West Africa's last great savanna wilderness lies where three countries meet, and it is a place with a fierce beauty and a difficult present. The W–Arly–Pendjari complex spans Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger, and its name comes from the shape of the Niger river as it bends in a W through the W National Park. It is the biggest block of protected savanna in West Africa and holds the region's largest population of elephants, as well as lions, cheetahs, hippos, buffalo and many antelope. UNESCO listed it in 2017 as a transboundary site.
The land is a mosaic of open woodland, grassland, rocky outcrops and seasonal rivers. In the dry season, from December to March, animals gather at waterholes and pools in the Pendjari and the Niger, and that is when they are easiest to see. The rains transform the park into green bush, and many tracks become impassable. Local people, including the Gourmantché and Fulani, have lived around the edges for generations, and their villages with round mud-brick houses and granaries are part of the scenery.
I have to be careful with advice about travel. Security in this region has deteriorated in recent years, with armed groups active in the border areas, and in 2019 two French tourists were kidnapped in the Pendjari park in Benin, an event that changed travel patterns. Government advice for the northern parts of Benin and for Burkina Faso and Niger is restrictive, and independent riding is not something I could recommend. If you are interested in the park, check the current situation with official sources and with reputable operators who work in the area.
The tracks within the park are mostly unpaved laterite, with sand and rocks, and roads outside are patchy, with heavy goods vehicles on the main routes. It is a place that deserves to be seen and protected, but at the moment it is better seen in documentaries and photographs than from the saddle.