Tamale to Mole

The most horrendous & "interesting" wait we had in Ghana was for the STC bus that would eventually take us to Mole National Park. We got up pretty darned early as per usual & arrived at the stinking bus station at around 6.30pm. We'd also had to wake up another girl who had been staying at the hotel as she didn't have a working alarm clock. It turned out she was an extremely heavy sleeper & we ended up waking up much of the hotel through our loud banging on her door. She eventually emerged & we dragged her to the station with us. We'd been advised by Jason, our Tamali friend, to take Tro tro's to Mole. But we went against his advice (stupidly it turned out) & chose the bus route instead.  
The station was an indescribable mess. There was a small seating area sheltered from the sun with some tarp & we found some seats next to some Dutch boys who were investigating how a new cooling system might work in Ghana. They were funny & helped pass the next 5 hrs. Yes-for 5 hrs we sat in this festering pit of rubbish, flies & moisture. Buses came & went off to different destinations than we wanted. Finally we left at 5.35pm. The journey was pretty rough but we arrived at Mole & got into the small chalet we'd booked prior to leaving from our phone. It was absolutely great! There was even air conditioning!
The next few days we spent going on 2 "safari" walks per day & swimming in the refreshing hotel pool. We got to see a few animals, mainly monkeys & wart hogs. But it was not the season for elephants so we didn't get to see them. The walks were great though. Each morning at 6am we set off for a 3 hr walk on a different route to any one we'd taken before. When we'd get back we'd swim, eat breakfast, read & then take another 3 hr walk in the afternoon. Each walk had a different "atmosphere" so it was worth going on all of them. 
Mole was a really relaxing place to be, but we were ready to get out after 3 days.

Back to Tamale

4am bus from Mole-It was practically on time! However, things slowed down from the point of departure.
There were a lot of passenger arguments on this ride. We couldn't work out why. But apparently this ride is usually fraught like this. It is actually a commuter bus for Tamale. Really! People take it at 4am to arrive in Tamale at 8am to start work. Urgh! The whole thing would just be very stressful for us. The bus is usually unreliable & when it does arrive to pick the people up at the small villages along the way, friends & family are with them to help load in all their bags & stuff through the windows. this is a normal procedure. Bags & cases are being handed back & forth through windows as soon as the bus grinds to a halt. it is very confusing to watch & it always amazed me how people kept track of all their belongings as strangers helped out in this venture also. So the bags & boxes would be passed through many hands before thy'ed reach their final destination.

The seats of buses are often in this condition making for an even more uncomfortable
ride as you are sitting on rough pieces of torn vinyl.

Jason became a good frien

Jason would refer to David as King David

On The Way To Cape Coast From Tamale

We'd purchased our tickets for Cape Coast before we'd left for Mole. Sometimes you'd be able to get bus tickets days before & sometimes they'ed tell you to get to the station the morning of. There seemed no real system in this. Anyway, when the bus finally arrived, about 4 hrs late, it took another hour at least to load it with the absolutely HUGE amount of luggage the passengers had. They were 2 items they had real trouble with-a pair of chairs & a goat. The chair was eventually wedged into the aisle for a small child to sit on & the goat was put under the bus with the luggage that couldn't be fitted into the aisle of the bus.

It seems to me that the main reason Ghanaian's take buses rather than Tro Tro's is for the extra luggage capacity

 

A regular Ghanaian breakfast is an omelet sandwich. When made with the delicious
hunks of dense white Ghanian bread it is the most delicious thing 

Little does he know what is in store

For the next 8 hrs he makes his journey in the luggage compartment at the bottom of the bus 

I had to piss at th'pitstop of course.
I should have photographed the urinal instead (In
Ghana they have urinals for women! Yeah-You all squat around a large trough
looking at each other/not looking at each other. Luckily, whenever I used one there was no one else in there
but I made sure I was in & out of there in a blink of an eye

It is about 90 degrees & these people are wearing long sleeves

Cape Coast

Cape Coast is just lovely.

We walked around Cape Coast Castle

One Stone Vegan restaurant. The rasta dude made the most incredible chocolate pancakes & spaghetti if you wanted it

The canopy bridge walk-bit of a tourist thing

These were simply everywhere