Comoé National Park

Comoe is said to be the biggest National Park in West Africa (at least it was when I visited in February 1995) but despite its size I did not find it easy to get to and even more difficult to travel in. I crossed the border from Ghana near Bondoukou and made my way slowly by local transport to Kakpin on the southern boundary of the park where I stayed at le campement.

Any hopes I might have had about informative tours of the park led by well informed Rangers were soon dashed but eventually I did join an expat Frenchman in his 4x4 for a quick whizz round some of the southern parts of the park.

In truth neither the landscape nor the vegetation was particularly attractive and in general, it seems, parks in West Africa do not compare well with those in East Africa as far as the number and diversity of wildlife is concerned.

I saw no lions, giraffes or elephants but there were warthogs, hippos, antelope, monkeys and birds with black and white hornbills prominent amongst them. The scenery was mostly scrubby trees and termite mounds though there were stretches of forest along the Comoe river.

I do not know if conditions in the park deteriorated further after I was there or if what I saw was already bad enough for it to be put on the WHS In Danger list.

I think it is probably a site only for the very committed wild-life fan (or …

In January 2017, I decided to visit several sites in West Africa. Two things to consider are safety and travel hardship. Cote d'ivoire has both issues.

In March of 2016, terrorist from Mali killed 18 people on the beach in Grand Bassam. This incident has damaged tourism to the country and when we had our lunch on the beach in Grand Bassam, I noticed that the hotels were very empty, which may be a good thing as not to attract another incident. Also two days before our arrival in Abidjan, the army of the country decided to mutiny and block all the roads because they have not been paid their promised bonus since the civil war ended in 2011. Fortunately a deal was negotiated and the army returned to their barracks. Nonetheless the situation is always fragile.

Secondly, travel in West Africa is hard. Most of the roads are very bad with huge pot holes or incredibly bad if dirt roads. It makes for travel long and very uncomfortable. The hotels out of the major cities are rudimentary and some do not have water or electricity. Travel by public transport is only if you can tolerate a lot of hardship and have a lot of time.

I decided to hire my own car and driver and even that was an ordeal.

So after 10 hours of rough ride from Yamoussoukro to Kong and dirt road to Comoe, we checked into the best accommodation near the park, Kafolo Safari Lodge on …