Hippo Trip from Hell

In early August, Katie and I decided that all of our hard work in the past few months had recently been making us sluggish and tired in the field and that an extra day off to do something more fun than go to market and clean data was a good idea. We had both wanted to visit the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary in the North of Ghana. Wechiau is quite far from where we live; it is almost near the Burkina-Faso border and an entire day’s travelling time is needed to get there and an entire day to get back to BFMS. Our plan was to sleep one or two nights at Wechiau, go on some guided river tours to see the North Ghanaian wildlife, which would have hopefully included hippopotamuses, and return to our monkeys refreshed and ready to tackle on another month of hardcore data collection. I had heard pleasant things about the hippo sanctuary and although we were in the midst of the rainy season (we were unlikely to see hippos during this time because they are better at hiding their giant frames when there is more water in the river) Katie and I were stoked to go. The trip there was incredibly long, sweaty, dusty, and dirty. We left BFMS at 6:00 am, took one tro-tro, then a shared taxi, then a large over crowded bus, and two more tro-tros to get to Wechiau. The last of our tro-tro broke down in the middle of nowhere in the pitch darkness, and while Katie and I waited for another tro-tro to pick us up, we ate a delicious dinner consisting of onion crackers, hard boiled eggs, and Laughing Cow cheese. The starry night sky was amazing from that spot! By the time we finally arrived to the Hippo sanctuary, my skin, hair and majority of my body were caked with the red Ghanaian dirt and soil that had been constantly flying through the open windows of our transport vehicles. I even had red dirt in my belly button... I have no idea how it got in there. I admit that upon arrival, Katie and I were disappointed with the accommodations. I had reasoned that since Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary is sponsored by the Calgary Zoo it was bound to have nicer accommodations than the BFMS Monkey Sanctuary. However, the hippo sanctuary accommodations were by far much more, shall I say, simplistic than what Katie and I are used to. We arrived in the night and since there was no electricity and due to the most numerous mosquitoes I had ever witnessed in one area, Katie and I were not able to pump water and to take bucket showers than evening. Our room was small, with two low beds and make-shift mosquito nets. It was clear that the bedding had not been changed in a while and given the mouse fecal matter that covered our beds, I assumed we weren’t the only occupants of the room. After putting on long pants, socks, and a shirt, after adding a protective layer of deet all over my body (on top of the thick layer of dirt), and after bumming a smoke from two other tourists that were also staying the night (cigarette smoke keeps the mosquitoes away so don’t judge me), I tried to sleep. It was hard to do so however, since our door didn’t close or lock properly and outside the room I had just spotted with my headlamp the eye shine of a fairly large, tall, and fast moving animal. This unidentified mammal had not been afraid by me shining the light in its eyes; quite the contrary, it had been aroused by my presence and it had begun to move closer towards me at a quick pace. My response was to swallow the toothpaste I was using at the time to brush my teeth, turn on my heels, and bolt for our room, closing behind me the defective door.
The next morning after surveying our “camp” in the light of day, I realized that although we had been told that we would be able to cook our own food, there was no stove. There was however, a cute little coal-burning low fire hole. Is it just me, or when someone tells you that people have the advantage of cooking their own meals, you would assume that they would provide means of cooking that is user friendly for tourists and not just for local Ghanaian people who cook their food on small coal-burning devices? In addition, the dishes they provided were still dirty from previous visitors. I found myself struggling to figure out how to start a tiny fire so I could heat up some water for a cup of tea. Forgive me but I haven’t done this as often as I should have while camping in Canada. I usually let other people, usually men, start the campfire. I don’t mean to be sexist but in my experiences camping, it often seemed like men are more eager to take on the responsibility of starting the fire pit. At this point in our mini vacation I was regretting my prior disinterest in starting campfires. After some time, I did receive help in making a cooking fire, from one of the tourist guides. He was also quite embarrassed about the dirty dishes... I guess it was his responsibility to see that the dishes were cleaned. When our own tourist guide arrived (later than he had promised the night before) to take care of our wildlife tours he came with shocking news. The river boat drivers had not been paid the month of July, and in the new month of August they refused to take tourists on any river safaris to see hippos! Katie and I were very disappointed and I was also very angry. We had come all this way... We decided to leave Wechiau immediately and to make the day-long trip back to BFMS. Although we managed to persuade the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary committee to reimburse some of our money (not all), which we had spent on the room we slept in one night, there was still a lot of money we had spent on the transportation getting there and back. What’s more, I ended up getting a cold a few days later, most likely from a guy sitting next to me on one of our buses, who seemed very ill as he coughed the entire trip.
That evening, we were glad to be back to our home away from home at Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary. Although we didn’t get the kind of break we were hoping for, our attempted mini vacation did make us more thankful for the kind of lifestyle we lead here at BFMS. At least we have electricity (most of the time), a little gas stove, and no mice sharing our beds! We were relieved and happy to be going back to the forest and the next few days seemed like a nice vacation compared to our hippo trip from hell.