Bordering on chaos

Day 9 - Accra (Ghana) to Lomé (Togo)

We'd booked the driver we'd used for our Accra tour to take us 195 km to the Ghana-Lomé border, about a 4 hour drive. We set off at 9:30am and the roads around Accra were quite busy, but traffic thinned out as we entered the countryside. 

We stopped off after around 90 minutes to visit the Nkyinkyim Museum, which K had read was worth a visit. It was really an open air art site and education centre, and had many different areas with various art works, including sculptured heads in different parts of the grounds representing those who'd died or been taken from their homes as a result of slavery. 

On arrival at the border we farewelled our driver as he wasn't able to take us across the border into Lomé. We found the Ghanian side calm and well organised, the customs officers were friendly and respectful and though things took time, the exit from Ghana went OK. M had an issue with his visa, it had incorrectly been marked as a single entry visa but after showing proof we'd paid for multiple entry we were allowed to continue.

Across the road we then commenced the entrance procedures for Togo. It was very busy and very chaotic. The doors and tiny rooms were jam packed with locals, fortunately the locals there were very friendly and helpful in guiding us through the steps. Firstly we entered a very small room where a woman took our yellow fever vaccination and hand wrote our details into a ledger. 

We were then guided through narrow openings and up and down steps to another room where we were given forms to fill out, asking for all of the information we'd already supplied to obtain our visas. There were a lot of local men trying to "help" us, it was quite overwhelming as it was very difficult to know whether they were officials or just trying to get us to tip them. After handing in the forms and patiently waiting for the officials to stamp our passports we eventually made it outside where we were had to run the gauntlet of taxi drivers and people wanting to help with our luggage. 

We secured a taxi after haggling down from about $35 to $10 (for a 5 km trip, still too much but by then we just wanted to get going). As we drove past customs they wanted us to open the boot and open our cases, M's case revealing the packets of chips he'd bought as supplies the day before. After offering some chips to the customs guy (which was ignored) we were sent on our way. It was interesting that we were stopped as we thought we were the least dodgy looking people at the border!

Our hotel in Lomé wasn't far and opposite a very wide and dirty looking beach. We checked in to our tiny room and walked across the road to the edge of the Atlantic, along the way we were pestered by a kid on a horse asking us if we wanted a ride. 

Back at the hotel for dinner and we could see other people like us, some in tour groups that had already been organised to catch up and were going through introductions, while others ate as couples or much smaller groups. A lady came over and introduced herself as being from Brisbane and asked if we were in the Native Eye group, so we at least met one other person before our tour officially started the next day.