Back to the coast ...

We headed out early in the morning at around 6.00am, it was light and I hoped that the previous night's zem driver wouldn't forget our arrangement to pick us up with a friend of his. Thanks to him I had left 10,600CFA at the bus station with the guardien ... I was worried that I'd never see the money or the tickets the guardien had promised to purchase for me. Arriving at the bus station on foot, I was thrilled to find that he'd got the final two tickets for the Lome bound bus. We hung around for a bit with Dani watching TV in the corner of the bus station whilst I managed to buy the most foulest coffee I think I've ever had in Africa!

We unfortunately had the back seats but on yet another great Rakieta service. The first few hours of the seven hour drive south were stunning. Pulling into Atakpame, we stopped for a short while to refresh, buy food and get drinks. I rang the Ghana Embassy in Lome to ask them whether we could put in for visas in the morning (Friday) and receive them the same day; some brusque woman told me it wasn't possible, it would take 48hrs therefore we would be stuck in Lome until Monday and the cost had risen to 12,000CFA.

Finally we pulled into Lome & I asked a man what the 'going rate' was for a taxi to Aveposo as Gianni had told me that 'Chez Alice' was a cheap and cheerful option to stay at. The man turned out to be a priest heading south for a conference; we all piled into a taxi together and dropped him off at a seminary before heading out to Aveposo.

Chez Alice was a fantastic option, we got a room for 3,500CFA on the edge of a courtyard garden with monkeys, dogs & cats running around. Dumping our packs outside the kitchen we met Alice who remembered Gianni immediately! We sat in the most gorgeous open air salon having a drink as the humidity of Lome was really getting to us. Dani decided to go & get her pack from the kitchen & move it to the room, as a joke, I said she could bring mine through too ...

We wandered down to the beach, beautiful but looked incredibly dangerous for swimming in, although we spotted what looked like rocks about 400m out, we later found out what they were ...

Heading back in, we met a Slovenian couple who had just landed; their first time in Africa they were trying to get to Nigeria but hadn't yet got visas organised. Having dinner together Dani told them of our trip so far, possibly went too far as they were looking more & more worried as she went on & on!!