Lome, Togo

The only transport to Lome from Atakpame was a shared taxi. We were four people across the back seat of the sedan and there were two adults and a baby in the single passenger seat in front. Luckily the road was pretty good most of the way so we didn't bump and bounce onto each other but it was extremely uncomfortable not being able to move our feet or arms. After a few kilometres, I realized the driver had started yawning and had wound his window down and was resting his arm on it, like he was getting himself comfortable to go to sleep. His eyes were very bloodshot and he dozed off, so we shook him awake. He must have made a joke to the other passengers about how we thought he was asleep and of course they all laughed at us and then dozed off themselves. It was only about nine in the morning, so maybe he had been up watching soccer on TV until late. For the rest of the journey John and I took turns to watch him in the rear vision mirror. The road was quite straight and there were no potholes or corners to provide any stimulation so it would have been easy for him to doze off again. After an hour or so he stopped and had a drink and something to eat and kept looking at us in the mirror and we at him for the rest of the trip. Along the highway we saw the wrecks of about five or six trucks . Once we hit the city, there were ample challenges to keep him alert and we could relax. We caught a taxi to a hotel, owned by a Swiss guy, not far from the beach. The main roads in the city were under construction so we had to take several detours. Many of the detours on the minor roads were very sandy and we were thankful that we had not decided to ride a motorbike the nine kilometres to the hotel. The hotel was an old villa with a restaurant below and the accommodation extended into a couple of the neighbouring villas as well. Although the place was fully booked they were able to find us a small room when we said we wanted to stay several nights. The place was dusty and dirty from poor cleaning: the housekeeper squirted water onto the floor from a drink bottle and then mopped it up with a dirty cloth on the end of a broom. She never used cleaners or rinsed the blackened cloth. I managed to find a rag and rewashed everything before we settled in. The next day we were able to get a bigger room and I had to rewash that one as well! There was free Wifi so we were able to sit on a balcony and catch up with emails and research the next part of our travels. The balcony was under a tree and the cleaner didn't clean it at all so I swept it everyday and left the rubbish piled in the corner but she still never bothered to do anything about it. We later heard that the owner was away so that maybe why they were pretty slack with the housekeeping! The beach looked beautiful but it stunk of urine and cooking waste. People seemed to live under the trees. They slept under the palm trees and cooked there. Their washing was spread on the sand to dry. No one was swimming as there is a very strong undertow and the huge waves thundered in to the shore. There are many French and German colonial buildings like this one but many are not maintained.

We were a short walk from a big shopping area with Lebanese supermarkets and flash hotels.

In the market, this lass sold baguettes filled with avocado, tomato, onion, lettuce and dressings.

We didn't bother to visit the art and craft markets with their wooden carvings, ironwork, pottery, weavings, and batik and wax printing even though we saw many galleries selling these items as well.

We ate French food in the hotel restaurant and met several interesting people. Jorn, was a German journalist from Bonn and he has spent many years in different parts of Africa reporting on all sorts of events. He told us how he had met Nelson Mandela a couple of times and about the various African leaders he had interviewed. He also told us about his 2000 African girlfriends...well not each one of them! He called them the 'Western Union girls ' ( a money transfer company ) because they have relationships with many westerners who then send them money every month. Of course they try to get as many boyfriends as they can to all send them money every month so they don't have to work but have enough money to look good to attract western men and support their families!

We also met Damian from the UK who had bought a motorbike in Mali and was travelling around on that. He was resting up as he was unwell and after some blood tests was told he had thrush and amoebic dysentery. He was able to get some medication and felt well enough to move on. We were able to get some information from him on Senegal, Mali and Burkino Faso which was very helpful.

The other Englishman we met was Chris. He had farewelled his girlfriend and was off to travel for four years. He was volunteering in an orphange in Ghana and had to get back there to record the children singing on a CD. His girlfriend had been in touch and he was headed back to the UK. We are hoping to be able to meet up with him in Mali and do some walking in Drogon Country together later on.

Lome has 675,000 people and we didn't find that much of interest there for us.