Photo: Afropop.com
Burkina Faso- a place most people have never heard of, but for us it’s a place we’ll never forget.
Why Travel Burkina, and what’s best about this undiscovered beauty? Here are the top 5 surprises of Burkina as we saw them.
It’s Home to Ouagadougou
It’s not only a totally epic name for a place to travel to, it’s the capital of Burkina, and there’s always something going on. In and around the centre might be a bit hectic, and if you get stuck in there you’ll probably hate it. Head out a couple of kilometres to the Zogona region and you’ll see the Burkinabe at their best. Every night there’s a buzz with packed bars and music, capped off with some of the friendliest people in the World – the Burkinabe. As with anything cool, it’s got a nickname. It’s better know as Ouaga, pronounced ‘Wagga’ on the streets, which by the way, are filled with the scent of super, cheap dishes ranging from flavoured rice to beans, to salads, to all sorts of animals smoked over iron grills.
Eat Exceptional Eats!
Ouaga is loaded with food and thank God for that. It’s not only amazing, it’s amazingly cheap. How cheap? If you’re eating from the street vendors – and you should – you’ll struggle to spend 2000 CFA which is about 3 Euros. That would probably stretch to a main, a dessert, and even a snack on the way home, with change to spare.
Our picks for food – To get you started grab some kebabs or grilled goat (mutton) with some onion and spices. The price is totally up to you depending how hungry you are, but 500CFA(less than a Euro) is usually a good start. Main course you’ll probably be looking for a bean or rice based dish with your choice of sauce and meat which will be under 1000CFA f(1.70 Euros). Top it off with our favourite, Fan milk – FanIce or FanYogo-these plastic wrapped treats are great for breakfast, lunch or dessert. It’s Ice cream or frozen yoghurt in variety of flavours and the most you’ll pay is 150CFA, which is totally ridiculous value at about 20 euro cents.
We’ll also mention the Saturday morning special. There’s something different on this day of the week, and across town you’ll find it’s out with the mutton and in with the pork. We have no idea why, but on this day off the week you’ll pick up a big piece of baked pig for 500CFA and be warned the mustard is super hot. Yep – Burkina cuisine probably isn’t ideal if you’re a vegetarian.
Make your own Donkey Cart Pub Crawl
It’s even more unbelievable than it sounds. There’s nothing like sampling the local ale, and mingling about in a few bars when you travel. Bars are the social centerpieces and in a place like Burkina you can be guaranteed to meet plenty of locals to mix with on an afternoon of donkeys and beers. It’s simple. Grab a few friends or complete strangers, find some locals with a donkey cart to fit 3 or 4 people, barter for an afternoon’s hire for a tour of Zogona, and you’re set. Find a place to start and the rest will go down in folklore. There are literally 15 – 20 bars within 2 square kilometres, so take your pick.
Along the way you’ll hear a few cheers from locals, and the best part is there is no downtime – you can even take roadies on board with you. It’s an incredible afternoon. Imagine mixing with it with the chaos of local traffic, and being dropped off by a donkey chauffeur- important because you shouldn’t drink and drive- whilst battling to wipe the smile off your face. (Of course it’s not cruel. These donkeys are the work horses of the West, and compared to the weight of the loads they usually carry, for a few minutes between bars, it was a light day’s work.)
Sounds like your kind of thing? Check out the video we filmed on board!
What! Sit on a Live Crocodile…
Benny on a Croc
Ever been up close and personal with a crocodile? You don’t have to be Steve Irwin in Burkina to get involved with crocodiles. Head just 30km out of Ouaga and you’ll find Bazoule, home to what looks like a harmless lagoon, but don’t be fooled it’s packed with hungry crocs!
Buy some live chickens – yes, live chickens – and trek across the sun baked mud plains to sit tight at the water’s edge. As the scent of prey fills the air, slowly but surely, logs begin to surface from the murky waters and the sleepy crocs begin to wake.
Of course just seeing crocs is nothing special, so you can do something a little bit different here. With the crocs focused on the food, you’ll get a chance to sneak up for a cheeky seat. That’s right you can sit on a live crocodile. It’s a sure fire way to get the heart pumping as you watch other crocodiles close in, but it’s a photo opportunity like no other. If that’s not enough, you can hand feed the chickens to them as well.
See for yourself, this is how we saw the search for the crocs of Bazoule
Get hands on with a Grassroots NGO Project
Being in the middle of West Africa, Burkina is a base for many international NGO’s which provides you with a good opportunity to get in
Benny and Mitch with the Granite Mine Kids
touch with one of your favourites, or to find out more about an issue that interests you. Burkina is a great place to get hands on involved and see some of the issues that Africa faces up close.
For us a trip to a local granite mine to see harsh working conditions, child labour problems, and efforts to get children out of the mine and into schools for an education was something we’ll never forget. We won’t go into too much detail, but to enter a school with 90 screaming kids singing you a welcome was pretty amazing. Did someone say rock star reception? The full story’s here
Everything else Burkinabe!
If this sounds like your kind of place, we’ve got more information on Burkina Faso, so head here
We could of course go on about Burkina and tell you about the national parks and wonders down south, or how it’s the gateway to one of the World’s most incredible safari parks, but that would spoil it and to be honest, that’s why you should travel it yourself.
Benny in the Burkina Mines
I’m Benny and together with Mitch we’re Amateurs in Africa. We are two pretty average lads, both of whom currently lead incredibly unhealthy lifestyles with excessive drinking/partying. We are ridiculously unfit, don’t really have much money, can’t speak other languages, haven’t booked anything, hate to spend a cent and don’t know anyone in Africa. Despite all this we thought we would attempt to travel from Berlin to Cape Town, backpacking West Africa to get to the World Cup overland, any which way we can through deserts, jungle, monsoons and border officials.
Why? We want to show that Africa is not just for old people on a Safari and that you can backpack it big time. We’re breaking down barriers that exist between cultures, through interacting with locals, getting active in communities, finding things we never imagined existed and showing you what Africa is all about.
In terms of Travel, I’ve been to places on every continent and about 60 countries, I think between us we’ve seen about 75! We’re both about to turn 24 and both from Brisbane, Australia but I now live in Berlin – pretty much the coolest city on earth.
This place is look new and nice for the tourist. Are you really sitting on the alive croc because it looks really scary. I think it is also special place for the people who love to see the wild life in Africa.