Shai hills reserve, peaceful place 50mn from Accra

Shai Hills Resource Reserve is les than an hour north of Accra bordering the Akosombo road. The reserve  is 51 square kilometres. This makes this location a small  but the closest wildlife viewing areas to Accra.

Shai Hills is a plain by topography but has outcrops of 5 hills. The hills in the Shai area is base to several stone quarries.

Shai Hills also has rich history and heritage of Ga people : the hill was home to the ancestors of the people of Shai and still contains vestiges. It was the British colonial masters who forcibly expelled them in 1892 on the allegation that the natives were committing ritual murders.

Its vegetation is a combination of open and wooded grassland, savanna covered plains.   To date 31 mammals, 13 reptiles and 175 bird species have been identified in the reserve.

The baboon troop at the front gate can be very amusing, but be warned these are dangerous animals and they love to snatch your unattended personal belongings!

Two ostriches are also there and they come to you when the guards call them with a “specific noise”.

Best times are in the evenings or during sunset. The lighted city skyline is a sight to behold.

During morning, you may meet Kob antelope, bushbuck or monkeys, although the monkeys here are not habituated like at Tafi Atome or Boabeng-Fiema.

You can travel the park in a 4X4 vehicle or on foot with an armed escort from the hours of 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Visitors can climb up the summit of the caves and the inselbergs in the reserve to view the plains of Accra.

Three caves can be found in the reserve and these are Adwuku, Sayu and Hieweyu.

These caves provide an excellent home for bats which will spend the entire day sleeping only to wake up in the night.

It is an easy clim (look, I even did it with my  flip flop!) It takes 10 mn for the 1st one (the photo underneath) and one hour the one on the above photo)

 

Crocodiles, snakes and tortoises can also be spotted …they say…. but noone of my friends have seen them already !!

The bird life in the park is something really important since migratory birds can be seen :

There are the Senegal parrot, grey plantain eater, hornbill, red northern bishop and violet turaco are in the Shai Hills reserve. Other birds to be found in Shai Hills Resource reserve include Senegal cuckoo, stone partridge and francolin. This makes the reserve a bird lover’s paradise.

At night, we went to sleep to Stone Lodge , at 5km from the reserve, a very nice hotel in the middle of the contryside with a nice swimming pool and quite good meals.