Widnaba Things to Do

Nearby the baobab tree, the fundaments of a former English compound are still visible. From here, slave raiders searched the countryside for local people that were sold later to visiting slave traders.

The guide will take you also to several spots around Widnaba that are considered sacred because of their proven protective qualities against slave raiders and other enemies. These stories of the spirits are intriguing.

The guided tour takes about 1,5 hour and cost less than $2,-- each. Like all tours, a third or half the fee is for the community development fund.

As in so many Ghanaian places, colonialism and slave trade are part of Widnaba's history that cannot easily be forgotten.

During a guided tour you will be shown a hollow baobab tree in which potential slaves were held captive.

You will be invited to enter it, to get a feel of the reality of the past. It is a horrible experience to go in alone, let alone if you are packed inside with several others.

A very interesting tour involves hiking to the green hills to the North of Widnaba.

The hike basically goes up along a trail starting just 10 minutes behind the Geusthouse. Then you wander through the tall grass traversing the hill tops for a while and after about 45 minutes you go down along a newly designed trail. The new trails were only partly cleared when I visited, since all men were involved in harvesting, but should be finished by now....

The views from the little explored hills are really great. To the South you see Widnaba and its environments, to the North the vast plains of Burkina Faso.

Cost of this Guided Tour around $2.

It is a rather ambitious thought, but it is possible to spot one of the 150 elephants that move from the Nothern Togo Parcs into the Red Volta Valley Region during harvest periods.

However, the elephants used to damage crops and reduce harvests badly, and the only solution for many was to kill them.

Some years ago now a pilot project started in this region, and remains very succesful. About 1000 farmers organised themselves in elephant monitoring groups, and large numbers of traditional blasters, normally used at funeral ceremonies, were distributed. The sounds that these produce can be heard over more than 4 km. and scares the elephants away from the farms.

An amazing solution, but spottings of elephants here become very rare. So do not expect too much from this Tour in terms of wildlife, that is best undertaken around 6AM at the latest; just a nice hike in the woods and fields, and hope for some nice birds and smaller bush animals.

...for sure you will encounter something interesting during this tour, animals or not...