Itinerary:

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1

Our experienced birdwatching tour guides will meet with you on your arrival at the Kotoka International Airport Accra, which is situated on the beautiful gold coast of Western Africa.  Look out for the Ashanti African Tours sign board when you leave the main terminal building after passing through customs.  Make yourself known to your guides who will be accompanying you for the duration of your time in Ghana and they will take care of you from here.

After boarding our air conditioned vehicle, which will be your mode of transport for the duration of your tour, we transfer you to your hotel which is situated in Accra.  Once we have checked you in, our experienced guides will offer you Akwaaba (welcome) and brief you on all aspects of your trip.  You can enjoy your evening meal at the hotel restaurant whilst acclimatising yourself to Africa.

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Day 2

Our first full day with you in Ghana, and an early start to what should be a wonderful 12 day rainforest birdwatching tour.  Before we head west towards Kakum we visit the nearby Sukumona Lagoon which is only 10 minutes from our hotel. We aim to find black, green backed and grey herons, long tailed cormorant, garganey, black winged stilt, collared pratincole, African spoonbill, ruddy turnstone, black tern, Senegal thicknee and ruff to mention just a few.  After some good birding we head west leaving the busy city of Accra behind.  Our destination is Cape Coast where we find the amazing Kakum National Park.  En route, we will be stopping at a grassland reserve and lagoon.  Today, we hope to find siffling, croaking and short winged cisticola, copper sunbird, flappet lark, red winged prinia, yellow shouldered widowbird, black necked weaver, yellow crowned gonolek, orange cheeked waxbill, moustached grass-warbler, displaying black winged bishops, black crowned tchagra and plain backed pipit.  Around the lagoon, we aim to see squacco and purple herons, purple swamphen spur-winged lapwing, African pygmy-goose, western reef egrets, yellow bishop, preuss’s, swallows and many more species before our arrival at Hans Cottage, our base for the next 3 nights whilst we visit Kakum National Park.  Our hotel is a very comfortable establishment built over a lake, which contains Nile crocodiles and is teeming with birdlife including vieillot, village and orange weavers, night heron, striated heron, African pygmy, pied, giant, woodland and malachite kingfishers.  We retire to our air-conditioned rooms after discussing the day’s sightings over dinner.

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Day 3-4

Early start as we head for early opening of the world famous canopy walkway at Kakum National Park.  Over the next two early mornings, we will be spending the most critical bird viewing hours 40 meters above the forest floor on the canopy walkway, which platforms are large enough to support Telescopes.  The 607 km² Kakum National Park protects critically endangered primary guinea tropical rainforest and the species we hope to see from the canopy includes green hylia, violet backed hyliota, yellow bellied crombec, little grey flycatcher, grey headed, white breasted and chestnut breasted negrofinch, grey longbill, white headed and forest woodhoopee, West African batis, western bluebills, blue cuckoo shrike, chestnut bellied helmetshrike, large billed puffback, sharpes apalis, rufous-crowned eremomela, brown cheeked, black and white casqued, piping, black casqued and black dwarf hornbills, beautiful preuss’s golden-backed weaver, red headed and red vented malimbes, rosy bee eater, yellow spotted and hairy breasted barbet, red fronted, brown necked, and grey parrots, velvet mantled drongos.

The raptors we aim to see include red necked buzzard, palm nut vulture, African cuckoo hawk, congo serpent eagle, cassins hawk-eagle to mention just a few.  During the heat of mid afternoon, we have the option of birding around the forest of our hotel, resting around the hotel pool and bar or you could choose to go on a cultural excursion to Cape Coast visiting Cape Coast and Elmina castles.  We visit the Antikwaa section of Kakum National Park for late afternoon and early evening birding hoping to see little, rosy and black bee-eater’s, blue throated roller, piping and white crested hornbills, red and yellow rumped tinkerbird’s, kemps and grey longbill’s, ussher’s and fraser’s forest flycatchers and if we are lucky white-spotted flufftail.  Our evenings will be spent at Han's restaurant and bar discussing the day’s sightings, adding to our checklist and enjoying the atmosphere of our surroundings.

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Day 5

Another early start this morning, we will be concentrating our attention on the many trails within and surrounding the park, which should prove to be very productive.  We can aim to find fire crested alethe, common and grey headed bristlebills, collared and olive bellied sunbirds, blue headed wood dove, red rumped tinkerbird, black dwarf and red billed dwarf hornbills, black headed paradise flycatcher, finches flycatcher, blue shouldered robin chat, olive long tailed cuckoo, pale breasted illadopsis, forest robin, red chested goshawk, yellow billed and guinea turacoś, long tailed hawk, fire bellied and gabon woodpeckers, black throated coucal, western black headed oriole, African finfoot and if we are lucky we may spot congo serpent eagle, African pitta, forest francolin forest scrub robin and spotted honeyguide.

After a late breakfast we set off for Ankasa in the western region of Ghana for what should be a major highlight of your time with us.  Ankasa is a rarely visited pristine tropical upper guinea rainforest protecting some wonderful species.  We arrive in the late afternoon check into our accommodation before heading to Ankasa for early evening birdwatching, we hope to see Fraser’s, Akun and African Wood owl’s before returning to our accommodation in preparation for the next mornings birding.

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Day 6-7

Early starts as we dedicate the next 2 days birdwatching in Ankasa, species we hope to find are spot breasted ibis, hautlaubs duck, African finfoot, African crowned eagle, great blue and yellow billed turaco’s,  yellow casqued, red billed dwarf and black dwarf hornbills, chocolate backed kingfisher, red billed helmetshrike, purple throated cuckoo-shrike, black capped, puvel’s, rufous winged and brown illadopsis, red and green tailed bristlebills, yellow bearded and red tailed greenbul’s and if we are lucky during early evening birding we may spot shelly’s owl and nkulengu rail.  Our evenings will be spent at our accommodation discussing the day’s sightings and recharging our batteries for the following days birding.

Day 8

After a late breakfast we set off for a small guesthouse in the Ashanti region for what should be one of the highlights of your time in Ghana.  After enjoying lunch and checking into our guesthouse we set off for a remote village.  On our arrival we trek into the forest our destination is a nesting site for yellow headed picathartes.  There are around 30 nests at this location and catching a glimpse of this remarkable bird is an amazing feeling.  We return to our guesthouse in the early evening.

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Day 9

Early start as we head towards Aboabo on the north east boarder of Kakum National Park.  We arrive before first light and hope to find brown, plain and long tailed nightjars on the road leading up to the camp.  Aboabo is in my view the most productive section of Kakum National Park, the birdlife here never disappoints.  We take a packed breakfast which will allow us to dedicate the whole morning trying to add more species to our rapidly growing lists. 

After lunch we set off for Kumasi capital of the Ashanti region. On our arrival you will have the option of heading to Owabi reservoir for early evening birding or you can relax at your hotel.

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Day 10

We wake early to visit Bobiri Forest Reserve which is actually a butterfly sanctuary.  Upon our arrival, we will search this lush forest for swamp palm greenbul, bronze naped pigeon, red chested cuckoos, green headed sunbirds, red billed dwarf and white crested hornbills, white headed, woodhoopee, brown illadopsis, western nicator and some of the many raptors present include, cassins hawk eagle, red thighed sparrowhawks, African cuckoo hawk, long tailed hawk to mention just a few.

After breakfast we set off for Atewa and check into a nearby guesthouse which will be our accommodation for the evening, staying so close to Atewa will save us 2 hours of travel from Accra and allow us to dedicate as much time to birdwatching as possible.  We bird the lower portion of the range in the afternoon which should prove to be very productive.

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Day 11

An early start this morning as we visit the Atewa Range, this is the only site in Ghana where we can see the blue headed bee-eater.  Other specialities include the endangered rufous-winged illadopsis, narina trogon, great blue turaco, dusky crested and olivaceous flycatchers and western bronze-naped pigeon. 

We set off for Accra after lunch and revisit the Sakumona lagoon on our arrival.  Once we arrive at the lagoon, we search for African spoonbill, white fronted plover, black headed heron, western reef egret, yellow throated longclaw, several species of kingfisher and African quailfinch.  After a wonderful days birding, we check into our hotel to relax.

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Day 12

Sadly our final day with you in Ghana, the day starts early as we visit the nearby Shai Hills reserve, an expanse of Savannah, grassland and woodland.  The bird viewing here is excellent and we hope to find grey hornbill, African hobby, violet and green turacos, mocking cliff chat, Senegal parrot, croaking cisticola, white crowned robin chat and many more species.  Depending on your flight departure time, we will visit a nearby local restaurant to relax and enjoy an early evening meal before your departure and flight home after an unforgettable 12 day rainforest birdwatching tour of Ghana.

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