The delays in Cote d'Ivoire meant that my Nigeria visa deadline was rapidly approaching, and given the hassle of getting the visa in the first place I couldn't afford to miss it. That meant that my time in Togo and Benin would be somewhat compressed, but I figured I just about had time to do the main things I wanted to do.
Crossing from Wli, I was straight into the area around Kpalime, Togo's biggest tourist draw. Set in the hills 120km or so north of Lome, the area is a green and tranquil place popular with trekkers. It is also the place that the former president had an official residence, though this hilltop perch was constructed with accommodation for a company of troops and one other special guest, so I will leave you to imagine what it was used for.
With a decent road, it was only a couple of hours to the capital Lome (even if I was slightly distracted by the sight of a coffin on a moped), and with the help of my guidebook and a friendly local Rasta called David I found a spot to camp at a beachside restaurant. It was a bit weird, given that I was the only person camping there, but also pretty sweet as I was just 30m or so from the ocean and could go to sleep every night to the sound of crashing waves.
My plan in Lome was to get my visa for Benin ASAP but I arrived on a Friday night, then after waiting until Monday morning I discovered that they only worked one and a half days a week (Thursday and half of Friday). Problem. Luckily, there was a solution in the form of a visa entente, a regional visa that allows entry to Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso among others. Great in principle, but it still took three trips to the Togo immigration service to finally sort it (I had to convert my transit visa to a tourist visa, then apply for a visa entente). Still, it was at least one day faster than the Benin consulate so I took it.
In between filling in paperwork, I did manage to do some sight seeing. First (and top of the list) was the Voodoo market. Though rather small and definitely touristy, it is also used by locals with voodoo beliefs, and the range of things on sale was unlike anything I have ever seen. Stalls were packed with monkey heads, cat and dog heads, dead birds, snake skins, antelope skulls, skinned rats and all manner of other strange things that I didn't recognise at all. I was offered charms (juju) to give me better luck, protect me whilst travelling, help my memory, make someone fall in love with me (or me with them), and increase my virility. There were also voodoo dolls with pins in, though these were apparently just for the tourists. I also took a ride along the coast to the scenic Aneho, and to Togoville on Lake Togo, this time with the excellently named Happiness, a Nigerian friend of David's. While the towns and the lake were nice enough, the highlight was getting my bike transported across the lake by pirogue. This involved five guys lifting it into the boat before we punted across (the lake is very shallow), where the 'captain' rounded up a few other guys to lift it out again. Nice to know that this works if I have to do this again somewhere else! I also managed to catch David's reggae band play a gig in town. It was actually the first anniversary of the band, everyone was in high spirits and despite the fact that I don't listen to that much reggae the music was awesome.
My Benin visa was ready on Wednesday morning, my Nigerian visa was valid until Friday so I hit the road hard to see as much of Benin as I could. This is a real shame as Benin, home of the Kingdom of Dahomey and also of voodoo, is somewhere that I would really have liked to spend more time. But, making the best of things, it was all about prioritisation. First stop was Ouidah, big voodoo town and home to the Temple of Pythons. This was a surprisingly small, and due to my limited French the guide was speaking in even worse English so I'm not entirely sure about everything that went on here (and that still goes on here) but there is an excellent hut with a pit in the middle where there are 50 Royal Pythons. In truth, the pythons weren't all in the pit when I arrived, they were spread out sleeping all over the room so I had to pick them up and dump them in the pit before I could take a photo with them.
After that I high-tailed it up to Abomey (with a small wrong turn through some tiny villages where people seemed very surprised to see me), to visit the Unesco World Heritage designated Royal Palaces. This is a sprawling site, somewhat reminiscent of the Forbidden City in Beijing in the way there were lots of different courtyards, that was home to the kings of the Fon people. The highlight was definitely the throne perched on the skulls of four enemies (sadly no photos allowed, but definitely continuing the Indiana Jones theme of recent days). After Abomey it was back down to Ganvie, a town of 35,000 people built on stilts in Lake Nokoue. There were some ingenious and elaborate methods for catching fish, and every family had to have three boats (one for the dad to go fishing, one for the mum to go and sell the fish in town, and one for the kids to go to school). Then, it was time to make like a tree and get out of there and so off I went to the Nigeria border.
Crossing from Wli, I was straight into the area around Kpalime, Togo's biggest tourist draw. Set in the hills 120km or so north of Lome, the area is a green and tranquil place popular with trekkers. It is also the place that the former president had an official residence, though this hilltop perch was constructed with accommodation for a company of troops and one other special guest, so I will leave you to imagine what it was used for.
With a decent road, it was only a couple of hours to the capital Lome (even if I was slightly distracted by the sight of a coffin on a moped), and with the help of my guidebook and a friendly local Rasta called David I found a spot to camp at a beachside restaurant. It was a bit weird, given that I was the only person camping there, but also pretty sweet as I was just 30m or so from the ocean and could go to sleep every night to the sound of crashing waves.
My plan in Lome was to get my visa for Benin ASAP but I arrived on a Friday night, then after waiting until Monday morning I discovered that they only worked one and a half days a week (Thursday and half of Friday). Problem. Luckily, there was a solution in the form of a visa entente, a regional visa that allows entry to Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso among others. Great in principle, but it still took three trips to the Togo immigration service to finally sort it (I had to convert my transit visa to a tourist visa, then apply for a visa entente). Still, it was at least one day faster than the Benin consulate so I took it.
In between filling in paperwork, I did manage to do some sight seeing. First (and top of the list) was the Voodoo market. Though rather small and definitely touristy, it is also used by locals with voodoo beliefs, and the range of things on sale was unlike anything I have ever seen. Stalls were packed with monkey heads, cat and dog heads, dead birds, snake skins, antelope skulls, skinned rats and all manner of other strange things that I didn't recognise at all. I was offered charms (juju) to give me better luck, protect me whilst travelling, help my memory, make someone fall in love with me (or me with them), and increase my virility. There were also voodoo dolls with pins in, though these were apparently just for the tourists. I also took a ride along the coast to the scenic Aneho, and to Togoville on Lake Togo, this time with the excellently named Happiness, a Nigerian friend of David's. While the towns and the lake were nice enough, the highlight was getting my bike transported across the lake by pirogue. This involved five guys lifting it into the boat before we punted across (the lake is very shallow), where the 'captain' rounded up a few other guys to lift it out again. Nice to know that this works if I have to do this again somewhere else! I also managed to catch David's reggae band play a gig in town. It was actually the first anniversary of the band, everyone was in high spirits and despite the fact that I don't listen to that much reggae the music was awesome.
My Benin visa was ready on Wednesday morning, my Nigerian visa was valid until Friday so I hit the road hard to see as much of Benin as I could. This is a real shame as Benin, home of the Kingdom of Dahomey and also of voodoo, is somewhere that I would really have liked to spend more time. But, making the best of things, it was all about prioritisation. First stop was Ouidah, big voodoo town and home to the Temple of Pythons. This was a surprisingly small, and due to my limited French the guide was speaking in even worse English so I'm not entirely sure about everything that went on here (and that still goes on here) but there is an excellent hut with a pit in the middle where there are 50 Royal Pythons. In truth, the pythons weren't all in the pit when I arrived, they were spread out sleeping all over the room so I had to pick them up and dump them in the pit before I could take a photo with them.
After that I high-tailed it up to Abomey (with a small wrong turn through some tiny villages where people seemed very surprised to see me), to visit the Unesco World Heritage designated Royal Palaces. This is a sprawling site, somewhat reminiscent of the Forbidden City in Beijing in the way there were lots of different courtyards, that was home to the kings of the Fon people. The highlight was definitely the throne perched on the skulls of four enemies (sadly no photos allowed, but definitely continuing the Indiana Jones theme of recent days). After Abomey it was back down to Ganvie, a town of 35,000 people built on stilts in Lake Nokoue. There were some ingenious and elaborate methods for catching fish, and every family had to have three boats (one for the dad to go fishing, one for the mum to go and sell the fish in town, and one for the kids to go to school). Then, it was time to make like a tree and get out of there and so off I went to the Nigeria border.
