African elephants
Yesterday was probably the best day we’ve had in West Africa. We spent some of the morning and pretty much the entire afternoon watching a herd of wild elephants eating and bathing literally outside our bungalow window.
It was the first time we’ve seen African elephants, which are larger, have much bigger ears, and generally seem more elephant-like than the Asiatic elephants we saw last year in Sri Lanka. It was really amazing in the afternoon to sit in our chairs outside our bungalow and see these incredible creatures just 15 metres or so away from us. I took some great close-up pictures, but still can’t find an internet cafe where I have access to a USB port and control of the desktop, so for now I can’t upload any photos.
It’s funny how guidebooks make out that Mali is the best country in West Africa with all these ‘highlights’, and that Burkina Faso doesn’t really have much to offer. I’ve found that Burkina is the nicer place, from the mask festival to the greenery to the elephants to the increased development. It’s been a nice surprise for us as we’d pegged Ghana is being a sort of ‘paradise in West Africa’ (as much as that’s possible) after the heat and dust of the Sahel, but Burkina has filled that role to a certain degree.
We’re now in the capital Ouagadougou (hereafter ‘Ouaga’), and we have to put in our visa applications for Ghana tomorrow. If all goes well (and it usually doesn’t in West Africa, but we’ll see), we’ll be able to see the village of Bani on Wednesday and the famous market the next day in Gorom-Gorom before returning to Ouaga to pick up the visas before the weekend.
Tags: Africa, Burkina Faso, elephants, Travel, West Africa
Nick