One thing I got wrong in my last blog was that Chris's first landing at Mole was not in a clearing, but between trees in the bush and there was nowhere to deflate without much hacking of vegetation with his cutlass. He had been the air for 35 mins. Chris is composing some details on technical matters to do with flying and gas for those who would be interested and this will follow later sometime.
Our second flight was from the National Park staff's 'sports ground' as it was perfectly places for a flight out over the Park. We were watched by many people and a lot of the Rangers came out to help. It was a lovely calm flight over the Motel and swimming pool and fairly close to the watering hole but too early for the elephants to be out to cool themselves. After a high, low, high the track was again perfect for Larabanga and over the ancient 14th Century stick and mud mosque which Chris had flown over the morning before. There was a big area for landing on however the very tall mast with satellite dishes was in the way, so we had to rise again to make sure we cleared this and came down gently in the middle of the road next to a small school. We could see the masses of children from Larabanga running towards us down the road. The same farmer from the day before appeared, shook Chris's hand warmly and took charge of the crowds and organising the balloon deflation and packing into the bag. We relaxed for the rest of the day at the campsite and beside the pool where I had a swim to cool off. Chris was able to copy the flight photos onto CDs for Ali and Osman.
Osman shared his meal with me while Chris was otherwise engaged. It was fufu (a large white dumpling made from cassava flour) and grasscutter soup which we ate with our fingers. The soup was hot and spicy and the meat tender and delicious. I had an inkling of what grasscutter was as Osman had told me the leopard he had seen 9 days previously was hunting grasscutters - large bush rats. On our night stop on Tuesday, we met 2 huntsman returning with their catch, carrying a cutlass and knobbed stick, which is all they use, together with their 4 dogs. Chris called me to inspect their catch at close quarters: a huge lizard wound round the younger man's arm, a ground squirrel and 3 huge fat grasscutters.
When I said we had the campsite to ourselves for most of the time, that is not entirely true. We had a family of Patas monkeys on the viewing platform, baboons wandering through - one very naughty one jumped up on the balloon box on the back of the vehicle and had to be chased away, and we frequently had the company of 2 female warthogs (or hogwarts as Chris likes to call them) and their hoglets. One was very interested in my breakfast and snorted at me. On the last evening we had a meal by the pool at the Motel, watching the dramatic red glow of fierce bush fires burning in the parkland. Chris returned to the Enterprise to get some red wine to find 3 warthogs asleep underneath! Only 2 visible in the picture.
On Tuesday, we had intended leaving fairly early (7 am) to take advantage of the slightly cooler air for travelling as we knew it would be hot and tiring for the 4-5 hours at the speed of a bicycle until we were back on tarmac. I had had a bad night (not caused by the grasscutter stew!) and the Enterprise had flat batteries, so it took Chris some time to charge them up from our 'hotel' batteries. It gave us a good chance to talk to Mike and Ant (whose 33rd birthday was on 14th) and they recommended an overnight stop at some waterfalls near Kintampo and also this Presbyterian Mission here. We never made it to the waterfalls as we had a dirty fuel filter and once on the tarmac we lost power, hence the overnight bush stop. We did get to see the Kintampo Waterfalls next day en route to here.
Our second flight was from the National Park staff's 'sports ground' as it was perfectly places for a flight out over the Park. We were watched by many people and a lot of the Rangers came out to help. It was a lovely calm flight over the Motel and swimming pool and fairly close to the watering hole but too early for the elephants to be out to cool themselves. After a high, low, high the track was again perfect for Larabanga and over the ancient 14th Century stick and mud mosque which Chris had flown over the morning before. There was a big area for landing on however the very tall mast with satellite dishes was in the way, so we had to rise again to make sure we cleared this and came down gently in the middle of the road next to a small school. We could see the masses of children from Larabanga running towards us down the road. The same farmer from the day before appeared, shook Chris's hand warmly and took charge of the crowds and organising the balloon deflation and packing into the bag. We relaxed for the rest of the day at the campsite and beside the pool where I had a swim to cool off. Chris was able to copy the flight photos onto CDs for Ali and Osman.
Osman shared his meal with me while Chris was otherwise engaged. It was fufu (a large white dumpling made from cassava flour) and grasscutter soup which we ate with our fingers. The soup was hot and spicy and the meat tender and delicious. I had an inkling of what grasscutter was as Osman had told me the leopard he had seen 9 days previously was hunting grasscutters - large bush rats. On our night stop on Tuesday, we met 2 huntsman returning with their catch, carrying a cutlass and knobbed stick, which is all they use, together with their 4 dogs. Chris called me to inspect their catch at close quarters: a huge lizard wound round the younger man's arm, a ground squirrel and 3 huge fat grasscutters.
When I said we had the campsite to ourselves for most of the time, that is not entirely true. We had a family of Patas monkeys on the viewing platform, baboons wandering through - one very naughty one jumped up on the balloon box on the back of the vehicle and had to be chased away, and we frequently had the company of 2 female warthogs (or hogwarts as Chris likes to call them) and their hoglets. One was very interested in my breakfast and snorted at me. On the last evening we had a meal by the pool at the Motel, watching the dramatic red glow of fierce bush fires burning in the parkland. Chris returned to the Enterprise to get some red wine to find 3 warthogs asleep underneath! Only 2 visible in the picture.
On Tuesday, we had intended leaving fairly early (7 am) to take advantage of the slightly cooler air for travelling as we knew it would be hot and tiring for the 4-5 hours at the speed of a bicycle until we were back on tarmac. I had had a bad night (not caused by the grasscutter stew!) and the Enterprise had flat batteries, so it took Chris some time to charge them up from our 'hotel' batteries. It gave us a good chance to talk to Mike and Ant (whose 33rd birthday was on 14th) and they recommended an overnight stop at some waterfalls near Kintampo and also this Presbyterian Mission here. We never made it to the waterfalls as we had a dirty fuel filter and once on the tarmac we lost power, hence the overnight bush stop. We did get to see the Kintampo Waterfalls next day en route to here.
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