Since we started our trip, we’ve heard thing again and again from family and friends: “You’re moving quite fast”. It doesn’t really feel like that for us but what might contribute to the impression is the rather large number of countries we pass through. Togo was country number 11.
And it was a quick one: Togo is about 600 kilometers long from North to South, but only 50 to 140 kilometers wide. Our first impression: Togo is way more relaxed than Ghana. The traffic, the people in the streets, everything had a chilled vibe to it whereas Ghana tended to be hectic and loud.
Another thing that hit our eyes: people were wearing helmets here. In fact everyone on a bike was wearing a helmet. The Togolese police seems to really enforce that, while it seemed optional since we arrived in Morocco.
We set ourselves one task for Togo: to obtain visa for Gabon. First, we needed to get some money.
Then we needed photocopies of some documents.
And then we needed time. Time and patience. We went to the Gabonese embassy four times that day. We’ll spare you the details but in the end it worked: we did not leave empty handed. We got our smartphones back that we had to hand in every time at the entrance, and we got our visa. To be honest, we’re not even sure if we’ll use them, but it’s good to have options.
After this not so exciting day we left Lomé and went north. After about 100 kilometers we turned right and were rewarded with some beautiful trails, leaving the tarmac behind.
The few people by the side of the track were quite surprised to see us. Seems like these tracks are used by locals only.
We crossed the river Mono.
And then we crossed the border to Benin. It was an easy crossing with few people around and no hustlers or fixers. The kind of border we like best.
After one full and two half days, our time in Togo was already over. The first stop in Benin was a city called Abomey.