Cotonou, Benin

bit of an adrenalin rush this morning, but first.......

after millys we bushcamped near the Togo border and crossed the next morning. stayed at another hotel with a swimming pool. most of us camped in the car park as usual. Went into Lome and although it is nothing special, we had a good time at the markets and at Al Donalds restaurant, the sign for which is a blatant rip off of similar-sounding western fast food restaurant. After a lot of walking, towards the end of the day we got hassled a bit, guys grabbing your arm trying to get you to take their taxi and being a bit too persisent with the girls. But it was all good. Some of the guys went fishing in the Atlantic and caught some seriously big fish, enough to feed all 26 of us for 2 nights, huge chunks of fish. We are 26 because we have 2 newbies, Swiss Mike and French Martin. They are good guys qnd, obviously, speak French which is helpful.

After Togo we crossed into Benin. I had me head out the top of the truck and listening to the Africa Nations Cup and the Premier League on the World Service as we went. We stayed a couple of nights at Grand Popo. In the morning we did a river trip. First to see some mangroves anf then to a small village where the kids dashed up the cocunut trees and cut down coconuts with machetes. The water from inside the coconut was sweet and tasty, but i dont like coconut. The villagers didnt seem to happy for 15 of us to be wandering around, i felt a bit bad about that. In the afternoon we went to a voodoo dance but it was pretty disappointing except for the music and dancing. Its too hard to explain what went on but it was like a pantomime and towards the end they kept asking us to give them coins before the next part so a bit of scam really. Also surprised that neither of our tour guides came with us to check it out as they have not been here before. It was an expensive day. But in the evening a few of us went to a beach bar and there were five guys playing bongos by a campfire. They were really cool and made us dance with them. It was more fun than the days activities and so i was more than happy to put some coins in their bowl at the end. Those two nights i was sweating buckets all night. Its not really hot but it is sooooo humid, i had to hang my sleep sheet and pillows out to dry in the morning; it was gross! So when we arrived at Cotonou yesterday i set up my mozzie net on the sand attached to a small soccer goal and was much cooler in the night.The hotel looks like it was once a prison.

Watched both African nations games yesterday. Nigeria are in the semi final and we are going there on Thursdqy for a week or so thqt should be fun, watching it with the locals.            

anyway, this morning we had to get motobike taxis into town which was scary and fun. This town is a bit rough and dirty and the traffic is a bit mad, lots of pollution but to be fair the drivers were pretty skilled and it was all good.

thats it. gotta go.