Banfora Things to Do

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Most people visit this lake with the hopes of seeing Hippos during the pirogue(small wooden boat) rides. Since I didn't spot any of the resident Hippos, you will have to do with these pictures of pretty flowers and a girl in a rusty boat..no complaints please. The lake is a pretty and tranquil place where the boat ride costs you around 2000CFA($4).

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At Febedougou you will find rocks in various bizarre formations. It's like something you see in a sci-fi movie as the setting for a far away planet. There doesn't seem to be a lot of foot traffic around here, so you might have the domes all to yourself. You can climb up to the top easily enough and enjoy the otherworldy views.

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After watching the hippos at Lake Tengrela, our guide led us over to a trail that went up to a series of cascades known collectively as Karfiguela Falls. We parked the scooters under some tall tress, and high up the rocky trail to what appeared to be the top. We ate lunch and enjoyed the view. The hike was not that long or difficult really, although a little climbing is needed near the top.

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Lake Tengrela is part of a preserve that requires paying for admission, although the infrastructure of facilities are basically non-existant. At the lake's edge our guide bargained for a boatman to take us out onto the lake in his pirogue. Stepping on a board over a muddy swamp into the leaky boat was slightly worrisome, but the boy was certain that the boat would float. The lake itself is rather shallow, and so the hippos congregate in a deeper corner. The boatman poled his way over to the area where they appeared to be for the day. We saw several boats coming and going, but this was not a crowded lake by any means, and the hippos were not being harassed. The boatman took care to stay at some distance from the hippos as the animals have the capacity to capsize the boat. These animals are gruff in their manner and potentially quite dangerous, so we scrambled to fit on a telephoto 2x extender onto the 25x video camera lense. I needed to use the digital zoom feature on my 10x optical still camera to get good close-ups. We also had a pair of 10x binoculars that brought the animals nicely into close-up. At our closest to the herd, the naked eye was quite sufficient for viewing the animals behavior though. Certainly, closer watching is a available in the glass tank of many zoos, but these animals were free, active, and even playful. The bull hippos snorted to assert their territory while the calves stayed close by their mothers.