May 8, 2013 - Benin

Monday 29th April, 2013 Wild Camp, Niamtougou, Togo to Eco Lodge, Tanguieta, Benin Awake very early (before 6am) this morning to a totally clear day – very warm and humid. We cooked breakfast this morning and then left camp. The camp site was quite peaceful and away from the road – ideal for a bush camp. Some people had to change money – we had to get ice and also bread for lunch. We stopped at an artisan market where disabled people from the local community made all sorts of clothes, jewellery and the like for sale. After some time, whilst...

Apr 28, 2013 - Lome, Togo

So since I last updated, not a lot has happened. Made my way from Abidjan to a town called Cape Coast in Ghana, and stayed put for a week there. Cape Coast is an ok place , but there was too many people looking for money from you. For the first time I saw loads of white people, but all of them were working/volunteering there, and they pretty much keep themselves to themselves,also, I found them slightly stuck up, as they are of the opinion that they are out here changing the world..no, they're not!! Loads of young Scandinavian girls, and I...

Apr 12, 2013 - Lome, Togo

This was an early morning departure for our full-day tour of Togo. We started through the capital of Lome. Our pair of buses have a police escort to get us through all of the crazy traffic. It’s quite impressive that traffic parts & they pull over to the side & stop until we pass. Today we headed to Kpalime to see the village & deliver school supplies that passengers had donated. As we exploring the village I introduced myself to Mo & Eric from the UK. When Sean came over & introduced himself, she instantly said, "You're Wendy & Sean? We'll...

Nov 15, 2011 - Lome, Togo

Got into Togo with no problems and here we are in the capital, Lome. We visited the fetish market here where you can buy almost anything to make your spell - we even had a consultation with the local voodoo practitioner who tried to sell us things for a very high price! Luckily we restrained ourselves and just bought one to keep us safe on our travels. And now it is our last night in West Africa - celebrated with a bottle of Castel beer on the beach in Lome!

Feb 17, 2009 - Benin and Togo

After travelling through Southern Nigeria and around Lagos (we decided to give that a miss for obvious reasons) we crossed the border into Benin where we were back into a French speaking country and also the start of the slave trade and Voodoo. Voodoo here is very different to the US Hollywood description and basically is a type of religion which a vast amount of the country practice on a regular basis. Luckily they don't sacrifice people any more but they do still sacrifice animals - we saw a chicken's head biten off but more on that...

Mar 25, 2008 - Lome

Well that was definitely one of the easier trips I've had in Africa. My intention was to get up at 6am and try to be on the move by 7, that plan went astray when the locals decided to race motorbikes outside my hotel room all night. After an hour of snoozes I finally got going and took a taxi to the STC bus station for destinations to the east. The woman in the office in a typically Ghanaian maner told me that there was no bus, when I pointed to the timetable she just said that it wasn't going, Thank you! I don't know where the myth about...

Jan 10, 2008 - Lome

Having bought bus tickets on Rakieta bus line day before and got seats up front(ye!), we hiked to the station at 7 and bus left at 7:30 on time...very comfortable ride other than too little leg room for me, but far nicer than ride up on tro tro. Arr in Lome at 2 and went to French consulate to ck on Djibouti visas(return tomor at 8). Ckd in at Hotel le Galion(nice old French home), did banking exchg of Cedi(Ghana money to CFA), confirmed our Air Ethiopia tickets for the 5th & Bon called Todd. Todd will not be coming to Addis Abbaba as...

Jan 9, 2008 - Nadoba

Went to chevron station and after at least half an hour haggling we settled on a taxi for the day at 25000CFA round trip to Nadoba. Miso was our very good driver, helpful and understanding...tho we think he understood more than he let on...Went to the Wed market day in Nadoba, very different, no tourists(just us,ha). Stopped in a village and paid off the chief to see inside their homes(called tata), took pics and bought baubles. Lots of fetishes everyzhere. On our way back Miso took us up around Mt Kabye thru the town of Pya, President...

Jan 8, 2008 - Kara

Left Atakpame at 7 am on minibus arr in this fine town at noon...chkd into Hotel Sourire then ate our first meal of day across the way at Cafeteria Muset which only took an hour, the standard time for meal prep in W. Africa, friendly folks, good food. The drive up I noticed a great deal more uncontrolled burning of very large areas(many acrea). The general condition of houses is poor and run down, more than 50 per cent of the houses are mud brick/waddle construction with at least half also thatch roofs! The haze is persistant due to smoke...

Jan 7, 2008 - Atakpame, Togo

Headed for border via Ho then back up to Kpalime, Togo border crossing...went very easy with nice chat w/ police officer who recommended going to Kara to see tatas in Tamberma Valley(Nadoba). Since we had left early(7 am) we had a lot of time so opted to continue to Atakpame where we stayed at Hotel de l Amitie close to trotro station for trip N. nxt day.

Feb 12, 2007 - Bonjour

Hi everyone, sorry we have not emailed for a while. Lets just say that Nigeria does not have steady power supplies or internet cafes, plus weve been bush camping a fair bit. Today we are in Kpaline,Togo. The church bells are ringing outside right now for noon service, its a christian town. First to answer some of your questions.....* We are travelling with 16 other tourists and our tour leaders, Toni: british and Jay: new zealander. The tourists are mostly brits, aussies, usa and kiwi were the only canadians. The food is interesting here,...

Nov 25, 2006 - Kpalime' / Kuma

Fui con los gringos a hacer trekking en las montanyas de Togo. Primero fuimos a Kpalime', un pueblo desde donde alquilamos un taxi destartalado hasta Kuma, otro pueblo perdido. De alli fuimos a trekkear con un guia que nos ensenyaba como hacer los pigmentos de las plantas, y nos preparaba pinyas del campo, buenisimas. Pasamos por varios pueblos y llegamos a una catarata. Al regresar, en uno de las chozas del camino nos dieron a probar el plato local, un menjunje gelatinoso hecho a base de mandioca, llamado "fufu", que se comia con la mano...