-George Carlin-
Today we were going to find out what the new game plan
was for the rest of our trip and also what we needed to do to extend or Togo
visas, as we have to pass through the country again after Benin to get back to
Ghana. Breakfast was served between
7-9am and Patty and I were there at 7.45am to be served our very French
continental breakfast. The rooms may
have been ordinary, but the reception, restaurant/bar had some character (and
free Wi-Fi) and with the country being a French speaking nation it took some
getting used to hearing the French and remembering that I was still in
Africa. So we spent the night in Lome,
which is the capital of Togo, and also not originally on our itinerary. Lomé, with a population of 837,437 is
the largest city of Togo. The city was
founded in the 18th century by the Ewe people. The city's population grew rapidly in the
second half of the 20th century and the city had approximately 30,000
inhabitants in 1950: by 1960 (the year Togo gained its independence from
France) the population had reached 80,000, increasing to 200,000 by 1970. Located 200 km from Accra and 150 km
from Cotonou,
Lomé is an important port, including a free trade zone that opened in 1968. It
exports phosphates, coffee, cocoa, cotton and palm oil,
much of the transit going to the neighboring countries of Ghana, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The port also holds an oil refinery. The
city in general has great potential, because tourism is growing in the country.
However, political instability that began to surface in the passing years and
continues today has seriously affected the country's tourism sector. In 2003,
the country received 57,539 visitors, an increase of 1% compared to 2002. 22%
of tourists came from France, 10% of Burkina Faso and 9% were from Benin.
After breakfast, we had some free time until we had to
meet the group at 9am, so Patty and I walked a block to get to the beach and
have a look around there. It was
relatively quiet and we were not hassled by anyone which was nice and we were
able to get some photos before making our way back to the hotel. We stopped at one of the small stall in the
lane of the hotel where a lady was selling beads and as always I am not one to
walk away from jewelry and I left with a necklace I paid 4AUD for and Patty
left with an applique of Africa and a wooden statue from the guy across from
the bead shop which he reluctantly sold to us for what I though was a good
price. 9am came around and Zoe and Sam
were in the middle of making calls and juggling itineraries and said that they
would be another hour or so, which was fine with me as I was able to get onto
the internet (slow but connected) and get some more blogging done to pass the
time. At 10.50am we were briefed, and
the guys were able to reverse our whole itinerary, change and reconfirm all our
accommodation and we also had news on the visa, where we had to go to extend them
and by 11am we were back on the truck to head to immigration and sort out the
visa issue. The drive was interesting as
it took us pretty much through town and it was cool to see a city in the
morning as people head to work and what the locals were doing in full
technicolour vision with their amazing colored clothes bringing what is
normally a boring thing to watch very interesting.
We arrived at the immigration department at 11.45am and
with a wave to Sam, Zoe took the 5 of us who needed to extend the visas we had
obtained last night. The small building
faces the street at the back of a small carpark and there were 2 small, half
circle windows where you spoke to the person behind the glass. I couldn’t even see the officer from where we
were standing, but after waiting only 10
minutes, Zoe was getting the gist and forms required for us to fill in, which
we did and with a payment required to extend the visas of 500CFA (1AUD) we
waited again in line for a further 10 minutes to drop in the applications and
the money and then it was going to be a waiting game on whether they would
issue the visas now or whether Zoe had to stay another night in Lome as we
pushed onto Togoville. Having Zoe know
French is a god send in this part of the world, as I am just not sure how we
would have fared had we not had a French speaker on the road, and Dragoman knew
this and that is why Zoe got the job for these legs and it was a very smart
move indeed on Dragomans part and I will be praising that in my feedback form
at the end of my trip. We are lucky to
have Zoe. In the end we only had to wait
40 minutes and the gentleman came outside with a massive book that we had to
sign stating we had received our passports back and then we were on our way
back to the parked truck within the hour.
After the day that we had yesterday, this was turning out to be a far
better travel day! While we were doing
our visas, Sam was left the task of cleaning out the fridge which hadn’t worked
since day one and we had some meat in there that was starting to smell a little
gross, actually it was a very vommity kind of smell and when we came back it
was all cleaned and disinfected and we now knew not to buy any cold stuffs
until the fridge had a chance to get fixed.
We had been struggling the last few day to keep the cheese and butter
cool enough in the heat that we had been travelling in (some days the butter
was just liquid), but at least the smell was gone as it was permeating the back
of the truck.
As we were parked and it was now 1pm, we decided to eat
at a local café that was along the side of the road and after Zoe conversing in
French we were going to get some rice with vegetables for 1000CFA (2AUD) for
lunch and it sounded good to us. Like
most restaurants in Africa, even a simple meal of rice cannot be rushed and 40
minutes later we had food on the table and within 10 minutes it was all wolfed
down-we were hungry! While we were
waiting there were sellers coming in and out of the open courtyard where we
were sitting trying to sell their wares from socks to a walking stationary shop
to pineapples. The good thing I have
noticed is that once you say no, they just keep on moving, none of this
hassling thing and I really like that.
The rice was delicious and certainly worth the wait and by the time we
had paid the bill, we were back on the road again for our final stop of the
day, which wasn’t that far from where we were with an expected drive of an hour
or so.
We were back on the road at 3.15pm and we were basically
just following the coast, literally, the beach was 10m away from us for most of
the ride today, so we got a great view of the Atlantic Ocean and also the
people enjoying what was a hot but glorious day. It really has a tropical feel here with all
the palm trees everywhere, the beach and sand and the vibrant colours of the
locals just makes me smile when I see a man wearing a matching pant suit
(bottoms and top) made of bright colours, with pinks, blues, reds and greens
and I have to say they look very smart and some of the men were wearing
matching material as the ladies they were with.
We pulled up to camp just after 4pm and tonight we were camping on the
shores of the Lake Togo. It was a sandy
beach that had individual huts for accommodation, a bar down one end and then huts
with chairs, which you could sit in and drink a cold beer, and that is exactly
what we did. There was an option to
upgrade here into one of the huts and by the time we took off the camping cost
per person, we only had to pay 2000CFA (4AUD) each to have a bed, shower and
toilet for the night. When I use the
word upgrade, we aren’t talking the lap of luxury and Pat and I have to share a
double bed, but when you look at the tent versus a mattress for the night, (I
do love the tent) but when on a 70 day hard core trip and for 4AUD I am going
to take an ‘upgrade’ for the right price when I can. Who in their right mind would say not to that
and decide to sleep in a tent. Well who,
besides Patrick, who being the odd man out, said he will still hoist his tent
as he didn’t have anyone to share with, but before you feel sorry for him, he
also gets the single rooms at the hotels, so he knew he had to take the bad
with the good and was more than happy to pop up his tent for the night. That is one thing I love about this group, we
are all willing to help out, no matter what and nothing is ever too much hassle
which makes for a special group of individuals that is for sure.
We had free time until 7.30pm when we would be getting a
meal prepared from the camp site that we had preordered when we arrived. So I bought a cold beer and with laptop in
hand, I found a bungalow that had a power point and started to write up my blog
with Lake Togo as my view over a yellow sandy beach-perfect. Slowly over the course of the hour, the
entire group came over to have a beer and before I knew it I had lost my mojo
to write my blog and the next few hours were filled in chatting. I have to mention that I have some pretty
smart people on my tour. Not just smarty
pants smart, but a smart in another league smart, as I find it hard to keep
track of their conversation smart. Andy,
Harjit, Zoe, Sam and Patrick are all well versed in movies (and not just main
stream) books, music, politics, religion, people, smart stuff and they are all
on the same wave length and even though I cannot contribute to their
conversations at all, I enjoy hearing them all discuss and talk about ideas and
I am just glad that they are all on the same tour, as I think I would actually
be quite boring company to them, well I think anyway. I’m not left out and I have a great repore
with them all, but man they are SMART people.
It was during this conversation that it came out that Patti was NOT
doing the 10 week West Africa trip, but 3 weeks and then flying to Kenya to do
the 7 week overland trip there. Not only
was she devasted as she thought we were all doing the same thing with her, Zoe
and I were sad that she was not coming with us all the way. So it now works out that I am the only person
doing the whole 10 week trip and the next leg there are only 5 of us (me and 2
couples) which makes me nervous as I will always be the odd man (woman) out,
but after watching Patrick put up his tent this afternoon on his own, I think I
can erect my own tent without help and I think that will be a big plus in not
having to bug people that I need help.
Nothing is worse than that and I want to play my ‘solo’ card for
something else than helping me put up my tent. The upside is that there will be
plenty of room on the truck and seats will not be an issue. We have run with the seat rotation on this
trip, which I am never a fan of as I like to spread my stuff out in the one
place, but to keep with the group I rotated yesterday and found myself at the
seats with the table and I have to say that I am happy with the move now and
worked in my favor I think and would be happy to stay here if no one else
wanted the tables, but the thing with the table seats is there is room to
stretch your legs and I think they are going to be in high demand. Oh well, the upside of the seat rotation is
that my truckers tan will be an even one-hopefully.
I was back to the room at 8.30pm (it sounds pathetic I
know) and the funny thing is that my roomie Pat, is like 20 years older than me,
has stayed out later then me every night.
Not so much as stayed out later, as I am generally still awake when she
comes back, but I am so tired and just want to get to my room/tent at night to
unwind, blog or read before hitting the hay!
I think I had forgotten just how hot and humid feel and it knocking us
all for a six during the day, but I am loving the trip so far and can’t believe
it has nearly been a week already since I left Kenya.
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