Zizzi

It was a good weekend. I had the Edinburgh dance competition as well on the Saturday, but more on that soon…

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The Pentland Hills

By hills I mean mountains.

They were huge.

Tess and I thought it seemed like a good idea to go on an 8 mile trek on very little sleep after going out the night before.

So tiring.

Here are a ridiculous amount of photos for you….

Doves

Glencorse Reservoir

Birds

See that hill in the background. It turned out that was the smaller of the two we were going to be climbing.

 

It was so, so nice to be in the countryside again.

And especially to see these lovely highland creatures.

I love their fringes.

We even saw a baby highland cow!

So cute.

 

The climb up the mountains was so steep and so tiring. But we seemed to get high really quickly.

This was the view from about a quarter of the way up the first mountain (they were definately mountains).

View from the top

It was pretty misty. I imagine the view would have been absolutely amazing on a clear day. We thought it looked like Lord of the Rings though :).

On our way up the second peak

Yes we did just come from that humongous mountain right behind Tess.

Massive.

 

We were literally in the clouds.

On the way down we could hardly see anything ahead of us.

It was actually kind of spooky.

I would not like to have been there on my own.

But it was okay because Tess was there, and she entertained me by playing in the leaves and climbing trees.

:D

We nearly had a massive disaster on the way down though.

The path went through a field of cows.

A field of cows with babies they are very protective over.

I was a bit nervous of going in the field anyway.

(I once ended up climbing up a tree to escape some scary bullocks)

And this one black cow was really not happy to have us there.

 

The one in the background (but the baby wasn’t keen either).

Tess, being much braver than me, tried to make some noise to get the cow to move away.

Meanwhile I had already jumped over the fence to avoid the baby cow.

But mummy cow was not at all happy and started heading towards Tess.

And then head-butted her!

So Tess joined me on the scarcely safer side of the feeble fence that a huge cow is surely able to overcome.

But luckily she didn’t chase us, but she definitely gave me evil eyes when I passed.

Don’t worry Tess was okay. It was a gentle head-butt. More of a warning I think.

Plenty for me to panic about though.

I was very happy when we got back to the main track .

 

Very good day though.

And only about 30mins and a £1.50 journey from the city.

Just avoid the scary cows.

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Jungle City

I love how there is always something going on when you live in a city.

Right now Edinburgh is a jungle city. There are animals all over the place.

I first saw one when I arrived at the airport. I just thought it was some exciting new art that had arrived since the renovations/ me being in Australia.

But there are monkeys, tigers, elephants, birds and crocodiles all over the place.

This is one of my faves.

Me and Ryan decided to improve it slightly…

Now he is french.

These animals are all in aid of habitat conservation in Asia and are being auctioned to raise money.

 

“by saving the elephant we save everything else”

 

This one is my absolute favourite.

He is so cute!

If anyone fancies buying me a baby elephant you can do here. His name is Aloki

It seems that I only take pictures of the ones that look like grass. But there are so many all decorated differently. I even saw one covered in pennies today.

Here’s another grassy one though.

She’s the mummy elephant.

 

In other news I need a coat.

I tried on this one today but am feeling a bit undecided.

Thoughts?

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There’s No Going Back

Today my Australian visa officially expires. It is the end of an era.

No more of any of this.

Brisbane

Pranking Housemates

Cute Australian Animals

Fraser Island

Blue Skies

Living in a Campervan

Exploring Caves

Paddling

 

Crazy Nights Out

Turning into Sleepy Mornings

Or Chilling With Kangaroos

 

I miss it loads.

I want to go back. I’m not keen on having to do my final year. It scares me. And I don’t know what to do next either. I took the entrance exam for medicine yesterday. It went okay. I’m not even sure if I want to be doing that though.

My plan is to apply for everything and see what I get into….and hopefully by then I’ll know what I want.

That’s the plan anyway.

Happy Visa Expiring Day

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