Domes De Fabedougou and Chutes de Karfiguéla

I reluctantly leave beautiful lake Tengrela, and wind my way through the city of Banfora to the Domes of Fabedougou, an oddly shaped cluster of rock formations created by water erosion, sitting more-or-less on top of a small mountain.

fabedougou domes burina faso with irrigation1 720x480

The domes are on top of a natural rise with impressive views

I try to take the most direct route there, and am a little surprised to find myself on a tarred road. I’m wondering why it would be there when the answer presents itself – I’m driving into a massive sugar cane plantation. The guard at the boom gate immediately lets me in (probably because of my skin color) and I traverse the length of the plantation, admiring the machinery and irrigation systems identical to those in my my home-town back in Australia. I’ve often wondered why Africans don’t irrigate – and here I see they certainly do at times, though apparently not often.

fabedougou domes burkina faso 720x480

The domes go on and on

The domes themselves are spectacular, and I spend a couple of hours wandering through and on them, throughly enjoying the expansive views in all directions.

I can’t help but pose the jeep among the rock formations.

jeep africa fabedougou domes sticking up 720x480

Right in the thick of it

Not far from the Domes, I find the Chutes de Karfiguéla, beautiful waterfalls. At the end of the road is a great restaurant/bar/campsite, though the guys there are so insistent on getting money out of me for parking and camping they ruin it and I decide not to camp there.

chutes de karfiguéla burkina faso view1 320x480

The view looking down over the waterfall

The walk to the falls is a pleasant 20 minutes along the shores of the river lined with monster mango trees and it feels great to be out hiking again, something I have rarely been able to do in West Africa. The falls are not exactly thundering due to it being the dry season, though they are still perfect to stand under.

chutes de karfiguéla burkina faso1 720x480

The main waterfall where I swim

Swimming in a waterfall counts as a shower, right?
Right!

-Dan

1 Response

  1. Ryan Tittsworth says:

    No judging on my part Dan! Shower when you can.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>