Hello guys. I hope you are all doing great today. I am so so excited getting in touch with you all today.
Today, I will be writing about an experience I had a few weekends ago. After reading this post, I am very positive you might end up adding a visit to Northern Ghana as part of your travel plans.
I had a friend from UK who came to Ghana for a vacation. Obviously you cannot come to Ghana and not visit the North. At first he was a little bit skeptical but I managed to convince him. He came down here on Saturday and we decided to visit some of the amazing tourist sites we have in Northern Ghana the next day. We chose to visit Mole National Park and Larabanga Mosque both in Damongo which is a Gonjaland, somewhere northeast of Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region, and on our return back to Tamale, we chose to visit Red Clay, one of the well known art centers here.
EN ROUTE TO DAMONGO
We chartered a car to take us there and back. The driver charged us Ghc 750 which is currently about 51 dollars. Early in the morning of our travel, we set off at around 6 am. The driver picked my friend from Mordern City Hotel and passed by my campus to pick me up. We grabbed some hot porridge on our way. About 2 hours into the journey, we dozed off leaving the driver. We woke when we almost reached Damongo.
It was my first time going to Damongo. We had to drive about an hour more to finally reach Mole National Park. So in all, the journey to the park took about three hours.
At the entrance, we had to pay a gate fee before given the chance to go in. The fee was Ghc 5 for nationals and Ghc 20 for foreigners. My friend is also a Ghanaian though so we paid Ghc 10 in total. Apparently, the driver who took us there had worked at the Park before so the workers were very receptive and we even had some things at discounted prices.
MOLE NATIONAL PARK
To tour the Safari, we had a choice to either use a truck or walk. Walking through the Safari was free but to be able to access the truck, tourists had to collectively pay Ghc 100 for a single tour for an hour. If after one hour they still want to continue, they will have to pay an additional Ghc 100. We decided to go with the truck.
From the top of a hill, we saw so many elephants drinking from a river. Spraying the water on each other and having fun. It was an amazing view. With the driver of the truck and a tour guide who had a gun in his possession, we embarked on the tour. The first animals we came across were antelopes. A distinct breed of the antelopes known as the waterbuck. After coming across some number of other wildlife, we finally got to where the elephants were. We stood by the river bank and watched them swim. After a while they came out so we had to also move from where we were.
Despite being so afraid of snakes, I was so desperate to see some snakes. Unfortunately I saw none. After watching the elephants, we toured a little bit and our time was up. We came back to the bar to get some drinks.
LARABANGA MOSQUE
We then hit the road back to Damongo, specifically Larabanga, because we wanted to visit the Larabanga Mosque. There are volunteers from the community who take tourists through the history of the Mosque and a tour of the Mosque. We hanged out a little with the volunteers and finally decided to come back to Tamale.
RED CLAY ART CENTER
In Tamale, we headed straight to Red Clay Art Center. There, we had the chance to see so many collections including train parts of the very first railways to be established in Ghana, and also some abandoned aircrafts which have been revamped with some of them on the verge of being turned into restaurants.
WOODEN
After Red Clay, we went to Wooden to have supper. I chose to eat the delicious Ghanaian Jollof with fried chicken we've always known. To have a taste of Northern dishes, my friend ordered Wasawasa and also Beans with Gari and fried plantain.
After eating supper, we went to the bus station and waited for departure. My friend had to go back to Kumasi that same day because he wanted to tour Lake Bosomtwe as well. I could not go with him because I had some academic work to do.
That was hour our tour ended. I hope to go back someday.
Thank you very much for reading.
Your Friend.......Abdul-Rashid! ! !