From: kaye@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Kaye Stott)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: RE: Info on WEST Africa Needed
Date: 27 Jan 93 10:01:33 GMT
Organization: The University of Western Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: uniwa.uwa.edu.au
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In article <5234@equinox.unr.edu> alan@.wrc.unr.edu wrote:
: 
: I'll be spending some time in the West African country of Ghana
: this year as part of a water development project we're getting
: involved in.
: 
: My primary questions deal with travel to surrounding/"nearby" west
: African countries (Togo;Ivory;Burkina;Cameroon;Senegal;Nigeria;Sierra
: Leone, etc.). This would include everything from recommended spots
: for the adventurous traveller (although I'd rather not have to jump
: through too many hoops in obtaining entry visas for a particular
: country), great beaches or other physically appealing landforms,
: and good sources for purchasing native arts, especially masks, batik,
: and woven goods. 
:

Lucky you - they are great countries to travel in. I particularly liked
Ghana, and could have spent more time there. 

I've travelled in Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, Senegal and the 
Gambia. Best places for me were Mali and Ghana; the people are great, and
there are interesting towns to visit. In Ghana you should go along the coast,
looking in a little places like Apam, and stop at the towns with old
slaving forts. The history is graphically layed out in many of the
displays they have at the old forts, now museums. The beaches look good,
but the coast is treacherous, and the sand and surrounds very dirty and
unsanitory (no, I'm not fussy, but Africa has some of the shittiest beaches
I've ever picked my way along!).

If you do want a reasonable beach, go to Togo and camp at Robinson Plage.
It has a fairly protected beach (offshore sand bar) and is clean. Alternatively,
there are places in the Ivory Coast. We stayed at Grand Lahou (sp?), a day
trip out of Abidjan by bush taxi, at a great hotel out on one of the 
islands dotted along the waterway to the west of the capital - I can
recommend it happily - great food! It is run by an ex-pat French family
and is mentioned in the Lonely Planet book.

Mali is one place you should go to, and visit the Dogon villages. You can
trek alone, but you would do much better to get a local guide and spend
about a week there if you can spare the time. I can also recommend the
boat trip from Gao to Mopti; it takes four days, and is very relaxed and
sociable. The mosque at Djenne is also worth visiting, but try to go there
on a market day (Monday, if I remember correctly).

Further afield, the Casamance in Senegal is a good place to visit. There
is a series of 'campements' offering accomodation, well worth staying at,
and the area is very lush and green. The beaches there attract many 
package holiday visitors from Europe, but we spoilt Australians were very
unimpressed. However, in the northern Casamance, we did enjoy staying at
fishing villages and strolling along miles of deserted beaches, with only
the occassional wreck for company.

You are in the best place for handicraft as far as I am concerned. Ghana
had some fantastic carvings, drums, mask, etc. and the Government-sponsored
market in Accra was as good a place to start looking as anywhere. We did see
great carving in Senegal, but it all came from else-where, particularly
from Ghana. We were also impressed by handicrafts in Mali, particularly
Dogon carving. I had trouble finding fabric - most fabric in the market turned
out to be imported from Holland! I finally bought some Ivory Coast fabric;
not too bad, but not spectacular.

You should also find out about the stools in Ghana - they play a central
role in the tribal culture of people in the main part of the country.

Do have fun.
Kaye