EMPath2Mole is the safari on almost every northern Ghana itinerary. Ours came to one male elephant, a few bush deer, and baboons standing on the track in the distance. What we had not expected was that the better half of the day happened after we left the park, in the village we had driven in through.
We found our guide on Google Maps
The afternoon before, we went looking for a guide on Google Maps, found one, and rang him to arrange the next morning. That was the whole booking process, and we would not present it as a system, only as what worked for us that week. We were out of bed at half five and waiting at the junction in Larabanga before we had properly woken up. We were meant to call him when we arrived. We did not need to. He had pictures of himself online and we recognised him standing there.
He rode ahead of us on his own motorbike, in through the gate. Entry was 46 cedis each, and then we registered at the tour station for the morning drive at seven. You do not go round Mole on your own. A guide comes with you, and that is the park's rule rather than an upsell.
One elephant
The drive is a shared vehicle. The jeep costs 400 cedis for two hours and the price is split between whoever is in it, so what you pay depends on how many other people turn up that morning. We went out with six others, which brought it to 75 cedis each including the 25 cedi ranger fee.
Then two hours of not very much. A few bush deer. Baboons standing on the track a long way off. We asked about lions. We looked at a waterhole from higher ground and there was nothing at it.
We didn't see much. There wasn't much to look at in Mole.
What saved the morning was a single male elephant. We were allowed out of the vehicle and stood ten or fifteen metres from him, close enough to come away with a few good close up shots. That is the part we would go back for.
Then the village
We walked over to the Mole Motel afterwards for breakfast. The terrace looks out over the park and there is a pool, and it is the nicest place we sat all week. There was no real coffee, only Nescafe, which by then was two mornings in a row. There are two hotels inside the park. The Motel is the reasonable one at around 50 euro. The lodge above it is 411 euro a night, and we could not get into that one even to eat breakfast.
Then our guide took us into the village, and this is the half of the day we did not see coming. Larabanga's mosque is a small whitewashed building of mud and timber. We were told it was first built in the 1400s, which would make it more than six hundred years old, and that it is the oldest mosque in Ghana. Both of those come from the village's own account of itself rather than from anything we could check.
They use mud, sand, clay, with the honey, with cow dung to build the mosque.
He walked us round the outside and explained the building the way somebody explains a thing they live next to, including that a mud structure has to be given time to dry properly. There is a baobab beside it that the village associates with the burial of the man who founded the place. It is a working mosque and visitors do not go inside, which is worth knowing before you arrive hoping to.
After that he showed us shea butter being made and a family's living quarters, and we finished at the local restaurant trying fufu. Max liked it. Eddy had eaten it plenty of times before and thought the sauce could have been better, though in fairness we had also had breakfast forty five minutes earlier.
What the day cost
What the park actually charges, in October 2023 cedis.
- Park entry, 46 cedis each.
- The shared jeep and ranger fee, 75 cedis each on our morning, which depends on how many people share the vehicle with you.
And what we chose to give, which is a different thing and not a fee anyone asked us for.
- A donation to the mosque, 40 cedis.
- A donation to the village, 50 euro.
- A thank you to our guide, 200 cedis.
The park fees are the cheap part of this day by a long way. What we gave to the mosque, the village and the man who showed us round was not required, and it also bought the half of the day we still talk about. Ghana's cedi has moved since 2023, so treat these as a rough shape rather than a price list.