Togo - decisions, decisions

Togo presented a bit of a conundrum. Desperate to stop somewhere, anywhere for a reasonably extended period of time (two nights in the same bed would be handy), we really wanted to explore this place. Yet time was looming and we knew we had bigger fish we wanted to fry in Burkina Faso and Mali before I jetted home for xmas. It left the unenviable decision of whether to crack on and, once again, whip through a country without fully exploring it, or whether to take a few days well earned rest for rest's sake. In the end the decision to move on was kind of made for us by unfortunate time schedules and limited visa days.

Given my limitations of exciting stories to regale about Togo, I am therefore goping to tell you about our bags or "two big bags and a bucket" as we are often described. Packing our bags has become both a skill and an artform. Like one of those wooden 3D jigsaw things hich I will no doubt be toying over on xmas day, every item has its exact place in each of our bags. When we went to clmb Mount Cameroon, Rose and I tried to combine what we needed into one bag and leave the rest of our stuff behind in the other. There was nothing new to carry, yet BOTH of our bag doubled in size. It simply wouldn't all fit in. Mine wouldn't zip up and Rose's rucksack had to be expaded so high, that a gentle blow would tip you over, let alone the winds at 4000M.

Not only has packing become mastered, but we are now so speedy that the SAS would be give a run for their money in abandoning camp and leaving without a trace. The bus to Togo demanded a fifteen minute turn around and we were ready in ten.

Who says travel teaches you nothing?

Togo is essentially a wafer. Not in so much that it goes well with icecream (which I have no doubt it would), but more in the fact that when you bite into it and realize how thin it is you think "pah. Its hardly worth it", but then you continue to eat and realize that what it lacks in width, it makes up for in length and is actually quite filling. It took less time to cross the country tha it used to take me to drive to Oshakati to do my weekly shopping. But then it took an epic coach journey (made more epic by full blast dance music through the night), to scale from South to North. Go figure.

And that really is just about all there is to say about that. We had a beer at the lake. We had a beer in Lomé. We met more travellers than the rest of the trip combined (4), and then we got on a bus and left.