Been-in Benin

Dani & I woke and decided what to do next. It was strange being alone without Maddy, we'd all made decisions in the past and now there was just the two of us again. We got a lift into town and went back to Tanguieta bus station with the guy who'd given us a lift offering to drive us down to Natitingou when he'd loaded his van.

Dani & I sat under a mango tree for the best part of 2hrs chatting to two old men, their friend turned up and he was also going south to Natitingou and offered us a lift. We went back to the bus station and after a bit of grief from the first driver we got our packs unloaded.

Natitingou was a strange town. It was about 3km long with a few streets on either side of the main road. We went to Le Vieux Chevalier and ended up in a cell like room with no natural light for 5,500. We went out in search of an internet cafe, we were in 'zem'-land - no taxis in towns everything is done on scooters/zems so I had to hire two for us. Zem is a Beninois word coming from the term zemigden signifying 'emmene moi vite' (get me there quickly). In Togo the word changed to 'zed'. But being New Years Day, none of the internet cafes were open. So we went for a wander around town having disposed of our zem drivers and came across a lovely stone built church! Eventually we ended up in a cafe where we both felt uncomfortable and got another zem each back up the hill to the auberge. Dani took to reading the bible left in the room, she'd had some interesting conversations with Maddy about Islam & Christianity & apparently told Maddy she was going to read both the Bible & the Quran. I sat outside in the courtyard watching TV with the staff & endless friends that were popping in. We decided that we should leave Natitingou in the morning and head over the border to Togo, sadly we had only spent less than 48hrs in Benin.

We crossed the border in the morning from Natitingou in Northern Benin, we ended up hiring a whole taxi or else we knew it was going to be a long wait so from a price of 25,000CFA we got it down to 10,000CFA and happily left Natitingou.It was the most wonderful border crossing this morning through the spectacular Tamberna Valley with the Tata Somba houses which look like miniature fortresses ... got to Boukoumbe and immediately found a taxi to take us to Nadoba the other side of the border. But then we realised that the driver had gone past the gendarmerie (where I'd asked him to stop) we should have had our passports stamped so we had to get zems to go back 2km to see them! The Peugeot 504 came down the road to find us - technically a seven seater; there was D and I in the front with her leg beside the accelerator pedal on one side and my bum on the handbrake with another guy beside me; so 4 in the front, another 12 were in the two back rows plus all the stuff they were taking to market in Nadoba the other side of the border sitting on the roof a tight squeeze for 7km!

We got to Nadoba with most of the village staring at us, apparently foreigners don't often come that close to that bit of the border! It was market day and very busy, we found another taxi heading for Kande and sat under a tree with some kids watching us, waiting for our taxi to be ready. We wandered into the market and bought a few presents before getting squashed into our taxi. We headed off to Kande about 30km away in another squashed taxi to get our passports stamped for Togo as the immigration guy at Nadoba didn't want to do it. However we were passing through the Tata Somba area of Togo and about 5km from Kande we were stopped by the police and I was asked to get out of the taxi. The 'heated' conversation went a bit like this:

'You have come from Nadoba'
'No, I came from Natitingou via Boukoumbe'
'You have to pay 1,500CFA'
'Why?'
'You have seen our country'
'No, I have a visa, you are not immigration, I don't need to pay anything'
'But you have seen our country, you have seen the Tata Somba villages'
'No, I have been sleeping, I didn't see anything, I came from Natitingou in Benin'
'You can go when you pay 1,500CFA each for you & your friend'
'I slept, I'm tired, I am not paying anything, I came from Benin, this is a road'
'You must pay'
'I must pay for what? Driving along a road, tired? I didn't see anything'
'OK, you can go'

I was spitting feathers by the time I got back to the taxi. Furious that there was yet another tax & more hassle to go through .. but I'd made it out of his police post without paying a penny!

We got to Kande, eventually I persuaded the driver to take us to the police there after leaving our packs at a cafe. He dropped us on in the heat about 2km away, the police were very nice, stamped our passports and told us the shortcut to get back to the main road & our packs. We found a minibus heading south to Kara. We had a bit of a mutiny on the minibus, meant to hold about 12, the driver stopped all the time to pick up more & more passengers and we quickly grew to 20 with kids sitting on everyone's laps. Finally we all ranted at him and he told one family to get out.

Arriving in Kara, we got a 'zem' (Togo word for a zed) there weren't any taxis in towns everything is done on scooters/zems so I had to hire two for us again. I threatened the driver of Dani's zem with cold blooded murder if he drove too fast before we set off it was interesting as it was the first time we were on zems with all our stuff, packs went over the handlebars whilst we clambered on behind the drivers ... Dani had full authority to twist the drivers ear if he didn't respond to 'doucement' - but they were really good ...

Looking around for a hotel, we didn't find much, they were all very dodgy looking but finally we picked one; the restaurant guy at lunchtime assured us that the 3rd one we chose wouldn't turn into a brothel at night and was very respectable!!! We couldn't find much to do in or around Kara and decided to head south, I wanted to go to the cocoa & coffee growing region of Kpalime but Dani was dying to see the sea again. Her boredom showed when she started taking photos of the interesting tablecloth!!!