Burkina Waterfalls
I decided to do some tourism this weekend, and I have found someone to take me to the waterfalls. The trip itself was not that impressive, as I just had to make sure I had enough gas in my motorbike in order to meet my new friend in the town of Banfora.
From there, I visited his family, then we deposited my 64 GB flash drive at a photo printing station so that they will print some 130 pictures I took this summer. I will donate most of the pictures to the students featured in them. After paying for all of these prints, we headed west, both riding on my motorbike.
My new friend is a business person who traveled from his home city of Ouagadougou to Banfora in his youth, in order to seek employment. After a few years of struggle, he owns two flourishing businesses, one of which he sells secondhand smartphones, as well as brand new basic phones. The other business makes photocopies for people. He travels frequently to nearby country of Togo for business. This is where he gets supplies of used smartphones, which he distributes to potential clients. These clients are allowed to “test” the used phones for a month, and if they don’t find any faults with it, and are willing to pay the price, then they start making arrangements for payment and eventually, ownership of the phone…
We went through a lot of small villages before reaching our destination. I saw many vast sugarcane plantations on the way. These are mechanically irrigated, and the setup is quite modern. They are industrial exploitations, most of which belong to SOSUCO, Burkina’s only sugar company.
The waterfalls could be heard from far off, the rush of water. We had to pay a fee at the gate, and also hire a tour guide for the visit. The interesting part of the visit is that we had to climb a few thousand feet of rock in order to reach the altitude of the waterfalls. I recorded a few videos, and took a few pictures. The place looked truly divine, and I believe the story of how the cascades came to be is also fascinating, something no one thinks about when in Burkina Faso.
Because the country is so dry, it is almost unimaginable to think that the waterfalls were created because there once used to be seawater in this area. Once the sea had dried up, some sand and sediments came together to form the rocks. Then, some of the water which were trapped underground has started flowing towards the now-retired sea.
Feeling the rush of my life
I must mention that the excitement of the waterfalls made me forget that before coming here, I first visited a lake called Lac Tingrela. It is located seven kilometers outside of Banfora, in the village of Tingrela. Here we paid a small fee for the visit, and hired a boatman to canoe us around the Lake to show us around. This is another mysterious place.
According to oral tradition, a few hundred years ago, it used to be a small body of water, which had a few species of fish and was the main source of water for the village people. Then one day, the pond dried up, and the fish were starving. The villagers, once aware of the tragic incident, took some leaves and covered up the fish so they do not die from the heat. Then they prayed to God for water so that all their people, as well as all the creatures in the pond do not die of thirst and hunger. The villagers woke up the next day, and found a huge lake, many times the size of their previous pond. More details about this mysterious lake are in the hands of the few village elders. But this is what they agree to tell visitors…
Did I say there are hippos in the lake? Four of them huge creatures! The boatman took us near their location, and we saw them swimming, and playing around. If one of them decides to hurt our boat, we absolutely stand no chance to these massive creatures. Thankfully, the villagers and the hippos are good neighbors, haha!
As a compliment for my visit, I received a necklace, made of the flower of nenuphar plant which grows abundantly in the Lake.
The flower necklace served as a double message, of thank you, and goodbye. It ended our visit to the lake, and then we headed to the waterfalls.
The water in the waterfalls is obviously falling in a stairs-like manner. Starting on the lower parts, we climbed our way up near the top. There is a swimming area at the top, but we did not get there, because we only paid our tour guide for one hour of service. At some point, I took off my clothes and stepped into the rushing water. It was a good few seconds. I did not stay long because the gold color of the water probably spells disease.
