Day 72 (sunday)

These two were hanging out by the pool.

A view down into the park from the hotel.

These two were just hanging out (literally).

Saw this guy on my way to the visitor's center.

Our guide leading us into the park.

Antelope.

Red monkey.

This guy was funny, he kept jumping around and tried to intimidate one of our group members by jumping at him.

Oh, the baboons.

A view from down in the park.

The first elephant we came across.

A couple more joined.

...and another.

I just liked the picture.

This one was my favorite.

Me and the herd.

Another shot of me in front of the park.

My friend, Meg, that I sat next to on the first leg of my journey home.

An image of some street folks in Tamale (the city I went to before my trek back to Kumasi).

Well, I didn't sleep as I figured. I got my things together and splashed some water on my face and headed out to the pool area where other people were also gathering for the morning safari. It was really cool to see the sunrise and animals out, at a distance, in the park. I was also told that it is common for elephants and many other animals to come all the way up to the hotel grounds in the early morning (no luck this morning). The baboons were out everywhere and it was cool to see them too. They were jumping all over everything and looking for food wherever they could scrounge for it. They were on top of the buildings and roaming around everywhere. I joined the group and we headed for the visitors center which is where the groups would be split up to start their safari's. We had to be accompanied by an armed guard and I was with some guys from France and a couple from England as well. We started out on our safari and walked through the fields and saw some warthogs, red monkeys, baboons, and a couple different species of antelope. I was primarily interested in seeing the elephants, as were the rest of the group. A couple of the French guys had gone on the evening safari the night before and didn't get to see any. We made our way out into the park, it had rained heavily the night before so it was pretty muddy. I should have gotten the boots for rent because it was slippery and I stepped in puddles of water and my shoes were soaked. We were on the tail end of our tour and were heading back towards the visitor's center and we saw one of the other groups standing around and it turns out that they were taking pictures of an elephant, SUCCESS. I was so excited to see an elephant at such close distance in its natural habitat. We were observing the one elephant for a little while and then one after another joined and there were 5 total, so awesome, they are such magnificent creatures. We headed back to the hotel and had to square up with payment. At this point the magic of seeing the animals was wearing off and now I was thinking about how I was going to get home. Just as I was leaving the office, Kuukuwa called me and had just arrived at the park. I was so glad to see her, it rejuvenated me. She was aware of my situation and was so sad that things had worked out that way. She was running around trying to figure out a way to make sure I was taken care of. I joined her with her group for a little while. She had spoken to another group and was able to secure a place on a bus with a volunteer group that was heading to Tamale. I was so relieved but still wasn't sure about whether or not I would have sufficient funds to get all the way home. Before I could even say anything, she gave me the money for the trip from the park to Tamale which eased the burden a little bit. She knew that I couldn't buy food or drinks (fortunately I saved enough of what I originally brought) so she bought me some water...I wouldn't let her buy me food though, I said it was too much but that I was incredibly grateful. Her group set off to another place to eat and I just waited for the group to finish their breakfast before we could take off for Tamale. As I was sitting on a little stoop by the pool, 'the guy' showed up (only because I had called him the night before to tell him that I was going on the morning safari and was telling him that he should help me get to Tamale) unannounced because he couldn't get a hold of me. I had already made arrangements to join the other group so his services weren't needed. I was frustrated with the whole experience and voiced my concerns to him. The fact that he lied to my hostel mates and “found it hard to speak to them with regards to price” but had no problem charging me almost twice what they had talked about before was all incredibly frustrating. He told me that they should have known to expect something like that, I cut him off again and told him that he was missing the point. The conversation went on for several minutes and he asked if I wanted the difference back and, all things considered, I said yes. He got on his phone and just kind of ignored me and didn't speak to me the rest of the time. He offered to give me some of the money back (which is not at all the point) and he just sat in the parking lot and watched me leave. The guy was a total disappointment. The group that I joined was a volunteer group based out of Tamale and consisted of people throughout Europe and a couple from Philly. The bus was in pretty bad shape but I was just excited to be leaving. I sat next to a wonderful girl (Megan) from Philadelphia (currently a student from Boston University) and had a nice conversation with her. I had to sit over the wheel well so I had very little room for my legs, still worth it being able to leave. The road was terrible and the rain made it even worse, Megan had told me that it broke down a couple times on their way to the park. We stopped at a little village on the way so people could get food and drinks. I just stayed on the bus with a couple of other people. We took off and eventually got to Tamale. At this point I was completely exhausted. I exited the bus with one of the guides and he escorted me to the bus station and I was able to get a bus directly to Kumasi. It was supposed to be a 6 hour journey and I was relieved to be getting home. I called Maureen to let her know that I was boarding the bus and she was glad to hear it and told me to call her when I got in and that she would come get me. Shortly after I boarded the bus, the phone was completely out of battery and wouldn't turn on and I didn't know anyone's number by heart so I knew I wasn't going to be able to get in touch with anyone. I just figured that I would cross that bridge when I got to it. I called Maureen around 4:30 and we didn't set off until some time after 5. I couldn't get too comfortable because my rear end was still pretty sore from the pickup truck the day before and there wasn't very much room for my legs. We made several stops and it was getting very dark and I wasn't sure exactly what time it was. We finally got into Kumasi and as I exited the bus there were only a couple cab drivers around so I figured Maureen was at home. I told one of the taxi drivers that I needed to get to tech junction and he said ok but then another driver came and said that he would take me and then they started arguing about it (pretty comical really). I ended up going with one of the drivers and made it to tech and realized that it was late enough that I wasn't going to catch another taxi from tech to the house. I asked him if he would be willing to take me in towards campus (he fumbled around and was willing to take more than 10 times the regular fare) but he was not so I paid his fee and ran across the road and began walking home. I walked in towards campus and a taxi driver happened to be driving in the same direction and asked where I was going, I asked how much (as I didn't have any money) and he just told me not to worry about it and get in. He took me home and wasn't expecting much so I gave him the small bit of change that I had and he seemed grateful, I absolutely was. I got in and Maureen was awake to greet me. We spoke for a little while but I assured her that I was ok and that she could go to sleep as we could speak in the morning. I took a quick, and very cold, shower and settled in and realized that it was around 2:30. I don't know if I've been this tired before. Needless to say, I am so glad to be back in this bed.