Yankari Game Reserve

About this place

Yankari Game Reserve is a large wildlife park in south-central Bauchi State, north-east Nigeria, covering about 2,244 square kilometres. It has natural warm springs and a wide variety of plants and animals. It lies in the heart of the West African savanna and has been the most popular tourist destination in Nigeria, thanks largely to the Wikki warm spring where visitors swim. It was created as a game reserve in 1956 and became Nigeria's largest national park in 1991. There has been no human settlement in the park for over a century, but there are traces of earlier habitation, including iron-smelting furnaces and caves, with more than fifty furnaces surviving in the late 1990s. Farming and herding villages lie around it. You see a plain of scattered trees and grass, pools where waterbuck drink and warthogs grazing among the bushes. At the gate are buildings in orange earth tones, with baboons wandering around them. The Wikki spring is clear warm water running in a channel among trees, at much the same temperature all year. It is about 96 km from Bauchi city in a straight line. Tours usually go by vehicle with a guide, so arrange one at the gate. Keep food away from the monkeys. The dry season suits best. The UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to this state, so read the current advice before you plan.