Nazinga Game Ranch

Nazinga was conceived in the 1970s as a community-benefit wildlife ranch, and its signature success stands at the waterholes: elephants - the ranch's herds are the country's most reliable - watering at the dams in dry-season gatherings, sometimes metres from the lodge terrace, with roan antelope, waterbuck, warthogs and monkey troops filling the savanna between and a bird list around 270 species keeping binoculars busy. Game drives run the track network, walks go guided, and the ranch's rhythm - dawn at the dams, siesta, dusk circuits - delivers classic Sahel-savanna safari at Burkinabe scale and prices.

History

The ranch was founded in 1979 by the Canadian brothers Robert and Clark Lungren, who had grown up in the country and set out to show that well-managed wildlife could feed people better than cattle on drought-prone land. With their families and local labour they built dams, some 600 kilometres of tracks and a base, persuaded farmers to give up fields inside the ranch, banned livestock, hired former poachers as game keepers, brought back species that had vanished from the region and invited biologists to study the results, which led to a carefully controlled culling programme for meat (Wikipedia, Nazinga Game Ranch).

What's there

• The elephant dams - herds watering into the dry season.
• The savanna drives - roan, waterbuck and warthog circuits.
• The lodge waterhole - wildlife arriving to you at drink hour.
• The birding - bee-eaters to fish eagles across the mosaics.

When to go

December to April concentrates game at the water as the bush dries - the classic window; the rains scatter herds and soften tracks. Book the lodge ahead in season.

Good to know

On the ranch: facilities are honest-basic, drives are self-vehicle-plus-guide or arranged, and elephants at close quarters demand the guides' rules kept exactly.

Nearby

Po, the Kassena painted-house country at Tiebele and the Ghana road.

Key facts