Epic Roadtrip "into the Heart of Africa" - First big day

Incredible times…days never to be forgotten…and not always easy for the kids, who refer to this as our "roadtrip into the heart of Africa."

We just finished our 2^nd full day in Mole National Park. We spent most of our time the last two days either looking for or at animals, chilling in our modest room at Mole Hotel, or eating by the pool. We’ve seen some great wildlife action: a big troop of baboons right out our back door every night and morning, green and red monkeys, wart hogs, monitor lizards, bush bucks, water bucks, and birds and bugs of all shapes, colors and sizes. So far we’ve seen no elephants…but it has been amazing otherwise...as I'm sure Heather will soon blog about!

The drive up on Friday was an epic driving day. We left Cape Coast at the crack of dawn at 5:30am – 30 min later than we hoped. The drive to Kumasi was wonderful and full of excitement and some nerves not knowing what to expect (for all of us, each in our own way). 

We hit traffic on the outskirts of Kumasi, but were in such high spirits from the thrill of new landscapes (beautiful hills and small mountains, vast horizons of trees of different heights, etc.) and the adventure of it all that it hardly phased us. We spent about 2 hours in Kumasi getting the transmission fluid changed in the Pilot at the Honda dealer there, then were off (in more traffic) and headed for Tamale.

It took us another 5-6 hours on surprisingly good roads and some great conversation to get to the village where we turned off for Mole NP. We spend the last 90 min of driving as the light softened and yellowed on a dirt road that alternated between bad and good. 

"Whoa! Check out that termite mound!" We heard this a LOT and tried to track the tallest we had seen...easily 15 feet tall, maybe more.

This stretch was particularly memorable for me because we drove past several mud hut villages bustling with evening activities. The kids and Heather were pressed at the windows soaking up totally new sights. We talked about how the families in these villages make money and food. It was one of the first times I’ve been able to really get the kids engaged in thinking about the kind of work I do and why I do it. It was magical in several ways. It was great to see Heather and Hannah trying to snap photos of the villages and termite mounds…because when I’m without them in places like that I am constantly wishing Heather and the kids could be there with me to soak it all up. To actually HAVE them with me was truly special.

After about 30 min of bliss – great light and great sights, high spirits and anticipation for our destination, lots of laughter about the bouncy and rutted dirt road – daylight started slipping away and Heather got noticeably more nervous. We always try to avoid driving at night and it was a bit unsettling to not know how much further we had.

As it turned out, the last hints of daylight had just faded when we pulled up to the entry to Mole NP. 30 min later we were hauling bags into our room and ordering dinner. Whew! 13 hours out, about 11 hours on the road, 390 miles from the Ghanaian coast to the far north. We were all exhausted…and Rock immediately started complaining about the fact that we would have to somehow log the same number of miles back to our Cape Coast Bungalow…and we weren’t even to Burkina yet! It is hard to convince a 10 year old boy about the virtues of road trips…but there were several great moments where – lost in the experience and sights / sounds / smells – he forgot entirely about being cooped up in a car.