Upper East Region · The northern circuit · From Paga outward
Beyond the Pond
Everything within reach of Paga, arranged by how far you actually have to go. Most visitors spend forty minutes at the crocodile pond and drive away. The Upper East is the least visited and most distinctive region in Ghana, and almost all of it is within two hours of where you are standing.
First, a correction we owe you
An earlier version of this page said the Pikworo Slave Camp was about two hours from Paga. That was wrong, and the error is common enough elsewhere that it is worth stating plainly.
Pikworo is three kilometres from the crocodile pond. At Paga Nania, a few minutes west by taxi or motorbike. You can do both in a single morning, and you should.
That distance matters because of what it means. The site where captives were held before the march south, and the pond where visitors queue for a photograph with a crocodile, are effectively in the same village. One receives the coaches. The other does not.
In Paga itself
Everything here is within a few minutes of everything else. This is a morning, not an expedition.
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The crocodile ponds
The Chief's Pond and Zenga Pond. A guide, a chicken, a photograph, and a wild animal that has never killed anyone here. Early morning or late afternoon — crocodiles bask when their body temperature suits them, not when your schedule does. The ponds in full · Why they are protected -
Pikworo Slave Camp
Bowls hollowed into granite by the people who ate from them. The punishment rock, the water source, the graves, the lookout. No buildings — take the guide, because the site does not explain itself. The most important thing in the Upper East. Pikworo in full · Visiting Pikworo -
The border market
Ghanaian and Burkinabè trade meeting in two currencies and several languages. A working market, not a tourist one. Go early, buy something, and do not photograph traders without asking. The border market -
Kassena compounds on foot
Walled family compounds with painted earth walls, built for defence and decorated by women in a tradition running back to the sixteenth century. The thing nobody photographs and the thing most worth photographing. Go with someone local; a compound is a home, not an exhibit. Savannah walks and village tours · Who the Kassena are
Within half an hour: Navrongo
The Kassena centre in Ghana, and the district capital, a short run south of Paga on the road to Bolgatanga. Most people drive through it. There are two reasons to stop.
Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Cathedral
A Catholic cathedral built in the early twentieth century from earth, in the Sudano-Sahelian idiom — and decorated inside by local women in the same painting tradition that covers the compound walls outside. A church in the architectural language of the people who were being converted. Genuinely one of the remarkable buildings in West Africa, and it receives almost no visitors. Navrongo Cathedral
Tono Dam and irrigation scheme
One of the largest irrigation projects in West Africa, just outside Navrongo — and, incidentally, serious birding. Worth an hour if you have any interest in how this region feeds itself, and a useful corrective to the idea that the north is only subsistence farming.
Within two hours
This band is where the Upper East earns its reputation, and where almost nobody goes. Bolgatanga is the practical hub for all of it.
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Bolgatanga
Where you should be sleeping. Banks, ATMs, transport in every direction, and the craft market that gave the world the Bolga basket — woven straw, still made in the surrounding villages, and vastly cheaper here than in an Accra gallery. Buy at source and the money stays where it was earned. -
Tongo Hills & Tengzug Shrine
Stacked granite boulders and one of the most important active shrines in northern Ghana. This is living religious practice, not a monument — go with a guide, expect conditions on entry, and understand that some parts may not be open to you. That is the correct answer, not a disappointment. Tongo Hills and Tengzug -
Sirigu
Painted houses, pottery and a long-established women's art organisation. And a correction worth carrying: Sirigu is Nankani, not Kassena. Almost every travel article conflates the two because a British administrator merged the districts in 1936. Both traditions paint. They are not the same tradition, and the women who make this work are Nankani. -
Sandema and the Feok festival
The Builsa capital, and the place that commemorates fighting off the slave raiders. Feok, held in December, is a festival about resistance to Babatu's Zarma horsemen — the same raids that filled Pikworo, three kilometres from the crocodile pond. If you want the northern story to connect, this is where it closes. -
Chiana and the Kassena chiefdoms
Paga is one of six senior Kassena chiefdoms — Navrongo, Paga, Chiana, Kayoro, Katiu and Nakon. Chiana has fine compounds and a fraction of the traffic. Nothing is set up for visitors here, which is precisely the appeal, and precisely why you need someone local to arrange it. -
Tiébélé, Burkina Faso
The Kassena royal court, and the most celebrated painted compounds anywhere. It is also across an international border, and whether you should cross is a question of current security conditions and entry requirements rather than one a travel page can answer. Check your own government's advice before planning anything north of Paga.
A day's commitment, and worth it
These are not day trips from Paga. They are the reason to build a northern route rather than a detour.
- Kulmasa and Kaleo — the other sacred crocodile ponds, in the Upper West. Same taboo relationship, a fraction of the visitors, and no managed tourist encounter. The better option if Paga's arrangement is not what you wanted.
- Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary — hippos on the Black Volta, community-managed and genuinely remote. Harder to reach than Mole, and we set out the difference honestly rather than pretending both are easy.
- Mole National Park — Ghana's largest protected area, and the elephants. The anchor of any northern trip. How Paga and Mole fit together.
- Gwollu and Nalerigu defence walls — earth walls built by communities to keep slave raiders out, in the Upper West and North East. The same history as Pikworo, told from the side of the people who resisted it rather than the side that was taken.
- Salaga — roughly 150 kilometres south of Pikworo, and the market where the people held at Paga Nania were sold on. The next link in a chain that ends at the coast.
The two circuits worth building
There are really two trips here, and knowing which one you are on makes the planning straightforward.
The heritage route, north to south
Pikworo at Paga, Sandema for the resistance, Salaga for the market, then south to Assin Manso and the coast at Cape Coast and Elmina. This is the actual sequence people walked, and running it in that order is a completely different experience from starting at a castle. The inland slave routes · Why the roots lead inland
The northern loop
Tamale, Mole, Wa, Wechiau, Kulmasa and Kaleo, Bolgatanga, Tongo Hills, Navrongo, Paga. Wildlife, architecture, shrines and craft, in the least-touristed half of the country. Allow a week and fly the Accra–Tamale leg — it buys back a full day and keeps you off the country's most dangerous roads.
Planning notes for the whole region
- Sleep in Bolgatanga. Paga has almost no accommodation. Bolga has banks, ATMs, food and transport in every direction, and everything on this page is reachable from it.
- Draw all your cash in Bolgatanga. Every community-managed site here — the ponds, Pikworo, Tengzug, the village walks — is cash only, and there is no reliable machine north of Bolga.
- Fly Accra to Tamale. An hour against a full day of driving, then four hours north by road. Building a northern trip around a two-day drive from Accra wastes the trip.
- Guides are the whole thing. At Pikworo, at Tengzug, in the villages — the sites do not explain themselves and the guiding is the livelihood. Pay properly, tip directly, and do not haggle over fees that are already modest.
- Mornings, always. The Upper East in the middle of the day is severe and there is very little shade anywhere on this list. Village life happens early too.
- Harmattan runs roughly November to March. Dry, dusty, cold at night, hazy light. Easier for roads, harder for photography. The rains, May to October, give clear air and worse tracks.
- Ask before photographing people, compounds, shrines and graves. Accept a no. This is not a formality in the Upper East.
- December is Feok at Sandema, and it changes what the region is doing that week. Wonderful if you planned for it.
Connected reading
- Paga — the town in a day, and how the pieces fit together.
- The Kassena, and the Crocodiles — the people, the painted compounds, and why "Gurunsi" was Babatu's word.
- Guardians of the Ancestors — the founding oath, and the water scarcity that explains it.
- The Paga Crocodile Ponds in full — species, safety record, welfare question.
- Pikworo Slave Camp in full — what is there, and what is documented.
- The Inland Slave Routes of Ghana — the roads from the north to the coast.
- Why the roots lead inland — the coast was the exit, not the origin.
- Navrongo Cathedral — a Catholic cathedral in earth, painted by Kassena women.
- Tongo Hills and Tengzug — granite and an active shrine in Talensi country.
- The border market — two countries trading in two currencies.
- Savannah walks and village tours — the compounds, on foot and with someone local.
- Kulmasa and Kaleo — the quieter crocodile ponds of the Upper West.
- Wechiau or Mole? — which is actually reachable from Paga, and how they differ.
- Paga to Mole — why the pairing works.
- Public Transport in Ghana — flights, coaches and trotros, and getting north sensibly.
- Ghana-Net.com — the main portal. Publishing on Ghana since December 2000.
Practical details last verified . Pikworo is approximately three kilometres from the Paga crocodile ponds at Paga Nania; a previously published figure of two hours on this page was incorrect and has been corrected. The Nankani identity of Sirigu, as distinct from the Kassena, is documented in the ethnographic record and is frequently conflated in travel writing following the 1936 creation of the Kassena-Nankana district under British administration. Distances and journey times are given as bands rather than precise figures because road conditions vary substantially by season. Border conditions, fees, guide arrangements and transport change — confirm locally before travelling. All photography © Remo Kurka. Usage strictly by prior authorisation only.
Paga is more than crocodiles — the surrounding region offers a rich tapestry of history, nature, and culture. From sacred ponds to ancient shrines and borderland markets, the Upper East Region invites travelers to explore Ghana’s northern soul.
Traditional round house, Upper East, northern Ghana (c) Remo Kurka