After an intense, interesting and exhausting time in Madiaso, I decided to set off again on for the last month of my time in Africa and travel southwards to greener regions. Before and during the first months of my trip, I had thought that I'd be spending most of my time in tropical parts of Africa and only a few weeks in Burkina Faso but then...
After I'd failed to get the visa for Ghana in Ouagadougou, I had no difficulty obtaining a 'Visa des pays de l'entente' which allows entry into five countries of the region.
Although I spent only about a week in Togo, I quite liked several places that I visited there especially the northern city of Kara and the beautiful lush region around Kpalimé.
After I'd failed to get the visa for Ghana in Ouagadougou, I had no difficulty obtaining a 'Visa des pays de l'entente' which allows entry into five countries of the region.
Although I spent only about a week in Togo, I quite liked several places that I visited there especially the northern city of Kara and the beautiful lush region around Kpalimé.
Lush vegetation...
... and nice villages in the Mt. Klouto region.
Even my time in the admittedly very hectic, polluted and noisy city of Lomé was better than expected.
However, it was great to find a place like Grand Popo just across the border in Benin to chill out for a few days. Grand Popo is home to a Finnish cultural centre (don't ask me why there's a Finnish cultural centre in a small coastal town in Benin) with a big library which was, unfortunately, closed during the time of my stay there.
My next stop was two bush-taxi-hours east in the country's biggest city, Cotonou. This city has a really bad reputation which was confirmed by all the travellers from that direction that I had met in Grand Popo. I liked it even better than Lomé.
Benin's capital Porto Novo is a rather sleepy place compared to Cotonou. There's a very interesting centre for sustainable agriculture, the Centre Songhai, which was founded by a Nigerian priest in the 1980s. I found the philosophy of not wasting anything (and recycling everything) really good and the way it is realised on the vast grounds of the centre even better. Wastewater, for instance, is treated in ponds of waterplants which are then (mixed with animal manure) used for biogas production. Later, the same water is used to raise fish before being brought out on the vegetable fields. All production seems to be organic and the products can be consumed in the centre's restaurants or bought in the shop there. There's even a workshop to produce agricultural machines and tools like a cashewnut-cracker. What a huge impact such a thing could have in a village like Madiaso...!
Taro and oranges
Part of the centre's wastewater treatment system
As I'm not getting to Nigeria on this trip (I had been looking forward to travelling there for some time) I wanted to get at least as close as possible: the border at Kraké. Pretty wild, I enjoyed this place!
Now, I'm in Abomé, the capital of the old and great kingdom of Dahomey. This kingdom was so powerful that French colonial officials decided to not connect it to the railway line but have it pass by the city at a distance of 10 kilometres. The station there, Bohicon, is now the much busier place and Abomé rather sleepy which only adds to its charm. There's palaces (every new king bought a new palace for himself) and temples all over the city and both Abomé and its surrounding villages are well protected by a vast number of fetishes.
Shrine containing a fetish
A fetish with offerings (notice the beer can in the background!)
The teak forest of my guesthouse
1 comment:
Wow, you are a real adventurer my friend :) I like to see locals doing wastewater treatment and trying to do recycling. A lot of this is needed all around the world.
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