Aburi Botanical Gardens - Tourist attraction on the mountain
Situated on top of the lofty Akuapem Mountain Range in the southern portion of the Eastern Region is Aburi.
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The town which is 36 km away and a 32-minute drive from the national capital, Accra, has a population of 18,300.
In view of its geographical position on the mountain with various tropical tree species and botanical gardens, the town, especially the gardens known as the Aburi Botanical Gardens, has become a haven for both foreign and local tourists.
This has made the name Aburi become synonymous with the gardens. Currently the Aburi Botanical Gardens has become a big tourist attraction, putting the small Aburi township on the tourism map of the world.
The gardens, which have a total area of 64.8 hectares, was established by the colonial administration in 1890 by Governor William Brandford -Griffith and Dr John Farrell Easmon, a Sierra Leonean medical doctor.
The current site of the gardens was formally a sanatorium built in 1875 for Gold Coast government officials.
Tree species
In the garden are tree species such as silk cotton (ceiba pentandra), mahogany, cedar, silver oak and many more.
It also has a collection of variety of flowers, some of which were obtained from different countries.
Some of the trees have been planted over the years by high-profile personalities such as Sir Gordon Guggisberg, Governor of the Gold Coast (silk cotton tree) in 1924, Queen Elizabeth II (mahogany), 1961 and a former Hungarian President (cedar) in 1961.
A lot of holiday makers from Ghana visit the place for recreational purposes, while some newly married couples go there for relaxation.
Apart from that hundreds of foreign tourists flock the gardens for sightseeing.
The botanical gardens’ proximity to the famous Aburi Craft Village, where tourists can buy all sorts of handicrafts carved out of wood, has made both destinations the preferred choice of particularly foreign tourists.
These tourists after relaxing in the gardens, purchase these handicrafts as souvenirs from Ghana.
Visitor experience
A Tripadvisor member who lives in Croydon in the UK and visited the gardens in 2012, graciej78, said in a review, “The palm lined entrance is lovely, and there are some lovely individual trees.
However, the gardens are in need of some serious work as there are large areas of unkempt vegetation, and some parts just need tidying up!
“There is an odd area where there is an old helicopter (kids like climbing in this), and there are various random buildings which also are in need of some serious repair.”
Another reviewer, Kenosky Hills, who described the trip to the gardens as historical and memorable said, “At Aburi Botanical Gardens, we saw the room in which Gowon and Ojukwu signed the historical Aburi Accord, which preceded the Nigerian Civil War.”
“We also got to see so many varieties of trees and plants in the Garden.
The Royal Palms were really a delight to behold and the palmwine we had in the Garden was good.
Definitely a place to visit when you are in Ghana.”
Privatisation
While the gardens continue to attract visitors daily, the Aburihene, who is also the Adontenhene of the Akuapem Traditional Area, Otoobour Djan Kwasi II, has advocated the gardens to be privatised.
That, according to him, would make it possible for the gardens to be properly facelifted by investors to reap more revenue.
In view of that, he has appealed to the government to expedite action on its privatisation.
“The garden has a long history of governors who have stayed there.
That place had our first clinic, post office among other facilities and we have gradually lost them and the garden is in a deplorable state,” he said.
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