23. Colours of Africa : Mole National Park

One of the main attractions of Ghana is the Mole National Park. So the very first weekend we packed a few clothes and a picnic hamper and off we drove to Mole from Mampong, a distance of some 470 kms.

 The road at this time of the year was beautiful, albeit a little dusty in the last 90 kms. But that stretch of road is under construction and looks to soon transform into a four lane tarred road. The whole of Ghana is a little hilly so one sees long stretches of a straight road going uphill and then dipping down for a long stretch with either teak or cashew plantations growing alongside or massive mango trees laden with mangoes near villages. 

Beautiful roads of Ghana

Neem trees are a common sight too (which incidentally are called Neem there too). As we drove northwards through the towns of Nkoranza, Techiman, Kintampo  towards Damongo, the tall trees gave way to the Savannah type of bushes and short, and at this time of year, leafless  trees. 

Savannah Type of Vegetation

Damongo village market in full flow

Ant hills looking like castles can be seen everywhere

Teak Plantation along the road

Bush fires were a common sight which spread quite fast as the grass and dry leaves catch fire very easily.

Bush Fire

 From Fulfulso, we took a left turn on the 90 km long dirt stretch and were racing with the setting sun so as to make it to the National Park before it was dark. As we are at the equator once the sun starts to set it is gone in no time.

The last leg.90 kms of dirt road to Mole Park

 As everywhere in Ghana, we were greeted warmly and made to feel welcome at the Mole Motel, where we had made telephonic reservations as the weekends can get a little crowded. 

Motel Rooms

Information Centre

Breakfast on the house

Don't miss the elephant symbol in the name!

Swimming pool and restaurant

All set for the Safari

The next morning we were off for a safari in our own vehicle with an armed guide, called Christopher, for company. Christopher was a very knowledgeable and pleasant person and took us to quite a few watering holes in the park. As it was the dry season all the animals hover around the watering holes and are easy to spot. 

With Christopher our guide

Mole National Park stretches well over 4577 sq kms. (approx.) patrolled by over 180 Rangers and Forest guards It has 94 animal species and some 344 bird and 33 reptilian species. Its vegetation is of the Guinea Savannah woodland variety and comprises of about 740 different species of plants and trees.

The very first creature we saw was this beautiful and amazing large bird. It is called the Abyssinian Ground Hornbill. Our guide told us that many ornithologists come to the park to see just this bird. Lucky, lucky!! 

Abyssinian Ground Horn Bill

This is one of the two most massive species of Hornbill, the other being, the Southern Ground Hornbill. The male has a red throat pouch and the female has a blue throat pouch. Modified feathers form long eye-lashes, which protect their eyes from dust. 

Their diet consists of small vertebrates and invertebrates including tortoises, lizards, spiders, beetles and caterpillars. It can also eat carrion and fruits, seeds and groundnuts.

As we were moving ahead Christopher got a call from a fellow guide giving him information about the movement of elephants in the park. Elephants along with hippos and buffaloes are the large animals seen in the park – though we never saw the last two. 

Lions and leopards have not been sighted for long, though the park has a night safari when, our guide told us, one can see some carnivores like hyenas etc.

 Right then we saw this huge single tusked elephant, who has become a little mellow with age. The guides call him the “Old Man”. We wondered how he would have lost one of his tusks!

"Old Man" the single tusked old Elephant

As we moved ahead, Christopher  would make us stop every now and then to see some animal and everywhere  we managed to see a number of brightly colored birds, also some not so bright but exotic all the same. 

Patas red monkeys

Red throated bee eaters

Bush bucks at the watering hole

Bush buck

Water bucks

Guinea fowls

Baboon and baby on a joy ride

Senegal coucal

Many of our pictures are hazy because our hands shook being bitten by the nasty tsetse flies -the deadly flies carrier of the yellow fever (sleeping sickness). We were glad to have been inoculated against the dreaded disease before we set foot on African soil. Incidentally, all our fears of contacting malaria have been proved misplaced because we haven’t seen a single mosquito since we came here. Perhaps, the dry Harmattan (trade winds) which blow from December to end February is not conducive to the health of the mosquito!

Forest Trails

Wart hog and babies

After going through the forest for some 3 hours we turned back. On the way we were stopped by some guards on foot who had found three animal traps in the forest for trapping buffalos! Hideous! Poaching is a major problem in the park as the human population which was dislocated from the park to start with, is now located only a little distance away from the park boundaries. The guards requested us to carry the heavy traps in our vehicle back to the Park office.

The Forest Guards with the Animal Traps

The deadly animal traps laid by poachers

On the way back Christopher took us to a watering hole and lookout point which we had seen through our binoculars from the motel. Saw the Giant African Kingfisher and the lovely Jacanas frolicking there.

The Look Out

Watering Hole

Giant African Kingfisher

Frolicking African Jacanas

Arvind picked up a horn of a Hartbeest which we brought with us. Here Rajeev is pretending to be a happy, single-horned hartbeest.

We returned to the motel for our breakfast well past 11 am, not a bit tired or hungry after a super safari.

In the evening we went to see the Larabanga Mosque, a unique Sudanese style mud and stick mosque. It is located about 15 kms on the way to the park.
 
The next day in the morning we went to the Mongori Eco Village and collected some Shea Butter which is made from the seed of a tree called by the same name. Now days shea butter is becoming the new fad in cosmetics along with coco butter, both products of Ghana.

The larger seeds are Shea Butter seeds

Beautiful Shea Tree

We met Kwame in the village who offered to take us for a canoe ride on the Mole river. It was almost an enchanted place with the trees forming a canopy over the river and the sound of twittering and chirping little birds flying from side to side and over your head interspersed with the rhythmic sound of the paddle in the water.

The canoe ride on the Mole river

Enchanting Mole River

 

The lovely lady who makes the Shea Butter and features in their ad.

Village Wall Art

Obama!

Burdened Childhood!

We returned rather pleased and looked forward to seeing the rest of the country.

The birds and animals we saw at Mole are listed below, apart from the Abyssinian Ground Hornbill which is already described above. Some birds I am still struggling to identify.

African Fish Eagle

•           African Fish Eagle. It resembles an American Bald eagle and is the National Bird of Zimbabwe and Zambia. The male of this species has a wing span of about 2 metres (6 feet), while females can stretch upto 2.4 metres (8 feet), the female being larger than the male.

Bush Bucks

•           Antelope – Bush Buck (used for sacrifice in some communities) this antelope barks like a dog.

Water Bucks

A Kob sitting majestically

•          Antelope – Kob (Bachala Herd). The Adult males are very territorial and possessive about their areas of demarcation. As such, the young do not have much grazing territory. Therefore, they have little option, but to gang up together and fight the adults in a body to gain territorial possession.  In some communities, for the village Chiefs, it is very essential to possess the skin of a Kob antelope, before they assume the office of the Chief.

The Savannah Elephant

•          The Savannah Elephant. The young elephants stay with the mother for a period of 10 – 14 years. These elephants can live upto 65-70 years.

Pattas Red Monkey (don't miss the baby's paws)

•           Pattas Red monkey

Violet Turaco

•           The Violet Turaco also known as Violaceous Plantain Eater. They are 45 cm long, including a long tail, the plumage is glossy violet except for the yellow forehead and chestnut crown. The bill is thick and red. The violet Turaco’s crimson primary flight feathers contrast with the violet plumage. It feeds on fruit, especially figs and some seeds.

•           The Tsetse Fly also known as Tik-tik flies are large biting flies inhabiting most of mid continental Africa between the Sahara and Kalahari deserts. They feed on the blood of vertebrates and are the primary biological vectors of tripanosomes which cause human sleeping sickness and animal tripanosomiasis. We tried to swat them but they would just shake their wings and fly off like fleas. We did not get the satisfaction of killing a single one.

Tsetse Fly

Guinea Fowl

Francolin

    

Wart hogs

•          Warthogs live in grasslands, Savannah and woodland in sub-Sahara Africa. The name comes from the four large wart-like protrusions found on the head of the wart-hog which serve as a fat reserve and are used for defence when the males fight.

Purple Glossy Starling

Western Grey Plantain Eater

•           Western Grey Plantain Eater. This is a large member of the Turaco family. It is a group of large arboreal, near – passerine birds restricted to Africa. A Resident bird, it breeds in open Woodland Habitats in tropical West Africa, laying two or three eggs in a tree platform nest.They are 50 cm long. Including a long tail. The plumage is mainly grey spotted with brown. The head, erect crest, neck and breast are brown streaked with silver. The under-parts are whitish heavily streaked with brown. It has a thick bright yellow bill and shows a white wing bar in flight. The sexes are identical, but juveniles have a black woolly head without silver streaking. It feeds on fruit especially figs, seeds and other vegetables.

Europian Roller

The Red Throated Bee Eater nests in the ground.

A whole lot of bee eaters were nesting in these holes and flew out when I inadvertently disturbed them.

Red throated Bee Eater

Grey Headed Kingfisher

     

Hammercock

BulBul

Senegal coucal

Black Billed Wood Dove

•   Black billed wood dove is a wide spread resident pigeon. They are abundant near deserts, scrubs and Savannah.

Lapwing

Woolly necked stork

Malachite Kingfisher

Yellow Billed Ox Pecker

Grey Heron

Whistling Ducks

Grey Kestrel

Dusky Munia?

Red billed firefinch (female)

Kwame called this one Bataleur eagle but I have my doubts

 Some of the birds and animals (listed below) we saw were too frisky for us to take a picture of. One was the beautiful little Blue Flycatcher, which looked almost angelic as it flew around us while we canoed down the Mole river but alas! eluded capture on our cameras. 

•           Bateleur – Eagle

•           Rufous cisticola (very small bird)

•          Hadada Ibis   

•          Green Monkey, Sabaeus monkey

•           Drongo

•           Yellow-billed woodpecker  

•           Senegal parrot

•          Blue flycatcher

Links:

1) Funerals in Ghana

2) The Adinkra symbols of Ghana, West Africa

3)  Bosumchwe or Bosumchwi Lake, Ghana

4) El Mina Slave Castle/Fort, Ghana  

5) History of Coinage and Currency of Ghana

6) Larabanga Mosque and the Mystic Stone, Ghana

7) A visit to Ghana

8) Food and Culture of Ghana

9) Oware: The National Board game of Ghana