So here’s an account of the longest most frustrating but still awesome trip I had in Ghana.
Day 1
We (Wilder, Marianne, Emily, Alex, and myself) left campus to go to the bus station and waited a couple hours until the bus showed up only a little late. Looking good so far. The STC buses that travel far are really nice. This one had nice wide seats and air conditioning. I’m really really glad it did because this turned into a 15 hour bus trip. Half of it was spent sleeping (which was easier bc the bus left in the evening so most of the ride was in the night).
Day 2
We arrived in Tamale, the northern region capitol around 7 or 8 in the morning. We found a nice breakfast place and looked around in the cultural center where Emily found a really awesome hat. I was really impressed with Tamale overall. It’s much cleaner than Accra (capitol of Ghana, where the university is close to) and people were a lot friendlier and not trying to constantly sell us things or hit on the girls in our group. Plus the dominant religion is Islam in the north, so there were mosques everywhere, which made me feel like we had entered another country almost. We found the bus station we needed to get to Mole National Park. Bought tickets for the “1:30” bus. It showed up around 5. But apparently that’s normal. So why not change the time the bus is expected to come? Who knows. Anyway after waiting in the sun and dirt and dust for hours we got on the bus for the 3 hr trip down a long bumpy dirt road and got off at Mole around 9 at night. Checking in was simple and the room was nice. Off to bed.
Day 3
This was one of my favorite days in Ghana. We got up around 6 to go on the morning walking safari. The first animals we saw were elephants! Then warthogs, gazelles, and baboons. The walk lasted a couple hours, then we went back to the hotel for an awesome breakfast. After the breakfast we went to sit on the outlook and got to see the elephants hanging out at the watering hole. Around lunchtime we rode on top of a jeep to get to our canoe ride down the river close by. Unfortunately Marianne lost her hat on the jeep ride, but I’m thinking it didn’t really matter because that jeep ride was amazing. The canoe ride was super chill. I was a little nervous though when the guide told us about the crocodiles in the river after we got in the boat. After getting back to the hotel, we spent the rest of the day hanging out at the pool. Later we had dinner with two really nice Dutch people who were doing volunteer work in the northern region. They had been doing a lot of the same activities with us all day, so we ended up getting to know them fairly well.
Day 4
This was the worst day. Our original plan was to go see the hippo sanctuary in the upper western region. It didn’t happen. This is what happened instead. We got up super early to catch the 4am bus out of Mole. We took that bus for about an hour to Damango, and took a 4 hour bus from Damango to Wa, the capitol of the upper west region. Another very long bumpy bus ride. We got to Wa and realized going to see the hippos would take another day that we didn’t have time to do. So we chilled and had some lunch while we figured out what to do. Our goal was to make it home Tuesday night (this was Monday), so it looked like we needed to think about a return trip. On the side, I have to tell you about the most horrifyingly soul-shattering bathroom I’ve ever seen. Marianne and I walked down the street until we found a building that appeared to look like a washroom (Ghanaians use the term washroom). It was being cleaned out by a truck with a tube, so the smell outside was already horrendous. When it was done I walked to the guys’ side and took a look in. That’s all it took. Flies and maggots everywhere. Ughh. And it’s important to note that in Ghana public bathrooms are not all that accessible like they are back home, so it usually cost money to use them (not much, usually about the equivalent of 7 cents). So the thought that I was about to pay to use this hole in the floor covered in bugs in a really dark tiny room was crazy. We left and found somewhere not necessarily nice but definitely less worse. Back with the whole group, we bought bus tickets back to Mole, hoping to get all the way back to Tamale that night. Keep in mind this is 4 hrs back to Mole, then 3 hrs to Tamale, and we had just wasted a trip up to Wa. It was hard to keep a smile on at this point. The day had been kind of ruined. Luckily while we were waiting for the bus to start loading, some Ghanaian elder man kept us entertained. He asked to marry one of the girls. Then he started asking about getting a visa to the US. Then when we finally exchanged names, he couldn’t believe my name was Bobby and told me it wasn’t a real name, or something like that. And the best part was how little I could understand his English. A lot of the time I just laughed and smiled and pretended to understand what he was saying. All in all he was a really sweet man and was probably just interested in where we were from. Although the marriage proposals to my female friends did get kind of annoying. Oh well sometimes they’re really funny. We got on the bus and headed back to Damango. When we got there we were trying to figure out how to get all the way back to Tamale in the same night. There were no more buses coming so we paid 150 cedis (~$100) for a cab driver to take us all the way to Tamale. It was the longest bumpiest cab ride ever. Three hours later we got to Tamale, got a hotel, and settled in for the night. Luckily the hotel was nice. Cheap and simple. The water and electricity worked, and that’s all we needed.
Day 5
We got up super early again to go see what buses to Accra were available. The buses straight to Accra were full so we got one that went to Kumasi, the biggest city in the heart of Ghana, and halfway point for us to get home. Nothing too out of the ordinary on the way to Kumasi. I slept some, read, and took some pictures of the landscapes. Once we got to Kumasi, we walked around until we hopped in a cab to go to the bus station. There was nothing available going to Accra that same day. At that point even getting home in a trotro was appealing. So we went to the trotro station and found a nice air conditioned van that was going all the way to Accra. Long, long ride back. Probably the bumpiest trotro/van ride I’ve ever encountered. Finally we got back to Nkrumah Circle in Accra and crammed in a cab back to campus. Walking through the doors of ISH was such a satisfying feeling.
This was definitely not the easiest trip and not the most cheerful, but it was still legendary and I got to travel with 4 really amazing friends. If anything this has taught me to be patient when dealing with public transportation and to have a back-up plan if you’re in a hurry. But when you’re in Ghana you shouldn’t be in a hurry because let’s face it, no matter what, you will be late. Just gotta take it one step at a time.
