Bolgatanga Things to Do

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An interesting thing to see in Bolga is the extreme catholic exposure in the north of the citycentre. At Bazaar Road you can see tens of large concrete statues once every 50 metres showing the apostels, Mozes, Jesus and other Biblical hero's.

The shops around this area also adopted this enthusiasm with names like "King Jesus Chemicals" and "If God Says Yes Who Can Say No Fashion".

Bolgatanga is an important regional trade centre with a bustling market every 3 days. While travellers probably not go out to buy lots of stuff, it's quite a spectacle to observe as traders from the counrtry side arrive in overloaded minibuses carrying all their trade including livestock.

A bit unusal part is the dogmarket, where dogs are traded for consumption.

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We visited just before the millet harvest, and so I was able to capture images of the millet at full ripeness, and then we watched how it was harvested. Also, we learned about how the palm oil is made from the seeds. I was interested in the decorated mud house architecture of the farm families.

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These images of the farm life in the area persuade the tourist of the bucolic lifestyle the Northern Ghana tribes people live. They are certainly not wealthy by the standards of the industrial world, but I didn't see much starvation or unhappiness here at all. Most people had plenty of time to sit and talk, a thing those of us in the industrial world wish we had more time to do!

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In my earlier notes, I failed to include some great pictures of the high tech electrical source, as well as additional shrine and people pictures. The village uses solar panels for electricity, but still fetches water the old fashioned way. Nearby is another village of traditional houses and range fed animals. Very pleasant scenery.

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We decided to visit the Volta river and see if we could spot some elephants, so taking a tro-tro from Bolgatanga, we headed toward the border town of Bawku. Tilli is about halfway, so you'll need to get off and start walking. The return ride might seem like a bit of a gamble, but its easy to hitch a ride back into town. We caught a ride back to the hotel in the air conditioned vehicle of an NGO. While we didn't find the elephants that day, the pleasant countryside of the region is worth a visit. One can rent a bicyle and ride toward the river, which we didn't do, or one can visit around some of the agricultural villages. We were there to watch millet harvested and be amused by the Ghana "cowboys". We talked to a Peace Corps volunteer who has a number of activities among the villages there.

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Take a taxi out to Tonga Hills, any driver know how to get there. Bargain for a taxi in central Bolga. The drive itself is quite beautiful through countryside on adobe colored dirt roads. The Tonga Hills are a rocky and somewhat elevated region where the chief still rules. There's a school and a shrine there. The shrine, which is a cave in the a pile of precariously stacked boulders, requires that visitors remove their shirts and clothes up to the knees. Women are included, so those who are modest must be content with a walk about the chief's house and the school. The rocky outcrop is a fetish that the shrines priests will explain. The chief's son will also take visitors on a tour of the chief's compound. There's a mix of modern solar panels and traditional mud buildings. The chief himself speaks English very well with a pronounced English accent. See the Bolgatanga Photo journal on this website for more images.

Every regional capital in Ghana has its GTB office that should be able to advice you about places of interest and the latest developments.

I found the GTB Office in Bolgatanga especially very helpful. They are closely involved in many projects and suggested me for example to visit the rather remote and rarely visited Village of Widnaba, where I had an excellent time.

Also they had brochures of all Community Based Tourism Projects currently developed in Ghana on stock! The reason might be the low number of tourists exploring the region...

The building along the Navrongo Road is not signposted and unfortunately hard to find. If you come from Black Star Hotel, you pass the Ssnit House and then turn left towards Navrongo. The building is on the left side, about 200 meters away.