© L.F. Paoluzzi
An unsuspected Burkina Faso is hidden within the main national parks and nature reserves, scattered throughout its territory, rich in fauna and biodiversity that one would not expect to find in a region that is partly semi-deserted and impoverished in the past by uncontrolled poaching. Yet the naturalistic surprises are endless in this country that never ceases to amaze.
If the W Park and Arly Park are included by UNESCO in the W-Arly-Pendjari cross-border environmental complex, shared with neighbouring Niger and Benin, Nazinga Park is instead entirely incorporated in Burkinabé territory and easily accessible. It was created as a private reserve and later donated to the state, which opened it up to a public eager to follow in the footsteps of the many elephants that constantly roam its 97,000 hectares.
Embedded in the beautiful region of wooded savannahs between the districts of Po and Leo, it can be easily reached from Tiebelé, via an evocative rural track of clay soil, dotted with fields of maize, cotton, baobab trees, shea and mangoes, passing through small Kassena villages and occasionally meeting farmers with their hoes, riding wobbly bicycles, near the park’s main entrance.
The park is home to a wonderful Sahelian setting, with many different varieties of gazelles, antelopes, baboons, warthogs, crocodiles and countless birds, such as the calao, the country’s emblem. However, the herds of elephants are certainly the park’s main attraction, as well as its most exciting sighting, which are abundant, especially between November and April, the height of the dry season, near the two accommodation structures built around the main pools. In fact, it often happens that some specimens go as far as the bungalows, wandering around undisturbed for a few hours in search of food, although in reality their favourite meal is the fruit of the shea tree.
The richest encounters with the fauna are those at dawn and at dusk, but in the hottest hours the pachyderms are likely to devote themselves to a few moments of ablution in the main pool, the geographical heart of the estate, which can be easily observed from the lookout tower or from the restaurant of the main lodge, over a cold beer and a good plate of rice with peanut sauce.
This is a sight not to be missed, just as exciting and evocative is spending the night in the bungalows scattered among the vegetation, falling asleep lulled by the sound of nature and the cries of wildlife.
