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Ok, so I'm back and ready for another journal entry - fasten your seat belts (a luxury which I cannot experience here!) I think I left you in Tamale after which we took a veyr long tro ride to Mole National Park during which it poured with rain and in true Ghanaian style the tro leaked so I got a little bit wet, well soaked actually! This was not only bad news for me but for everyone else as if it rains it is less likely that you will see elephants at Mole because they don't need to come near the watering hole and hotel... Rosie, Jenny and I had a 6 bed dormitory to ourselves which was very nice, we did have to share it wiht a few cockroaches but not for very long! The next morning we woke up at 6 and went on a 2 and a half hour safari walk in search of the elephants... After 2 hours and only seeing antelope, various varieties but still only antelope, which to be fair look exactly like deer I could see in the New Forest, we pretty much gave up hope especially because of the rain the night before but then we arrived at the watering hole and there they were! There were about 12 elephants who were all playing and, uh hum, mating shall we say in the water and it was so amazing. I took WAY TOO MANY pictures than necessary but we couldn't help ourselves. After the walk we went a small place for breakfast - agg sandwich of course! In the afternoon I completely chilled sunbathing by the pool, unfortunately not the watering hole with nelly, whilst the others went on another walk. In the evening we had some lovely food and all went to bed pretty early ready to do the same the next day...
Up at 6, safari walk again and once again we were really lucky and saw a big herd of elephants in the water so of course once again I took way too many pictures. Back for egg sandwiches again and then in the afternoon 3 of us we went to the local town Larabanga by motorbike and 2 of the guys rode bikes - mental! Ghana's oldest Mosque is here which is a mud and stick Mosque. Really interesting to see but it was very touristy and we did get hassled quite a lot by the guides. Â
Up at 3 the next morning to get the bus back to Tamale (4 hours) and then got the tro on to Techiman (5 hours). Arrived in Techiman and after some more hassling arrived at our hotel which was really nice and the staff were really friendly. We had a little exploration but too much to see. The next day was the main reason we went to Techiman - the Monkey Sanctuary! This was really really good, it's basically an area of forest where there are two types of monkeys who naturally live there. You get taken on an hour walk where you see them and their natural surroundings - again manyman pictures!  After this we went back to Techiman and then on to Kumasi (2 hours). Oh hang on I've missed out a crucial part of my travelling - dough balls or bo fruit as they are called here however there is definetly not any fruit involved! They are basically doughnut balls and they are SO tasty especially in the morning for breakfast! I even had one at 5am on the way back from Mole, disgraceful behaviour I know but so necessary! Â
Arrived in Kumasi and managed to find our hotel which again was actually really nice. We then went for a little wander and stumpled across Chico's wood shop... fantastic! Refrained from buying anything at the time btu did buy some paintings from outside of Vic Baboos restaurant. In the evening we returned to Vic's and had the MOST AMAZING curry!Â
The next day, Wednesday, was time to do a bit of culture so we went to Kumasi Fort which also doubles as the military museum. This was really good and really informative but 3 hours long! In the afternoon we decided to brave the HUGE market in Kumasi. This was SO much fun! There was pretty much every stall you can think of and selling anything from jewellery to the most awful smelling smoked fish. We did of course lose two of our group whilst wandering around the market and about two hours later managed to reunite ourselves! The evening involved a trip to Chico's to purchase a lot of wood stuff and pictures and then returning to Vic's for a vey good pizza and then a little trip over the sewer... luckily I didn't fall in but I did drop my flip flop in so the next time you see me I may have developed a touch of gangreen!! Â
Thursday, my last day travelling, involved going to a natural yoghurt spot bar we found - SO good! Then we went to Menchiya Palace which is the Ashanti Kings Palace. This was really good and the Ashanti history is so interesting. After this we went back to the hotel and I went to the Tro station for my 5 hour (!!!!) trip back to Cape Coast. I had an amazing time travelling and wouldn't have missed it for the world, it's so interesting to see how different the regions are and how things work in each of them, but it's also really nice to return to the place that's familiar and the people who are familiar especially when they all gave me such a nice welcome back! Â
So, since then I've been back in Cape Coast and have also done a bit of travelling this weekend, but it wouldn't be my journal if I managed to keep you right up to date and didn't have to apologise for the lack of photos! So, you're going to have to wait for the next journal and the photo's I'm afraid as usual time and technology prevents me! Much love and update me on events in your lives.... xx
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