Safari Saturday

January 25, 2014  Mole National Park, Ghana

I'm taking some time for a few minutes before we head out on our jeep safari.  This morning I woke up at 7 AM, just because.  There was no call to prayer, no chickens, no goats, just the song of birds that I cannot identify.  It was so soothing.  I thought to myself, "Should I sleep in?"  I decided to take a look to see if any elephants were about first.  If they weren't then I would go back to bed.  As I stood watching the watering hole I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye.  A mother and two babies wandered out of the forest.  I was so awestruck that I forgot I had my camera (hence you don't see the picture here).  Then I had to run back to the room because I promised Nancy that I would come get her if I saw elephants!  By the time we got back there was another one having a bath in the watering hole and mom and babies were slightly hidden by forest (Sandy would have forgotten about Nancy and if this was his blog there would be several hundred pics of mom and her babies.  Because this is my blog all you get from my awestruckness is this...)

Elephant (like you didn't guess already)

So I'm not Sandy.  It's a half an elephant.  And Nancy got her elephant alarm so all is good.  Nancy and I worked on our Damongo report in the morning, we're feeling pretty good about it.  Tracy and Liam and Heidi and Joan arrived in the early afternoon and we all had a wonderful time telling stories!  Our best ones that you, the reader, have already heard (the bat story and the bugs on the bed story).  Tracey and Liam may have had it the worst, they have been in much poorer areas that we have and they have been surviving on their "bring comfort food from home" rations along with bread that their driver has found at the market.  Food is plentiful at the market if you are OK with a plethora of larvae on your meat, an unknown water source on your vegetables, and no snacks....Ghanaians don't really understand what you want when you tell them you want a snack....I digress again.  Liam is a first year coach from Ireland, he's in the same boat as Nancy and I, only we've had food.  He's a lovely man and I think should be very proud of himself for taking on this gruelling assignment.  Nice that he has Tracey who has been there, done that, bought the Tshirt when it comes to travelling!  Heidi and Joan have also been having some great adventures, they have met chiefs and are going to an AGM next week!  Joan also had the pleasure of getting a dress made from credit union cloth in their last town....if I can convince Heidi to sneak me a photo of this I will post it.  It's priceless (Joan believes she pointed at a different style of dress than the one she received, personally I think it makes her look rather....ummmm...alpine)

Well, out the door we go, the six of us are taking a jeep safari tour to see if we can get closer to the elephants (and perhaps get a shot of a whole one so Sandy doesn't disown me as a wife).  Carefully get by the herd (is that what you call them?) of warthogs outside the door....(did you know they eat kneeling down?)

U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi.....sorry.  The face only a mommy warthog would love.  Perhaps.  OK, sorry, jeep safari, going for the elephants.  We decide to ride on the top of the jeep ('cause we're the cool kids) and for two hours we drive around.  And around.  And around.  Really, it was quite nice in the 35 degree heat to drive around and around (unless you take into account the red dust that permeates every pore of your body and clothing).  No elephants.  It was quite disappointing, but there is still tomorrow on the walking safari at 7 AM.  We did see many other animals, baboons and bush bucks, more warthogs and some vultures.  It's Africa, there's bound to be wildlife around right?  Maybe tomorrow we will be lucky.  

Baboons at the watering hole on the jeep safari

In the meantime, Nancy has discovered wildlife in her room.  A rather medium-sized lizard. She's not Pre-Africa Nancy (not that I have met her, but I am assuming) so she has decided that her buddy can stay in the room with her tonight.  Perhaps it will eat any bugs that end up on her bed. 

Me.....I'm alone.  I think.