If you want to learn about Beninese history, the former capital of Abome is a good place to start. The Dahomey Kingdom, which it was called at the time, used to be huge stretching far through West Africa and Abomey was where the King had his palaces. We visited two of these, which now makes...Read More
During the 18th century when Europeans were buying slaves from Benin to use overseas, some peaple escaped to the lakes. The animist beliefs of the Beninese king at the time dictated that anyone who were living on these sacred waters should be spared so people went by the thousands and a stilt village was created....Read More
Cotonou was noones favorite city. Streets were much more busy than Togos biggest city Lomé and options for camping were almost non existent. The city center was a huge roundabout with a red star and monument in the middle. The cool thing though was the super cheap motorcycle taxis that were practically everywhere and the...Read More
Deep in the heart of West Africa, Vodoun, or more familiarly, Voodoo is not only alive and well, but it is thriving. Togo’s capital city of Lomé is the birthplace of the largest Voodoo market in the world – a kind of super supply store for fetishes, charms and anything else one might need for...Read More
A lot of people believe that Cotonou is the capital of Benin and pass out on the quieter actual capital Porto Novo. Having spent the last couple of days looking for our group in Cotonou, Abomey-Calavi and Galvie without luck, me and Travis decided that we would just be tourists on our own in Porto...Read More
Me and Travis had heard that the last remaining wild giraffes in West Africa were just outside of the Nigerien capital Niamey, but since Niger is a country that hardly receives tourists at all it was hard to find any information about it online at all. From what we read online people had been paying...Read More
Before booking my last minute flight to Niamey I did not know much about the city. After an evening of searching online I had found out that it was a fairly new city, founded by the French as a strategic capital for military purposes. Before the nineteenth century it was just a tiny village on...Read More
When driving into Lomé I was surprised to see how well paved and lit up the roads were- apparently having a port that is also used by its neighboring countries is good business and the Togolese capital was thriving. Walking around in the city itself was not that exciting, but in the outskirts there was...Read More
When trying to exit Ghana on a tiny border crossing we were told that they did not issue visas at the border so we would have to turn around and drive down to the coastal road which would take a couple of days with our slow truck and the horrible roads along the border. Some...Read More
After visiting a couple of beach towns in Ghana it was time to see one of the country’s natural beauties called the WLI Waterfalls. After a couple of days drive from Accra we had reached our destination which was laying directly on the border of Togo. Because it was on the borderland it was compulsory...Read More
Getting into Ghana was a delight after having spent over three months elsewhere in West Africa. The main language in West Africa is French. That is, with the exception of Nigeria and Ghana where they speak English. Ghana is also known as a West Africa for beginners as it has more stability, a better infrastructure...Read More
Having to wait for Benin and Angola visas to be finished at the embassies in Accra, we had plenty of days to kill. Accra is not the most exciting city, so most of the group stayed 50 minutes away at Big Millie’s Backyard in Korobite while others headed back to Cape Coast. Taking so called...Read More
Burkina Faso’s landscape ranges from the dry and sandy Sahel in the North to Savannah covering the center and then there is a region in the South- West called Banfora which receives a lot of rainfall making it much more green and fertile than the rest of the country. Everywhere we looked we saw trees...Read More
After more than 3 months in West Africa I have found out where the people are the friendliest; in the Ivory Coast. Ever since we got off the train from Burkina Faso, people have been smiling and greeting from across streets and we were given free stuff purely out of generosity, with no other motive....Read More
It is no secret that I am a train freak. I love traveling with trains and have previously traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Silk Route and the Mauritanian Iron Ore Train to mention a few. All since I knew that the overland truck I am traveling with for six months would go through Ouagadougou,...Read More
Having to wait nearly a week for our Ghanaian visas we had lots of time to kill in the capital of Burkina Faso. In my opinion it is the capital in the World with the funniest name, but it was definitely not the most fun one. Just like most cities in West Africa it feels...Read More
Bobo-Dioulasso is a city famous for being the cultural city of Burkina Faso with a lively art and concert scene and a beautiful old mosque built in Sudano-Sahelian architectural style just like the famous one in Timbuktu. It was all built only by clay and sticks in the 19th century and is the biggest clay...Read More
