The Chief Crocodile Pond

​When I finally saw the sign “Welcome in Ghana” I felt sheer happiness. Back in Ghana!  And my first stop would be Paga with its  famous Chief Crocodile Pond. The three Crocodile Ponds are said to house over 300 Nile Crocodiles, which have been respected and honoured by villagers for centuries. Story goes that crocodiles helped the first settlers in the area by forming a bridge over the river, enabling them to escape from their enemies. Humans and crocodiles here live in harmony. The best accessible pond is just along the highway near the Burkina Faso border, one kilometre from the checkpoints. The Chief Crocodile Pond can easily be visited as a stopover or on a daytrip when you’re in the area.

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Guides are waiting for customers in a signposted summerhut located between the Pond and the road. In the past, you had to negotiate the fees with individuals. In recent times however, the village of Paga has been developed under the Community Based Ecotourism Program with the assistance of Peace Corps volunteers. If you go through the Center, you will be presented a rate card with a choice of excursion options and additional services, including a visit to the crocodile ponds. All at fixed rates.

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After I had been waiting many hours at the bus terminal in Ouagadougou for the bus to depart, it was already 3pm when I arrived in Paga, and I was exhausted. I decided to stay for the night in Paga and leave the excursions for the next morning.

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​Accommodation at the Visitor Center

For my overnight stay in Paga I was offered to sleep on the roof of the newly built Visitor Center, just opposite the Chief Crocodile Pond. The Visitor Center is attended during most of the day and it’s a good idea to drop in, as Paga is more than sacred crocodiles. It also houses a local crafts shop. The night on the rooftop was extremely basic but doable. You really don’t want to sleep inside the building because of impossible temperatures. Meals, or snacks rather, can be bought from a chopbar and some foodstands near the bordercrossing. Bicycles for rent are available. Sleeping on the roof was offered for free, but of course the helpful caretaker deserved a tip.

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Crocodile Pond Rituals

 

​At dawn I cycled to the border for tea and bread, after which I directly went to the Pond, where a guide was waiting to call out the first crocodile of the day! The guides are essential as they know how to entice the crocodile from the Pond; otherwise you might not be able to see any, or even enter in danger. The most effective is to buy a young fowl for bait.

 

You then walk to the Pond through a swamp for about 50 meters, where the guide starts to whistle and shaking the poor fowl heavily, that inevitably starts making lots of noise. The guide fee is just one euro, including 25 cents for development projects, but it excludes the cost of the fowl that is offered. Alternatively you may bring one yourself.

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It depends on the season and the time of the day whether the crocodiles are fancy to show up rapidly. During my visit it took about 15 minutes of hard work by three guides before a big, lazy reptile finally emerged from the water. A rather young one it was. I was slightly disappointed because it was too small to have a ride on its back (joke); still I felt some excitement when the animal slowly approached! I’ve seen hundreds of crocodiles before but this whole event was so funny…

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On Sundays, the place is flooded with domestic tourists who have their picture taken while holding the tail of the creatures. In fact I saw a lot of Ghanaians visiting, mostly couples or families in private cars, dressed as smart as possible for the photo of their life. One after the other fowl disappeared. When everybody is happy about the pictures, the reptile finally receives its reward: the fowl. They are so patient!  The way the crocodile swallowed the fowl was quite impressive, a concert of bone breaking sounds.

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​I kept wondering about the status of the crocodiles  Was the story made up or was there some truth? It could be a combination, I guessed. In a society where Christianity and Islam are becoming more and more important, there will be less room for the traditional beliefs. So it’s probably just the right time to protect the animals under the flag of Community Tourism, and try to make some money out of it!​  Only thing, now it´s waiting for the animal rights activists to complain.

 

The whole ceremony took some 20 minutes, and I found it really amusing the way it was performed. I didn’t expect a breathtaking and too serious attraction, and that’s why I enjoyed it, and that’s why a journalist of the Ghanaian Times was disappointed… I just passed by, slept under the stars, enjoyed the highly unusual experience and tried to make more out of my stay in Paga by visiting the Chief Palace and the nearby former Slave Camp. So is Paga worth a long journey from – say – Tamale or even further? I would say NO if for a daytrip, but YES if you could stay at least a night or two in the region and explore Paga and the Upper East Region more in depth!

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Paga Pio Palace “Museum”​

The Palace of the Chief, who is the head of all traditional Chiefs in the region, consists of a conglomeration of several hundreds of rooms, many of them traditionally constructed from mud, tree limbs and cow dung. As the family expanded, the Palace extended as well. The oldest parts reputedly date back to early 18th century, but you don’t get much to see of it. Just for tourism, one house is perfectly decorated according to Paga traditions and original tools, baskets and bowls are on display inside. The Prince, who showed me around, called it a museum. He explained many interesting things about traditions, rituals and way of life of their forefathers and also present day life.

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But it would have been nice to venture a bit beyond that "museum" as well. Therefore the question, was it worth the visit? The Paga Pio was the first Chief I visited in this Upper East region and I rate the visit as reasonable, but the people here were not very inviting. Not that the Palace itself wasn’t interesting enough – certainly it is - , but the business minded attitude didn’t contribute much to the overall experience. Where most other Chiefs welcomed me with cooled water or local brew and possibly even a meal, the 20-30 minutes rush tour through the Paga Pio Palace required the usual entrance fee of one euro, but also an additional gift of 1,50 euro payable in cash, kola nuts or booze. After which the Prince asked more tips for people I didn’t even meet. Which is not so much of an issue if all of this is part of the usual friendly interaction and hospitality, but in this case the the guy didn't seem to bother at all. So if this is the only village in Upper East Region you’ll get to visit, I still recommend the tour, but otherwise, you may want to give it a miss...