Bribes and Voodoo

Time to leave Accra and start making our way towards Togo. There was only one more stop in Ghana to do first, the Wli Waterfalls. The falls are the highest in West Africa and really spectacular. It does however require a bit of a hike to get to the best part.

The hike was about one and a half hour one way and more up and down than sideways. With a temperature of about 35°C it was exhausting. All clothes were completely soaked in sweat when we reached the top waterfall. But it was all worth it. The view was amazing, and the small lake at the bottom of the fall was perfect for a refreshing swim after the hike.

The next day it was time to cross the border to Togo. Togo is one of the few countries for which we didn’t get visas beforehand. The reason for this is that the embassies only issue expensive 30-day visas whilst we only wanted the cheaper 7-day transit visa that you can only get at the border. What we didn’t know was that the transit visa is only issued at some border crossings. The one we went to was of course not one of them. With our Ghanaian visas about to expire we couldn’t really go back and find another crossing either so finally the border officials decided that they could let us out of Ghana given that a Togolese official follows us to get the visas at some other crossing in Togo. Of course they needed a bit of extra money for that on top of the visa fee. As far as I know this was the first bribe we’ve had to pay on this trip but it’s most likely not going to be the last one.

Once in Togo we were in a proper jungle in the mountains with some really great views and some really shitty roads. The truck was rocking like a boat from all the potholes. Frazer, who’s done this kind of trip many times before, called it “a warm-up for Congo”.

Getting the visa required a bit of a detour on the Togolese side but eventually we got it. At this point it was getting dark and it was really hard to find a place to bush camp. Luckily we met a pastor who said that we could pitch camp in the backyard of a church in a small town. When we asked how much it would cost he replied “No, no, it’s free! This is not Ghana”. Really friendly people and surprisingly well educated. Several people in that small town spoke at least some level of both English and German (and of course also the official language French as well as local languages).

Togo is a pretty small country and very narrow, something we noticed when we reached the coast and the capital, Lomé. The Togolese coastline is only about 57km long and we drove through almost a third of it just by driving from the centre of the city out to Coco Beach in the suburbs where we camped on the beach for a couple of nights.

From there it was easy to get a taxi into Lomé for some sightseeing with the main sight being the fetish market. Going to the fetish market is a little bit like going to a hospital for believers in voodoo. First you go into a shaman’s hut and explain what you need help with. He will consult the gods and tell you what you need. Then you go out in the market and buy the ingredients and he will make a potion for you, either with herbs for drinking or with dried animals that he grinds up and mixes with herbs to bath in. The shaman also showed us different talismans and amulets that he could bless for you for good travel, protection of your home, or various other things.

The guide clearly emphasised that they only deal with white magic, magic that only helps people, no black magic. He also made it clear that animals were not killed for this, it was only animals found dead, and since a few years ago It’s even regulated by the government so that they can’t have certain commonly poached and endangered animals any more, mainly elephants, rhinos and lions.

Lomé also have a pretty amazing monument of independence and when we got there five or six people was working on mowing the lawn around it and preparing the area. We asked around what they were preparing and apparently there will be a big parade there on the national day 27th of April which is in less than a week. Sadly our visas expires a few days before that so we didn’t get to see anything more than the preparations.

The rest of the days in Togo were spent just relaxing on the beach or exploring the area closest to the campsite. Tomorrow it’s time to head off to Benin!