How many elephants can you count?

Can you count all the Elephants? We couldn't either! This was one of those days that almost defy description. I woke early to and decided the head out an check out the sites and sounds of Mole National Park - when there were fewer people around! I moved over to the viewing platform where I was quickly rewarded by some red monkeys (not sure the real name) sneaking up behind me but once they saw that I had no food they moved to the grass beside the platform. The baby monkey was very cute as it kept peeking around its mother to see what I was and if I was doing anything threatening! Mom was very calm and was much more interested in the Mango pit that someone threw over the bank. I then moved onto birds and other creatures before discovering that I really didn't need to leave the deck of our cabin (picture one level motel with a really long bowling alley like deck) to see the sites.

The tree immediately in front of us was filled with small green monkeys (species not colour) and they were taking great delight in eating the nuts/fruit in the tree. The little guy on the left was kind enough to come out of the upper branches to pose for this picture. After this day it became my morning ritual to watch the monkeys, look for birds, and of course watch the morning parade of baboons as they marched past. Of course they did not always simply march past - most mornings they would wander down the deck trying to root out bugs etc that were hiding... hiding where you ask? Well the baboons seemed to think that they were hiding behind the plastic pipes that fed water to the AC units!! I cannot believe the amount of destruction a that a small group of baboons (10 - 15) can do in such a short period of time. We were really luck however as they didn't attack our AC unit until the final night!

Actually out luck had to do with the timing of our trip - it would appear that this time of year is when the baboons and monkeys have recently given birth as many of them had very new babies - the one on the right is a bit older but it was a fun picture with it riding so high on mom's back.

Now those of you who have visited the park are probably wondering what I was going on about - what made this trip so amazing! Well the first picture of the elephants is a great bid hint! I was really back up to Mole for a meeting with the Larabanga Eco-Tourism Board to discuss setting up a study tour for next year. My colleague (KAS), and I also wanted to visit a Hippo Sanctuary but it is located a fair distance away via some really rough road. To make the travel a bit easier to handle KAS managed to arrange for us to actual drive through the park - a short cut that took a couple of hours longer but OH BOY WAS IT WORTH IT! Traveling in the bucket (back) of the truck we saw a number of new antelope species, weird looking birds, and a large maternal herd of elephants (about 20 - 24). All this was done by 11:00 am!!! The pictures below are of some of the animals that we saw.

I think that I mentioned that this was all on the way (yup the journey is often as good as the destination!) to the NCRC Hippo Sanctuary (I'll add the proper name when I can find the correct spelling - it is near Wa, Ghana). The sanctuary visit was also good - we met with some of the staff members, checked out the accommodations (including the Hippo Hide - but this was from a distance) before heading down the river in a canoe (sort of) and seeing the hippos!! We saw nine hippos and some really different birds - our guide (Agba) was excellent and was able to identify birds before I even had a chance to ask for their names! I'm meeting with Donna Shepherd in Accra on Thursday - she works for the Calgary Zoo but is currently working with NCRC at the sanctuary - we (KAS & I) are hoping to be able to be able to build a really rich experience for next year.

Okay - that's it for now. I'm back in Sunyani for two nights before heading to Accra, Volta, and Cape Coast - then next week (June 16) it is off to Italy. I'll do my best to add a couple more posts. If you have been waiting to hear from me via email... I just checked my VIU account and it looks as though no emails that I've sent since May 22 have actually gone anywhere!! I'm still receiving them but just cannot seem to send them! I'll try to keep this more up-to-date.

Ag

PS. If you click on a picture it become bigger and easier to see!