Up the Mole River

A little over two hours later we return a bit dejected, I won’t lie. Not only had groups in previous days seen multiple elephants, they had even been mugged poolside by baboons. So far we had only succeeded in paying too much for beer at the hotel restaurant.

OK, we did see a warthog cooling off in a puddle of mud near our room. And while this would’ve been cause for much excitement if it had happened at home in Portland, it suffered by comparison when encountered in Africa in a park famed for its elephants.

In the afternoon, Shawn and I join a small group of Swedes for what is billed as a canoe safari. It is, in truth, just a pleasant, if abbreviated, tour up the Mole River. There was never any promise of spotting wildlife on this trip, that is, beyond the bird variety, which, no disrespect meant to birders, is really the CSPAN of wildlife viewing.

Our guide: “Do you see that bright blue bird just there?”

Us: “Oh, yes. That really is a bright blue. What kind of bird is it?”

Our guide: “I don’t know. It’s just blue.”

We just enjoy the sound of the paddle in the water, the movement of the light through the leafy jungle canopy.

That night, after a nice meal around the pool with new friends from Sweden, England and Holland, we turn in so as to be up at 3:45 a.m. for the 4 a.m. bus. Though abominably early, we soon learn it’s fortuitous for us that we’re the first to get on. Being the only bus from the area into Tamale, it is soon packed, with even the aisles occupied with passengers and bags.

By about 8 a.m. we find ourselves once again waiting in the Tamale station, this time for a bus to the second largest city in Ghana and capital of the once-great kingdom of Ashanti, Kumasi. We will spend one night, and then point ourselves toward Cape Coast.

(Picture: Our awaiting canoe "safari")