West Africa

The past two weeks have flown by and the multitude of experiences we have had are not only too numerous to record here, but are nearly too numerous for us to remember. In summary we travelled 3300km in 13 days on our first tour through Ghana, Togo and Benin and were completely overwhelmed by the atmosphere of this extraordinary part of the world. With the brilliant guidance of Janvier, our Beninois tour leader and the patient driving skills of our Togolese man at the wheel Comi we have seen everthing we could have wished to have seen. I have been taking notes on our travels via predictive text on my mobile and I have transcribed them below. Samantha has made her own notes and will hopefully upload her thoughts over the next few days as we kick back and relax at the beach. Read what you like, I know there's a lot to take in and please email us if you have any questions. Enjoy, I know we did.

Kumasi - Sunday October 19, Monday October 20.
Kumasi on first appearances seems a nicer city than Accra. I guess that comes from being at the centre of a monarchy (Ashanti) rather than at the centre of a republic. While presidents build monuments to their temporary greatness (these often date so quickly), kings have a whole lifetime to create a legacy. It is a well set out city and has a classic feel to it, with more double story buildings making for less sprawl. That's with the excpetion of the massive market which makes the Vic market look like a postage stamp. It occupies the entire city centre and has to be seen to be believed. It is literally miles across and is pulsing with people selling and carrying everything you can think of. One women had 30 empty 4L bottles on her head making her total height around 12 foot. Others were carrying entire dining sets, tables chairs and all. The colour and commotion was overwhelming, especially when you consider that this market has been like this for over 400 years. It was the climax to a day which began on sleppy Lake Bosumtwi on a boat with a man named George. The village would have seemed the most peaceful place on earth if not for the man ranting at us from a crudely shaped log canoe. Even when we were back on shore he continued to yell at us from 100m away on the water. There's one in every town I suppose. Up the road we stopped to taste some undistilled palm wine. Having tasted the distilled version a day earlier and determined that its best use would be for thinning paint, we were more impressed by this version, which was sweet. Drinking sweet wine from a Calabash in the beautiful bush with the cacophony of nature around us, this was a really authentic experience .... until the boy's mobile rang. Guess the palm wine business has reached the 21st century.

Born and Bread - On the road from Accra to Lome - October 23
Sogokope is apparently Ghana's bread basket. Any traveller is expected to pick of a loaf on the way through this otherwise unremarkable town by the Volta River. But quality comes at a price and in this town the price is being mobbed by up to 20 female bread sellers. Comi and Janvier opened their windows only to have multiple loaves thrown in front of them. It was like a reverse feeding frenzy. Comi is the coolest of customers but even he was a intimidated by the swarm of Bakeresses enveloping his Toyota. Their sales technique consited of throwing bread in the van and then demanding payment. Ten minutes and lots of squealing and shouting later Janvier had exchanged a couple of Cedi for a few loaves and we were on our way. Let's hope Baker's Delight don't cotton onto this ambush marketing thing!

Voodoo Land - Lome to Ouidah - October 24
From Lome we headed east and then north along a dusty track. We stopped and Comi, who had said about two words to us in English to this point, doubled his tally with the phrase 'good luck'. Ominous! We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, apart from a rickety conoe pointed in the direction of about 30 miles of swamp. We learned that our young oarsman was setting course for the village of Lebe, which was isolated from the rest of the world apart from a 20 minute canoe ride or a horrific 90 minute 4wd expedition. We had chosen the right means of transportation. I endulged in a little African fantasy, feeling like a mini-Marlow on my way to meet Colonel Kurtz in our own heart of darkness. But instead of meeting a crazy white man, we were on course for a voodoo ceremony. Up a goat track and through a maze of village buildings we were greeted by children echoeing the universal term from white man in the place 'Yovo'. The ceremeony was breathtakingly intense. Broken glass chewed on, cut black skin bleeding bright red, trances leaving people prone to be carried off and revived. Drums and drums and drums and drums, and singing and wide eyed kids lost in the whirl of colour and sound. Marratives played out in 1000 mini-scenes. A man smashes a bottle over his head while a women covers herself in corn starch. It's half pathos and half ritual and 100 per cent compelling.
As we make our way back through the reeds in the still water, there is reflection and plenty of respect.

Benin and Out - Ouidah to Dassa - October 25
Ouidah was at the heart of the slave trade and is at the centre of the voodoo culture. Millions marched through this seaside town on their way to untold misery in Brazil and the Caribbean but that only served to spread and to strengthen this remarkable culture. The Royal Pythons freaked me out a little, as did the fact that they were free to leave their little temple and wander the streets of Ouidah in search of a feed. Samantha was not intimidated and even had one of the holy snakes draped around her gregory peck. She's not scared of much. Another boat ride to a fantastical place, this time the village of Ganvie, completely built on stils at housing around 30,000. Mama Em drove a hard bargain on Samantha's tablecoth and Comi then drove a mean highway through to Abomey where the fierce and legendary Dahomey Kings ruled for a few hundred years and left their stories like Mambo figures on the castle walls. We rest in Dassa for the night craving Afro-French cuisine and a good night's sleep.

Up North - Taneka and the foothills of the Arakora Mountains - October 26 and 27 (Still don't know who won the Cox Plate)
Djougou is a dry and dusty town fed by the highway which runs through it. In the mid-afternoon sun the locals seek shade wherever they can and we stop to barter for knick knacks while little joe, our travelling cook, buys the lamb for tonight's meal, our first under the African stars. At the town of Kopargo, the locals turn decidedly friendly. Beautiful Tuareg women stop and gawk and the vanful of travelling Yovo. We buy ice and head down a dirt road to the village of Taneka. We camp at the primary school and kids soom stream from the cuttings in the cornfields and just hang about and look. Tents set up we head to the village to be met by more kids and two chiefs. The first is the spiritual chief, who wears nothing but goat skin and puffs on a large pipe. (He also has to collect his own waste, tough job that) The other is the chief of the village, a huge man in colourful clothing and outrageous sandals. On the wall of his mud hut are the mobile numbers of the other surrounding chiefs written in chalk. He proudly points to his own. The translation is from the local dialect into French and then French into English, it's like Chinese whispers but we think we get what he means. The kids don't want to let our hands go but one by one they drop off and leave us to walk back along a track framed by 10 foot grass on either side. In the morning we watch the kids sing the national anthem and it's all a little special. We then go north through Naititiangou and to another village. It's bloody hot and we seek shelter and like like lazy lions for the day. Late afternoon we wander through the villages of Tata, castle like structure built to keep out the slave raiders. The local women then put on a dance which is designed to put them on show for possible marraige. Sam joins in briefly. I'll take the little white one thanks, she looks perdy! Tomorrow we farewell Benin and cross back to Togo.

Life wasn't meant to be Togoleasy - October 28 and 29 - (Maldivian apparently, glad I wasn't there) Togo is the great land of contrasts. Even Comi conceded his country has been stuffed by a succession of autocrats who have run it. 'Ghana rich, Benin rich, Togo, no money. Big Houses, but no money' Togo has no shortage of remarkable colonial buildings but the roads are dreadful. The former president was able to build an international airport in his home town but was unable to find a single bit of tarmac to patch up the disgraceful national highways. Apparently the new bloke, the old leader's son, is better but if you'll excuse my cynicism, the only differnce between an idealistic autocrat and a despotic mad man is the amount of time they have been in office. Speaking of mad men, we watched and extraordinary night time fire eating show near Sokode. These guys were eating burning wood like they were Mars Bars. They chewed on the coals and lay on the fire laughing. It was showmanship Togo style. These guys are so engaged in ritual and spiritual life, but they are are disengaged when it comes to politics, unlike the vibrant democracies of Ghana and Benin. Surrounded by beautiful mountains we bumped and swerved our way to Kpalime and then up into the hills where the rain is falling so hard it feels like it will never stop. Tomorrow we are back into Ghana where the language is easier to speak but the food is harder to eat.