-Mary Anne Radmacher Hershey-
After 8 days in Benin, 8 glorious days, it was time to
say goodbye as we now work our way back to Ghana via Togo for the next 5
days. It was pretty awesome to finish
our country stay with the Tata Somba region, and it was super nice to get some
more culture experiences in. They were
very friendly and welcoming people and I think the nicest people we have had
contact with all trip so far. The hotel
service was impeccable, the food good and always on time, cold drinks, endless
supply of electricity and the eco-toilet was always kept clean. What else could you ask for?
It was a broken sleep last night as the biggest storm I
have heard in a long time hit in the wee hours.
Something initially jolted me out of my sleep at 2am and it sounded like
a vibration of some sort, and my heart was beating from the sudden
wakefulness. I then noticed the curtains
were blowing crazy and realized a storm was on the way. It was a little cool, and as the beds were
only given top sheets, I used my towel to keep warm and watched some of the
lightening as I tried to get back to sleep.
I heard Duck get up to close her windows and I must have fallen back asleep
as the next thing I hear is the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard and
it sounded, again I use the word sonic, and in my grogginess I thought that
maybe a meteor had hit earth, really it was the strangest sound that I have
never heard before, even Patti, who is deaf, felt the vibration, waking up and
ran outside to try and save her clothes she had left out there to dry, but it
had been raining for nearly 2 hours by this point, so she was a little late to
save them from getting wet. It took me
while to get back to sleep and the last thing I remember was looking at the
clock and it was 3.30am and the rain was pelting down. Now that was an amazing storm. This morning Duck and I were talking about
the storm and Patrick said ‘what storm”? And he was serious! He slept through the whole thing. In his defence he was on one of the
downstairs rooms and Harj said he heard something and went back to sleep and as
expected Bean didn’t hear a thing. Duck
and I were just thankful that we weren’t camping in it, as it was pretty windy
as well and the way we put up our tent is a little slap stick and certainly
would not have withstood the wind and rain of last night.
Today was purely a travel day to cross the border from
Benin to Togo, and then just floor it for as far as we could get and bush camp
for the night. This is always good in
theory, but border crossings can be so unpredictable-and knowing that, we were
just going to hope for the best. After
breakfast and having packed the truck, we waved good-bye to Matais and the
staff of the Otammari Lodge and we were back on the road for the approximate
drive of around 20km to get to the Togo border.
Not much is calculated on time here in Africa, as you just never know
the conditions of the roads, so it is always in distance as a rough, very rough
guide indeed. It was a very scenic
drive, and thankfully the condition of the dirt road did not deteriorate too
much with the storm last night. It was
still overcast, grey and a little cool, which was a welcome relief after the
last few weeks of steaming hot days and with the smell of rain still in the
air, the Atakora Mountains in the background it made for a beautiful
drive. After an hour and 15 minutes, the
truck stopped and Sam and Zoe had a bit of a chat, and then Sam told us that we
should have hit the Togo border by now and it had mentioned in the Lonely
Planet that during low season some of the border crossings are not always
manned and the local police issue the stamps in that case. This may sound like a blessing in disguise,
but we need to officially get stamps exiting Benin and also the truck for that
matter, so we decided to turn around and head back to the last major village
which was Boukombe that we had passed 10 minutes earlier and check with them on
what we needed to do. So we could have
inadvertently been travelling back in Togo and not even realized!!!! So we doubled back the 10 minutes and Sam and
Zoe were right in turning around, after asking a few locals on where the police
station was they parked the truck, did a reccy on information and came back to
us saying that this was indeed the place and the Special Police Commission wanted
to see us all. So we locked the truck
and walked the 600 meters to the offices that were tucked away down a lane and
up a small hill and you could easily see why people would miss that check point
all together located where it was. It really didn’t take too long and we were
all processed within 40 minutes with an ‘arrival’ stamp (we were departing) but
we weren’t going to argue and then we had to find the place which was down
another lane to clear Madge out of the country, which again if you didn’t ask
you would not know where it was and then 30 minutes later we were all clear of
Benin.
We now had to find Togo and you would think that it would
have been easy, but the borders we were using were small entry/exit points and
not your usual busy, madness type of places.
We drove and found a place that looked official in the middle of nowhere,
and we were told to keep driving to the next one as he didn’t have a
stamp. We got to the next official
looking point, that had a barrier up that we couldn’t pass through and Sam had
to get out. There were 2 Spanish men
there when we arrived and one looked like Santa, really, he had the shock of
white hair and matching beard, but he was in cargos and a checked shirt, maybe
Santa on holidays? Anyway he was giving
a mouthful to one of the guys on the post, refusing to pay the 1500CFS (3AUD)
as he said he had prepaid it. It
actually is a UNESCO area, so whether you stop and look around or transit like
we did you have to cough up the money.
By the time that Sam had paid and the barrier was moved, we were on our
way and Santa was still arguing his case.
I wonder what time he ended up getting through and I am sure he would
have had to pay, these Togolaise seem to be very beaurecratic, but this was
also not the Togo stamping place. So we
continued to drive on, checking with people and we eventually found the Police
station where we were to get our entry stamps for Togo. I use the word station very loosely, as it
was one guy in military fatigues, with flip flops, sitting in a plastic chair
with a bench seat for a table and his official log book resting on it. He had a system and even though this may have
been the least official post we have seen and even I think I on all my travels,
he was certainly the most efficient, and after we had all been entered into the
log with all our details, we were stamped in and officially back in Togo.
With the winding back of our watches by an hour, we were
on our way again, but the condition of the roads was shocking and after 1 hour
and 15 minutes of dodging, hitting, splashing, slipping and sliding through pot
holes and mud from the rain, and very thankful that we didn’t get bogged, we
made it back to non-muddy terra firma, getting back to the main road and all of
were so happy to see bitumen again and try and make up some time now, as we
needed to haul as far as we could this afternoon before setting up our bush
camp. It was now 12.30pm, so we decided
to have a quick check of Kande, and see if we could find a restaurant to get
some lunch. After checking with 2
places, it seemed we were out of luck when I mentioned we still had some 2
minute noodle packets left over from dinner the other night, which everyone
seemed okay with, so we pulled up out the front of the 2nd
restaurant we had asked, and had everything set up within 15 minutes and the
noodles and baked beans were on the burner and within the hour we were all
feed, packed up and back on the road.
The real test on the Togo roads was now travelling 50km,
and seeing how long it would take us.
Luck was now on our side and we used a brand new bypass, that to me I
was not sure was 100% opened yet, as there were rocks on the merge, but we did
see some workers on the new road, some waved, some waved in a ‘what are you
doing way’, and others just stared.
Either way nobody stopped us and we made it to Kara, 50km away within 55
minutes!!! That has to be the fastest we
have travelled on any of the roads we have traversed to date and it made a
beautiful smooth ride for the first time and to have NO traffic add in, it was
the perfect 50km and I will bet it will be the only time we get a nirvana 50km
again for the next 7 weeks. We had to
stop in Kara for our food shop for the coming days.
The minute we hit the city limits, we wondered where we
were. The city looked nothing like
anything we had seen the last 2.5 weeks. They have massive and impressive buildings of
all sorts, from a university to office and government buildings, with some
green parks thrown in for good measure.
Harj mentioned that this city was where one of the presidents of the
country was from and hence the money that has been splashed into it over the
years. We drove to Kara-ville, the center
of town and got dropped off at a supermarket for the shop and then there were
smaller fruit and veg markets around to stock up on as well. As usual we are a sight to behold and with
people smiling, laughing and some taking our photos as we got off the truck, we
headed firstly to the supermarket. It
was bigger than the small local ones we have previously been using, but actually
still sold all the same stuff. Cooking
With Gas was on the roster for breakfast only in 2 days’ time, so we didn’t
have a lot of pressure on us and as usual we were going to get eggs and bread
from the market for our scrambled eggs.
What had hoped to be a 30 minute stop turned into an hour stop and after
rounding everyone up and getting back on the truck, we then had to find the
government office to clear Madge into Togo and as time was ticking now, we paid
a boda boda to take us to the offices which was just as well as it was a fair way
out and we made it in time before they closed.
We had to do it here, as we hadn’t passed through an official customs
checkpoint with one man band running the show, hence the visit to the offices
in Kara. It really was our lucky day and
25 minutes later Sam and Zoe were back with all the paperwork now completed and
the border successfully crossed. I don’t
know how people do these things on their own, as this was not a straight
forward follow the crowd kind of border and I imagine what sort of issues they
can and probably do run into.
We were hoping now to finally get some kilometers on the
clock when we were pulled up by some curious police officers a little while
later. As soon as they saw us they waved
us over and they had an expression of awe and laughing at the same time. One police officer climbed our steps and
stuck his head in the window and asked where we were from, always with a smile
on his face and when we were given the all clear to leave, they still had a
chuckle and a shake of the head, in a good way.
We certainly are a form of entertainment at times for people, even the
officials who are just being nosy and stopping us for no other reason. The roads had improved, not as good as the
last road we came into Kara on, but we could get Madge up to top speed and try
and make the most of what we had left of the afternoon. We had a small mountain range that slowed us
down a little as we got caught behind lorries and again we were seeing
spectacular views and very dense foliage and trees for the scenery. A section of the range was like death valley
for trucks. You could see evidence of accidents;
we would have seen at least 10 trucks broken down over the 40 minute ride, 2
recent accidents and one that was getting a cleanup when we passed. It actually surprises me there aren’t more
breakdowns of the trucks as some of them don’t even look like they should be
running anymore and I wonder if they really are roadworthy. The god news is we made it unscathed across
the death valley for trucks and we were now starting to lose light. We now had to start keeping a look out for a
good bush camp spot. As mentioned the
foliage is quite dense and it was going to be difficult to find a bush camp in
that stuff.
We hit our last town of the day, Sakone, at 6pm, and Duck
and I were praying that we would see a blazing sign for an Auberge where it
would be heaven and have a running shower a flushing toilet a comfy bed. Well we knew that it was wishful thinking and
definitely knew when we passed straight through the town without even a
backward glance, even though Duck and I had our eyes peeled for a place, we
didn’t see an Auberge sign anyway. Well
10 minutes later, losing light, Sam spotted a place and I thought that it was
going to be a patch of grass by the side of the road and when we turned around
you can imagine everyone DELIGHT when we saw the sign Auberge sign!!! We had hit the jackpot after all. Parking the truck and Sam checking out the
options, he came back and said that we could get upgrades into small huts for
3,000CFA (6AUD) for BOTH of us, and we figured as long as we were out of a
tent, that it would be fine for that cost.
Well the elation was short lived when we were shown the ‘hut’. It was a little dank, the hut was split in 2
with a small living area when you entered and then the bed in the other half
and the picture of a shower, not even a hot one, was dashed when there weren’t
any taps in the bathroom at all, just a bucket of dirty looking water that you
wouldn’t even wash your cat in. The
toilet didn’t even have a cistern, or a toilet seat for that matter and it
looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a long, long time. All that put aside, what can you expect for
3AUD each, and for a mad minute I thought maybe it would have been better to
have been in a tent, purely for the mosquito factor, as I am starting to really
dislike these flying insects as they feast on me each night while I am
sleeping. There was no power as they
also had a storm last night and their generator wasn’t working, so with head
torches on, we navigated our way around a pretty dark area.
We had an hour until dinner, so I decided to sit on the
truck with the light on and catch up on today’s blog. Why not, and there really wasn’t anything
else to do and it was now pitch black outside and everyone showed up at 7pm to
help set up the kitchen, chairs and water.
The meals have been sensational considering what we have to work with
and it also gives me a new appreciation for my previous trips namely Intrepid
in Africa and my Tucan trip in South America where we had people buying the
food and also cooking it for us. This is
a new concept for me, us having to buy the food and to prepare and cook it, and
I thought it would be a pain actually, but I have enjoyed our cook nights and
to be honest, it isn’t like we are cooking roasts, or anything close to
gourmet, and we are well fed and do not go hungry at all. After dinner we just sat around the truck
talking and some people having a few drinks to wind down the day. I have been off the booze this trip for some
reason. I have a bottle of vodka in the
esky with 2 mixers at the ready, which I bought in Accra nearly 3 weeks ago and
I just haven’t had the urge for a hard drink yet. The opportunity has certainly been there as
most people are having a whiskey (or few) most nights, but I just don’t have my
vodka mojo at the moment. I think what
scares me is once that vodka bottle opens, it won’t be a pretty night and the
thought of having a hangover in the 35C temperatures just does NOT appeal to me
at all. If you didn’t know me well
enough you would think I was a tee totaler!
How hilarious right!!!!
Duck and I headed to bed just before 10pm and we had
retrieved our sleeping bags and pillows for our sleep in our ‘rustic’ hut for
the night. As dodgy as I made it out to
be, nothing beats a sleep on a mattress and Duck and I seem to sleep well
together in the double beds, we both don’t seem to snore, or move around too
much which is awesome and a perfect bed companion of the nonsexual type of
course. For a bush stop, we were living
it high, for 3AUD each, we can’t complain with a roof over our head and a
mattress to lay our tired bodies on.
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