Monday morning Maria got the all clear and a course of pills and I declined a second dripping preferring a prescription of oral medication. We then left Togo and drove over to Benin. After stopping for our lunch in Hilla Condji for avacado sandwich, fried plantain and mangoes, we reached Grand Popo. We drove up and down a few times after the place we wanted to stay at was shut down. Eventually a deal was struck up for us to camp at Saveurs d’Afrique. Another beachside location.
They had a nice veg garden and lots of flowers.
Lukas and I went on a walk with our cameras. A shop with some cool recycled art out front that looked like a snowboard invited us in. It was filled with beautiful calabash lamps and pots.
Sedzro Koukou showed me the workroom where his father was carving, punching holes and painting. His father asked to take a photo of my blue t-shirt I bought in India. He wanted to use the design. Really cool shop.
Next we met two school girls on their way home Fosti and Mary-Ang. They were pointing at the camera asking Lukas to take each others photo but ran away anytime he pointed it at them. They were having fun and eventually posed for the camera.
Lastly we visited a cool traditionally built building. Outside wooden objects lined two tables. Inside things hung from the ceiling and art lined the walls.
Dondo told me his name means precious in English. He seemed super chilled wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Never regret anything, because at one time it was exactly what you wanted.”
I forget the father and his son’s name but there was a nice vibe in the place. I really like Grand Popo, it’s got plenty going on. I spent a euro on lots of vegan goodies in a wee shop.
If the sea was a little less rough I would call it a paradise.
Jussi made some friends at the Finnish place here so we left him and Tom V to stay an extra night. I think they made the right decision.
Saying goodbye to Grand Popo we stopped in Ouidah to look around town for lunch break.
A couple of us visited the castle which had beautiful trees out front.
The guys working in the castle had a cool radio.
Another highlight was the carved tree which Christian is admiring.
Afterwards we drove onto Cotonou. Unfortunately the Chinese were busy digging up the main road along the coast so we had a hard time navigating sandy roads and low hanging electricity cables. Eventually we stopped at some shacks on the beach at the very basic Chez Romane.
Lukas and I went for a walk again while the rest of the Vikings sat in a pizza place. The outskirts of Cotonou doesn’t have much to see until we stumbled across a sculpture of a giraffe. Jussi would be jealous. He has a bet if he sees a real giraffe in the wild he’ll get a tattoo of one.
I like the tandem bicycle with the little flip flops.
The artist was called Eric and he came over and invited us to his workplace. His house looked really smart from the outside and he let us sit on his bench while Lukas ate his daily dose of mango.
I enjoyed watching him think about how to improve the commission pieces he was working on. There’s a lot of thought processes involved in creating art.
In the morning a lady with her baby on her back had set up a food stall. Christian and I went over and saw her serving a bowl of pinkish liquid with two fried dough balls for 200 cfa (£0.24, €0.30). I had no idea what it was as my French remains good for ordering my favourite food and the weather. Perhaps stretching to describing my family and their type of hair (things I remember from high school French).
My guess after tasting it, as I’m such a connoisseur, maize and some kind of fruit? It was a bit strange at first but the taste grew on me. Christian gave me his second dough ball as he’d filled up on gruel and that was my favourite part. We drove on and into Cotonou to La Guesthouse. Here we negotiated three small apartment rooms which had en suite and a little kitchen. The owner was very accommodating filling the small pool for us and buying internet data for us to tune out on. I got to sleep in a real bed!
He arranged for his worker to drive with us on motto-taxis to the voodoo market. It wasn’t very exciting. Lots of dead dried animals for potions to cure all kinds of ailments.
We walked back on a very hot day and all got a little red. Cooking duty was having fun elsewhere so Christian stepped up and made us all jallof rice.
On Thursday we drove to Ganvie which is a floating village on stilts. It was said if you lived above water on stilts your fellow man could not capture you and sell you as a slave. Which is how the village came about. Now it works well farming fish and buying and trading in town. It has everything from a mosque
To schools and hospitals.
I even saw a shop where you can pay to charge your phone, and a hairdressers.
Lawrence was our guide on our narrow boat. We all opted for the cheaper option of a no engine boat ride but this must be a gimmick or out of laziness because we used an engine.
I fell in love with the sun god masks which are round with horizontal mouths and eye slits. Colourful seed beads add life and interest in differing patterns.
There are even a few trees around the village.
Back on land we walked round the village where prices double due to our whiteness. Everyone calls us Yovo here. I had a little dance at a mango sellers stall as she was playing a cool song. They all laughed at me. In a nice way I’m sure.
Trucking on we stopped at a school at sundown. It felt really awkward as the language barrier prevented much mingling. It felt like fifty people in pockets surrounded us staring. I guess it’s like TV for them providing entertainment. I think seeing a group of three guys cooking dinner that night would have been most interesting.
The trees were cool where we pitched our tents.
The security guy was nice enough but at 12.30am some kids ran through our camp shaking a few tents calling “Yovo.” Not the best vibe from the locals.
Our next stop was in Agonie where there was a burial site and skull throne Frazer said was a must see. I was feeling a bit under the weather as my throat was soar again so enjoyed a lie down. The majority who paid a couple thousand said it wasn’t worth it as the guide only spoke French and our native French speaker is selfish when it comes to other people and their enjoyment. I.e. He didn’t translate for anybody. There were no photos allowed either.
We wild camped that Friday night in a large clearing which housed a burnt out orange truck.
Again about twenty locals all stood around watching us.
Dinner didn’t include a vegan option for the first time that night. I didn’t like to make a fuss and thought it was only butter but got a dicky tummy all the next day. You might not like to hear about these things but it’s a reality on a trip like this and you’d be surprised at how comfortable we have all become about talking about such things.
Saturday 30th April and we drive into Nigeria. The road either side of the border is so bad it took us 7.5 hours to drive a total of 100km! Might have had something to do with the amount of checkpoints we crossed too. Each one stopping us and questioning the boys. Some made us come down and present our passports, others wanted to see our yellow fever certificates. I complained to one guy that there were so many check points we hadn’t been able to stop for lunch and it was pushing 4.30pm already. He gave a few of us small freshly fallen mangos and water sachets to drink and wash our hands.
I’m not sure how effective Nigerian police are. One guy at a checkpoint had a man stand on his hands with his feet up the tree as a punishment for something. When he saw us coming he paused his torture until we started moving again. The two men on their knees in front of him looked like they were going to cry. I also saw him wave a big stick in there faces.
Our first night was spent in Abeokuta within a walled compound. At ten pm a few of us wanted to go out to see the nightlife. I had been speaking to the receptionist Fatima who told me there was a club down the road but when we got to the gate the security guard told us it was locked and he couldn’t open it.
After a little confusion we ended up speaking to the manager. He told us kidnapping was a problem here in Nigeria and nothing was open at this time of night anyway. We told him we wanted to walk around regardless so he compromised and said he would walk us up to the main square to show us Nigerian nightlife.
His security guard came with and what do you know but a festival was taking place that night. He told me it happens once a year but someone else told Bjorn it happens every weekend. Either way I felt a bit uneasy as it was dark and we weren’t sure what was happening.
The manager decided it would be a good idea for us to go to the front and he organised chairs and eventually tables too. Everyone had done the same with white garden furniture. I found it most uncomfortable especially because people were filming it and lots of people came up to us to film and photograph us. One guy took loads of selfies with some of us. It was like being an animal at a zoo.
The main event was some people dressed in white talking in their local language, or rather shouting down the microphone. It was religious and people kept shouting “acha” which means amen here apparently. Once or twice they stopped their preaching and had a little dance off. Amazing moves I might say.
The security guy escorted a couple of us back to the hotel and no one got kidnapped. A successful night out. Not even one mugging.
In the morning I got to Skype with my mum and dad, brother Scott and his children Primrose and Rory. I was very lucky to have access to some fast internet and the timing when my brother was up for the weekend. Other Vikings were told the Internet was down or that they would need to pay for another access code as they weren’t staying that night.
We took bets how many times we would get stopped on Sunday May 1st, but were only stopped twice. We were finally on a duel carriageway but even though there were two lanes on each side of the divider, traffic freely went in both directions on both sides.
We ate plantain chips from a gas station for lunch and found a nice grassy clearing to camp where no one came to stare at us.
Martina did her presentation on Nigeria which included some photos on her mobile. Saddest fact is not the 52 life expectancy or 67% literacy but that 95% of natural trees have been deforested. There’s still plenty trees though, I guess it’s like Britain where certain species are planted and others don’t make the chop.
I turned into the tent early because the mossies were out biting my ankles!
I really liked Benin, perhaps because I met some super cool people. Let’s see what Nigeria’s got to offer, although Frazer doesn’t like it and wants to get through it as fast as possible.
betsybluetoes 