"Mole is an ecosystem that supports wild... " a Mole National Park Travel Page by atufft

Normally, West Africa is not the destination for safari seeking tourists as the game have become relatively scarce. The depletion of game is not comparable to the rank absence in Europe and the United States, none the less, the growing population of West Africa is clearing out the "bush meat". The rich ecosystem at Mole provides an exception to this general picture, and the commitment of the government to ensure that it stays that way, affords viewing a wide variety of cloven hoofed animals, boar, buffalo, baboons, monkeys, alligator, and, of course, elephants. Moreover, most of these species can be seen within a few hundred yards of the hotel. The park is much larger than what can be seen by foot or jeep from the hotel though, and most visitors will see only the southern corner of the Ghana's largest national park.

I was given to share a guide with three women from London, one of whom demanded prior to the start that this noisey American "please keep your voice down so as not to scare the animals". Since I had tracked game before in California's Sierra Mountains and elsewhere, I wondered whether I was with the right group. Fortunately for everyone, except perhaps the animals, the first sightings were near the garbage dump of the resident workers. Later, we waded with rubber boots through the wetland bog near a lake where alligators and elephants like to mingle.

As noted earlier, Mole National Park is very large even by American standards, but the chances of spotting a lion are still remote. Since we had time for just one small corner of the park, the opportunity to observe a lion was disappointingly absent. Even so, we found many other animals to observe in our hike, and the journey to get to the park is well worth the effort. During the afternoon, I hired my own guide to venture into the wild once again.