Geography lesson in Togo

Day 9

Our lovely posh bus went home - I don’t know what time the driver appeared last night with our old (now fixed, apart from aircon) bus.

A rough dirt road led to Ghana - we saw that coffee and cocoa were grown on each side so we had a brief stop at a cocoa area to see and then a spontaneous quick nip in to school in Togo.

The Togo border just a hut, several km from the Ghana border where John the Portuguese realised he’d left his rucksack at the Togo passport place so the guide got a motorbike taxi to go back. It was still there. We had a 2 + hours wait for the passports and bus to get done. I think all the police stopping us and border delays could be due to us having a Nigerian bus and driver.

Ghana has Tuktuks instead of motorbike taxis and looks much more prosperous in places.

We had a local lunch for speed - Mr C had goat stew chosen from a vat. Diane and I got cold rice, fried plantain, a hard boiled egg and a hot sauce which had some kind of mashed fish and tomatoes. It was tasty.

We stopped to change money not long after crossing the Volta river and continued on to see Cedi’s bead production Arriving around 4.30. The beads are made in traditional style and fired in a wood burning kiln. The dyes are natural. Some beads are made with old bottles after establishing which type of glass is compatible. If would all fall apart if not.

It’s been a long day of over 12 hours from leaving to arrival and the poor aircon soon stopped working. We got very hot, tired and grubby with the windows open as we are travelling on some dirt roads very slowly. My hair was orange. Our bus is always last to the hotel - we arrived at 8pm.

Neither the driver nor the guide has a clue of the route so Lloyd and Aggie, (Lady Malaysia), use their phones to direct. It was a tough day for the driver The towns are so busy and he has 3 people shouting different directions at him. It’s dangerous too, driving in the dark. Capital View Hotel in Koforidua is nice and I’m sure all the grumpy people will be happier in the morning. Everyone, even those who have visited over 100 countries, thinks this is the toughest trip they’ve done.