-Lillian Smith-
Beep beep beep beep beep.
It was 5.45am and time to wake up.
We had a MASSIVE day on the road as we had the plan to try and get to Mt
Klouto (Kloo-toe) by night fall and bypassing the bush camp that was allocated
for tonight. Two reasons, one we avoided
the bush camp and secondly we had a day up our sleeve which we really need as
we have to be back in Accra by Friday afternoon as Duck and Patti both fly out
Friday night, so having the extra night up our sleeve takes the pressure of the
last travel day on Friday. Depending
where we get tonight, we may get the extra night in Lome, as we HAVE to pass
back through that particular border as again, Duck and Patti both only had
single entry visas and we have to apply for a transit visa on the border for
them also on Friday, meaning we are heading back to Accra the long way. This overland trip has not been boring in the
least, and there have been a few unplanned moments and they have been handled
by Sam and Zoe, and us actually, really well and it makes a BIG difference on a
trip like this if we are all in the same frame of mind.
I now also fully appreciated our ‘rustic’ upgrade as it
rained for most of the night, and being in this less than lovely upgrade it
kept us out of the rain and I had a great night’s sleep, so there really isn’t
much more you can ask for with the cost of 3AUD each and it didn’t look so bad
in the morning, well maybe a little less rustic, but it was pretty basic all
the same. There were mozzies around, and
this was the main reason I wanted my sleeping bag, but the buggers had bitten
me through my PJ’s and I was sporting 8 new bites on my legs and 6 new ones on
my arms. I even sprayed before I got
into bed, so just imagine how many more I would have had if I hadn’t. It’s the one thing I detest, the mosquito
bites and they are really giving me a hard time at the moment with their
constant itch. I am scratching that
badly that some of them are bleeding and I just can’t stop, especially the ones
on my feet. I even got bitten on my pam
this morning and on the top of my hand.
You can’t even hear these blood sucking machines, they are silently
eating us all alive and I am not the only one looking like I have a skin
disease on my legs with all the red dots, everyone is in the same boat! The bastards-excuse my French.
It drizzled a bit over breakfast, but not enough for us
to run for cover and after a cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, all packed up,
we were on the road at 7am. It seems
really early, but we were all prepared to have a massive day to get us all the
way than have another 2 days of shorter travel.
As it was overcast, it was a lot cooler and looking out the window you
wouldn’t have guessed it with the Togolaise people, they were still in their
normal dress, no jumpers, no beanies and no warm clothing at all. If we were in Kenya, they would all be rugged
up to the nines in the same temperature.
In saying that none of us opened our windows for the first hour of
driving, as it was that cool, but slowly the windows came down, even just to
let some fresh air into the cab. I
opened my window, and for the first time all trip put on my jacket-I had to
wear it at least once on this section.
It goes to show just how lucky we have been with the weather as we are
still officially in the wet season and we were going to take this day on the
chin firstly and secondly it made a good travel day, well for the passengers at
least, I am not sure Sam and Zoe would agree behind the wheel.
We stopped for petrol for what I think is the first time in
the whole trip. I haven’t seen Sam sneak
off with the truck, but I could be wrong.
Madge has 2 tanks; each one holds 400L of fuel. We only needed to fill up the single tank
today and after 15 minutes and 309L later she was all full again. The fuel in Togo is 650CFA (1.30AUD) a liter
and with 309L we just put in 200,850CFA’s of fuel (401AUD) which I don’t think
that is too bad if that is the first fill up of the trip after 16 days.
We had a toilet stop, by the side of the road a little
later, and I have to say they don’t scare me as much as they used to. It isn’t so much as not having a toilet; it
is the fact of getting caught by a local with my pants literally down. But this was a great place, not a local in
sight and I am learning to run with the punches and ‘live’ the overland
life. It is funny to think on both East
Africa and South America trips, 7 months in total; I never did a bush pee. Not once.
It wasn’t a bad track record, but I think that would be near impossible
here, certainly without giving myself a urinary tract infection and when you
gotta go, well you are just going to have to go.
Our extraordinary good drive on great roads came to an
end at 10.49am, after passing through the town of Atapame, we hit dirt road,
and with the weather, muddy roads that were just FULL of pot holes. The whole way we bounced and weaved our way
till 12.30pm when we stopped in the small town of Agadji for lunch and that was
an experience. We stopped at their ‘city
hall’ and after Zoe asked the local mayor if we could have lunch on the grounds
he was happy to have us and there were no issues. Every time we stop for a roadside lunch, we
always wonder how many local people will come to have a look at these ‘white’
people setting up and eating. We have always
guessed more people than actually ever turn up, maybe we have tickets on
ourselves? But today we drew a crowd,
and when I say crowd, I mean a group of over 30 people came and watched us eat
lunch. I think there may have even been
more. The good thing for us was that the
camp chairs were facing the truck and the curious onlookers were standing
behind us, probably around 3m away. But
it was a little disconcerting knowing there were so many people watching our
every move. They aren’t nasty, or asking
for food (though I am sure they would not have declined) but we need to accept
that seeing us is a rare occurrence, they wouldn’t see many (if any) overland
trucks coming through their village and they really are just inquisitive and
wondering what the hell we are doing! I
would too.
1.30pm and with a wave to our friends that watched us for
the whole hour, we were back to bouncing around. I tried to get some sleep and the weather
outside was even hit and miss with a bit of sun, some rain, some harder rain,
some more sun and then overcast stepped in for the rest of the afternoon. We are now travelling on a single road that
in patches was muddy as hell, but with the careful driving now of Sam for the
afternoon, not once did we get bogged or as far as I could tell, not even
close, as that just would have stuffed up our whole day had that happened. We passed through one town, Adeta, which
looked like a bomb had hit it. The first
thing I noticed was as we entered the village, the graveyard had been dug up
and it threw me for a moment on why they would do something like that, but as
we drove along it seems to me that they are widening the road and they have knocked
down houses and businesses in preparation of the new road coming through. We aren’t just talking about 100m, the what I
would call ‘devastation’, went on for kilometers and also into the next town of
Beme. The people here didn’t seem that
friendly and neither would I if half of the town was being destroyed. It seemed that it was a Chinese initiative,
and maybe there were no smiles for us if they didn’t want the road, and I hope
like in Australia that the families have been compensated somehow, but I am
just not sure that would happen here in Togo.
We made our final big town of the day and the one we had been aiming for
Kpalime, at 4.45pm. We had made awesome
timing and we apparently on had 12km go to make Mt Klouto.
We knew that the camp site we were looking for was on the
same road to the Ghana border, so after asking for some directions, we weaved
our way through town and followed the road.
At 5.30pm, we hit the Ghana border.
We had come too far, so we turned around and asked for some directions
and the few people we spoke to said that we had to go all the way back Kpalime,
we were on the wrong road. Sam and Zoe
were adamant that we were on the right road and we were in the town of
Klouto. So Sam rang our guide and after
speaking to him, telling him we were on the border and asking for directions,
we got told to drive 4km and there would be a turn off that we had to
take. So we travelled 5km and didn’t see
a turn of any sorts, so Zoe jumped back on the phone and then the penny dropped
after again speaking to Atoo, there are TWO roads to the Ghana border and we
were on the wrong one! We did have to
drive the 30 minutes back to Kpalime and then take a different road to the
camp. By this point it was pitch black
outside and you couldn’t see a thing.
Bean suggested we play some kind of game, as we were by this time
getting a little truck fever, so I pulled out my Globetrotters book that has
quotes and interesting world stats about countries. So I turned the stats into questions and when
I exhausted that we turned to my app on my IPod of Who Wants to be a
Millionaire. This killed more time and
before we knew it we had pulled up to the Auberge at 7.30pm. Twelve and a half hours after leaving this
morning. What a day.
It’s not the longest day that I have had on an overland
truck. We had some 16 and 18 hour days
on my South American overland in Venezuela due to poor weather and bad
roads. Now they were incredibly long
days and to think that there was only one driver for that whole time, which
never worried me (I always felt safe) or Gray, the driver, but reality is that
it is probably too far for one person to drive and a few of those days were one
after the other. That is another plus
for Dragoman that both Sam and Zoe both drive and share the load, both know how
to fix the truck if needed and with Sam as the leader and Zoe speaking French
it is reassuring that we have all bases covered. They are the perfect team for this part of
the world that is for sure.
When we had finally pulled up, we were all actually in
high spirits. Sam and Zoe both
apologized for the additional 2 hours on the truck after the wrong road turn,
but shit happens and again being the AWESOME group that we are, we all just
took it in our stride and unloaded the truck for Patrick and Eve to cook dinner
of ‘smash and beans’. This was a new
meal and it went over like a treat. Who
would have thought that beans and meat in a can with fresh potatoes would be so
welcomed!!! When Sam mentioned there
were upgrades, he didn’t even have to tell us the price; we were all in before
he even got to finish his sentence.
We were given a block of rooms that all looked into a
common area which was perfect for us to set up the kitchen and all our bits and
after being allocated our rooms, we had RUNNING WATER AND FLUSHING
TOILETS…….. It made me think when was
the last time we could have a proper shower and not a bucket shower and it was
6 days ago in Abomey. I don’t mind the
bucket showers as it does save water, but I was dying for a shower shower so
that I could wash my hair, as that hasn’t been washed for nearly 10 days. It sound disgusting, but it was actually
holding up quite well and because I am wearing it back every day, you really
can’t tell just how dirty it is. I used
the shower after dinner, and as it was still raining outside and it was a
little cooler, and with their being no hot water, I decided to just have a
shower and I would do my hair in the morning after our village walk. The water was freezing, but ‘refreshing’ and
it made a nice change to not have a bucket, well at least for the night anyway. By 10.30pm Duck and I were in bed and I have
to say it felt like I was sleeping on a cloud and the pillow felt like soft
feathers wrapped around my head. We were
in camping heaven and certainly the best upgrade that we have had all
trip. I don’t care how much the upgrade
is, it will be worth every penny. It is
a little sad that we may not get a chance to put up the tents again on this
section, depending where Sam and Zoe decided to stop for our last night-but I
say that loosely as I will be getting another chance on the next section, but
in saying that there are a lot more hotels on the next 3 weeks than camping
which works in well with me as I am the odd gal out, with only 4 people (2
couples) joining us on the next section.
Yay me-but I do enjoy having a roomy, but if I am to be on my own, I
would prefer it with 2 couples than 4 other single people I think.
So well done to Zoe and Sam for a MASSIVE drive so that
we didn’t have to bush camp and well done also to us, the group, who didn’t
once gripe about the long day, or the getting lost section. It was true overlanding at its best today and
we all survived and the 12 hour travel day was worth it.
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