whizzing through northern ghana...

phew! we have been on the move ever since we entered Ghana with not a moment spare to internet- sorry! When we arrived we were not used to speaking English at all; it felt like a complete foreign language, but we were also suprised by the number of tourists/volunteers compared to Togo/Benin- where there were none. We spent our first evening in Tamale, the chilled out capital of the north... staying in the Police Guest House (probably safest place in town?).

Since then we have visited Mole National Park. We went on a wonderful 4 hour walk through the park, and saw various animals. There were 4 or 5 elephants having a bath in the waterhole just a few metres away, which was very special. But we also saw baboons, antelpoe, monkeys and buffalo. We stayed with the Salia Brothers' guesthouse sleeping out under the stars for 2 nights. Perfect, until woken by the mosque at 5am!

Wechiau in the far north west of Ghana has a ecotourism community project thing with Hippos! unfortunately we were not able to see them because there had been to much rain, but we enjoyed a wonderful trip down the black volta river. with a quick stop off at Burkina Faso on the other bank without passing immigration!! Just as an example of the relaxed pace of life here, when we arrived in Wa, from Wechiau it was pooring with rain so everyone just stayed in the bus still it stopped. If we did that in England, nothing would ever get done!

We also went to Bolga in the far north east. Karin and I sat on a sacred (very much living) crocodile in Paga, and had a really fascinating visit to the local chief's palace. The chief spends all day in his room, praying to the gods for good luck. We went for a walk into the hills surrounding Tongo (a nearby village) and saw some crazy balancing rock formations.

We have generally found the north very hot, but really relaxing with very friendly people and few tourists. In contrast to Kumasi and the south...