Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary

The next stop on our itinerary was Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary, an ecotourism project in the upper western region of Ghana. The Lonely Planet guide describes it as the most underrated tourist attraction in Ghana. The problem with Wechiau is that it’s difficult to visit. By car it’s almost three hours from Mole, and public transport is limited to tro-tros only, so only the stubbornly determined make the trip. Which is a shame, because Wechiau is awesome.

When we arrived at the sanctuary, we were blown away by the hospitality of the staff. On arrival, they found us a nice comfortable seat and then they presented us with a menu of activities that we could do at the sanctuary. Obviously they had hippopotamus safaris, but they also had a plethora of community visits. We ended up selecting the river water safari and a village walk.

We had a short 10 minute drive out to our accommodation. The lodging is basic, but that’s part of the charm; no electricity, mosquito nets abound, drop toilets and bucket showers. Normally I’d squirm at this kind of thing, but I was so excited to be visiting the sanctuary that I didn’t really mind. They set your expectations well in advance.

Once we dropped our bags off, we headed straight out to our hippo safari. The three of us, a couple from Holland, and two guides piled into a rather rickety looking canoe and headed off looking for hippos. We didn’t have to go far; a group of 13 had formed less than 200 metres from the landing, and so we paddled straight over and started taking photos. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a hippo you can see during the day, but we stayed out there for 40 minutes. It was excruciatingly hot on the water, but I’m glad we got to see such a large group. Back at the camp, I spoke to someone that spent three hours on the safari and could only find one.

After the safari, we visited a local village. The money from the tours goes directly back into the villages; the sanctuary just recently installed two water pumps at each of the 17 villages within the sanctuary.

Back at the lodging, we were supplied with a boiling pot of water to cook our two minute noodles, and after a couple of glasses of wine we retired for the night. The girls decided that they wanted to sleep on the roof, whereas conservative me decided it was better to stay inside. Inside was the better choice, as at 1:00pm it started to rain heavily, and everyone had to come back in.

I could have spent days at the sanctuary, there was that much to see, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Ghana. Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of available time, we had to leave early the next morning to head back to Kumasi.