Previous country: Ghana
3rd January 2024 – 30 minutes to leave Ghana but 90 minutes for the formalities in Togo. I think they took so long to issue the visa because they were hoping for a cadeau!
Managed to get a Togocom SIM card in the nearest town to the border. We met a Tongolese man outside the telecom shop who flagged us down to say that he had lived for 7 years in Cardiff and some British friends had travelled from Cardiff to Togo in an old Land Rover and which he still had.
We are now staying on an organic farm called Ferme Yaka Yale. We have been shown around by Kaseem who explained the many vegetables that they are growing (Aubergines, sweet potatoes, herbs, fruits, radishes, tomatoes, lettuces, Indian spinach, maize, different beans etc etc). The head guy pulled me some radishes to try. Delicious but peppery hot, different variety I guess.
Indian Spinach:
21 year old Kassim has completed a baccalaureate but couldn’t continue to university for lack of funds. He now keeps cows and works on the organic farm. He speaks some English.:
4th January 2024 – Visited another waterfall. Steep path but only 15 minutes each way. Walked through a garden with Pineapples to get there.
We had lunch in an outside school classroom near where we parked the car. Some village kids came to talk.
We intended to stay at a place owned by a butterfly guide, however when we arrived the accommodation wasn’t good and he had been drinking and put the price up during the conversation so we decided to go back to the organic farm as we didn’t feel comfortable there.
Sometimes overlanding is difficult, you meet people you get on with really well and you have to move on. At least with social media you can keep in touch.
5th January 2024 – we are staying on a farm in the mountains owned by a German guy called Phillip. He has planted over 1,000 trees here and is building 4 dams to hold water. He has pigs, ducks, turkeys, chickens, donkeys and a pet monkey called Effier!
The view of the valley is incredible (sadly too much Harmattan haze in the photo). You can see the twisting switchbacks we came up to get here.
Went for a walk to Phillip’s waterfall and he explained his Ram pump that is a mechanical pump that works by gravity. He has damned a number of places around the mountain to store water. There is also a natural spring beside the waterfall producing crystal clear spring water.
There are new piglets born about a week ago so there are around 50 pigs here.
Today it is 30 degrees warmer here than at home in our village! Astonishing.
Tonight Phillip has a French friend visiting so has slaughtered a Cock and a Duck for supper. We helped to pluck them. Phillip with dinner:
None of the bird is wasted. Everything is used. In fact Phillip takes delight in eating parts that perhaps normally only the Chinese would eat!
Phillip is intelligent, articulate, thoughtful and very passionate about a sustainable way of living that avoids destroying the planet. He admits to being unconventional but we do have to heed the signs and change how we blindly consume.
Cheeky monkey at the water container. Phillip and Gloria have had him for 3 months now, he was found alone (his parents may have been killed for bush meat):
Bush meat is quite common here and in Ghana. We saw lots of unknown mammals held up for sale beside the road in Ghana especially. They eat rodents called Agouti (with peanut sauce!).
7th January 2024 – we returned to the organic farm and I spent the afternoon tending the tomatoes with Kassim. We chatted through the evening too. Took a parting photo:
Return to Togo
Return
12th January 2024 – 45 minutes on the border. A bit of confusion about the Carnet (it wasn’t signed by the exit customs but the incoming customs). This is Africa!
Milestone for George, 160,000 miles:
Visited a large market in Vogan:
Manioc:
