Ghana, Togo, Benin

After our days of relaxation on the beaches of Ghana we went inland to Hans Hotel which is built over a crocodile lake. It is a bit run down but the setting is very cool, the crocs just swim around while your in the bar/restaurant above and you can go walking around the lake if your brave enough (as the crocs roam free). From there we went to Kakum National Park which is apparently the only canopy walkway in the whole of Africa. That was incredible but not if your scared of heights as it is a series of rope bridges, 30-40m high, through the top of the rainforest. The only thing was that you don't see any animals because the trees are so dense, some people saw monkeys but the only thing we saw were butterflies. Then we went back to the sea again to Cape Coast Castle which is an old slave fort right on the beach where we had a guided tour. It was very interesting and quite emotional at some points, down in the dungeons where the slaves were kept in horrendous conditions, through the 'Door of No Return' (fortunately which has now been changed to the 'Door of Return') where the slaves were taken down onto the ships and up to the goveners huge bedroom with 180 degree views out to sea!
Since the castle, we have had a few more days on the beach staying in hotels which seem to be overrun with single, old, fat white women with young, black male hookers (nice). On the way out of Ghana we had another run in with the police at a checkpoint. They wanted a piece of paper for the car which doesn't seem to exist in Spain so it turned into a big argument. Then they decided that they were taking us to court and started to fill in all of the paperwork. We told them that was ok but if we had to go to court we were taking the policeman from the last checkpoint who had tried to bribe us for money. . . they soon tore up their papers and said goodbye! Cheeky buggers! Whilst Adam was dealing with all of this another officer was trying to chat me up and kindly let slip that they have absolutely no communication with other police or vehicles to chase people, so through the rest of Ghana, Togo and Benin we just waved at every checkpoint and pretended that we didn't realise we had to stop and hoped that they didn't shoot at us. The only time we got a bit worried was when Adam actually took out one of thier barriers which in all fairness was only a bamboo stick and they stood waving thier guns around! ooops!
Togo was only 56km wide so we camped at Lake Togo, just so we could say we stayed there. It was supposed to be a safe lake, one of the only ones in West Africa where you can swim in still water without catching some strange disease from snails. We were surprised when we got down to the waters edge and found snails crawling in between our toes. . . needless to say we did a quick U-turn. What more can I say about Togo? Bad roads, worse drivers but we were happy to be staying in our own bed once again after some terrible ones in Ghana.
Onto Benin and some more bad roads, bad driving, bad accidents and dead bodies at the side of the road. We bush camped all the way up through the country and went into Pendjari National park in the north. It is a massive park with loads of different routes through and your supposed to take a guide but they only spoke French so we took a sneaky photo of the park map and went in on our own. The first day we saw hippos, crocs, baboons, warthogs and bambi's (don't know which type because we didn't have anyone to tell us)! That night we stayed about 10m from a hippo lake, next to a group of park rangers for protection. Hippos are extremely noisy animals so we didn't get much sleep as they were fighting and jumping out of the water every few minutes. There was also some type of big cat purring all night although we didn't see any. The next day we were lucky enough to see a whole herd of elephants heading back after their morning drink and a male on his own down by the water but it wasn't as amazing as when we saw them in Mole Park as we couldn't get up close.
We left the park and Benin to go back into Burkina Faso. For anyone that is missing us already, yes we are heading back north, HOME! We can't get the visas for Nigeria because of the elections that are going on at the moment. It is very bad there now, just like Ivory Coast they are killing each other so we think it is best to give it a miss this time. However, we have been planning a trip down the East coast of Africa already!!! Now we are back in Ouaga at the OK Inn, we never thought we would be this happy to be back but we have a pool, wifi and good food for a change. We managed to get the visas for Mali this morning, at 3 times the price of when you go in from the north, so we will be leaving tomorrow for a bit of sight seeing in Burkina.


Despues de nuestros dias de relax en las playas de Ghana, cogimos camino al Hotel Hans. Esta situado al lado de un pequeño lago donde el restaurante esta montado en postes en medio y esta lleno de crocodilos, esta un poco estropeado pero nos lo pasamos bien. Al otro dia fuimos al Parque Natural de Kakum donde hay una pasarela corgado entre arboles a unos 30/40 metros de altura donde se puede ver los monos etc. Del Parque fuimos a la fortaleza de Cape Coast donde estaba encarcelados los esclavos durante el siglo 16 en adelante, nos fuimos con un guia que explico todo lo que sufrian alli, y la puerta sin retorno donde salian a embarcar para America un dia emocional.
Nos quedamos los proximos dias en varios hoteles por la costa en camino a Togo, habia montones de solteras viejas blancas buscando jovenes putones en una(parecia el poligono de Malaga pero acontrario) decidimos salir de alli por pata. El ultimo dia en Ghana camino a Togo nos pararon 2 veces en un control, el primero no dijo ni buenos dias, me pidio dinero para su almuerzo. Le pregunte porque tenia que darle dinero? Me dijo que estaba alli para nuestro protection, yo le dije que era policia en mi pais y jamas pido dinero a turistas! Se quedo con la boca abierta y nos dejo ir! En la siguiente iban buscando dinero, decian que no tenia el permiso de circulacion internacional (cierto) pero yo le dije que si era, y el que no y yo que si etc. Le demostre que soy mas cabezon que el, al final me queria llevar a juicio y dije que vale, vamos pero si voy me llevo al otro policia que me pidio dinero. Se callo en la boca y me dejo pasar, pero mientras yo estaba peleandome con ellos, uno estaba intentando sacarle algo a Sophie y se le escapo que no tenia contacto con los demas policas en camino ni coche de patrulla asi de alli en adelante cuando en los controles levantaba la mano a pararnos pasamos de largo saludando como turistas tontos que somos!!!
En Togo que solo mido 56km de ancho paramos una noche en un lago, en africa hay que andar con ojo donde se baña uno, si hay un tipo de caracoles en el agua te puedes contagiar una enfermidad que da sueño, fui por la mañana a bañarme y vi miles de ellos. Me quede si bañarme!
Togo en general? Conducen como locos y las carreteras malisimo. Benin lo mismo, jamas he visto tantos coches reventados y cadavares tapados en el arcen. Las carreteras con unos baches increibles- En Benin nos quedas un par de noches en camino al norte acampados en el campo, dar igual lo bien escondido que estes, siempre aparece gente a mirar a los turistas blancos, en general son buena gente que vienen a saludarnos. Cuando llegamos al Norte de Benin nos fuimos al Parque Natural Pendjari, alli estuvimos dos dias sin guia menos mal y encontarmos elefantes y rhino, quedamos una noche acampados al filo del lago escuchando todo tipo de animales.
Ya estamos otra vez en Ouaga, Burkina Faso no hemos podido conseguir los visados para Nigeria por las problemas de elecciones. Se estan matando uno al otro ahora mismo, a ver si no pasa igual que la Costa Marfil. Asi que vamos camino a casa, iremos a Senegal y Gambia de camino, calculo que estaremos en casa en un mes mas o menos. Ya estamos pensando en el proximo viaje por la costa Éste, áun no me doy por vencido por ver Africa por completo!! Un saludo a todos.