Benin
Trip Start
Mar 11, 2009
1
18
50
Trip End
Jan 05, 2010
Contonou,
Benin
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Moving on from Grand-Popo we went on to Ouidah, which in the 19th century slaves were shipped out to the Americas from across West Africa. The truck drove down the 4km Route d'Esclaves, the final walk on Africa soil for slaves and ended at the Point of No Return Memorial. 300m further down the beach we also saw the Point of Return Memorail. For a change we "bush camped" on the sand beside the Memorial after getting permission from the local chief.
Today we hit the landmark for 10,000 km travelled.
Dist cov. = 125 km
Total dist cov. = 10,113.7 km
24th - Drove into Contonou, Benin's commerical capital, which is awash with kamikaze scooters going down the boulevards. From here we travelled north to the town of Abomey-Calavi, which is the gateway to the village of Ganvie on the Lake Nokoue. Ganvie is a stilt village that was founded in the 17th century when the Tofinu people fled from the Dahomey slave hunters, who were banned by religious custom from venturing into the water. We organised for 2 boats to take us there and it was a real insight into how they lived in bamboo huts on stilts just 2m above the water. Our guide was called Issac and the boatman was called Alexander.
Afterwards we had the long journey to Abomey, which was long due to the condition of the road. We were staying at
Dist. cov. = 189 km
25th - Had a half day tour of Abomey on the back of a motorbike or a scooter. Just being on the back of a bike enhanced the experience of this tour. We were doing part of 'The Route of Kings' - the Dahomey trail. First of all we headed to the local chief's home, on which the group split in 2 to observe a little voodoo cermony. My group was second in and upon entering it we all had no idea what idea what was going to happen. I volunteered to take part in one, this involved me stepping into a mini-circle surrounded by voodoo statues and then the local chief picked up a live chicken and proceeded to do some sort of cleansing ritual. Basically he rubbed the chicken around my head and my body, for me it was hard not to laugh because it's quite funny to be in that sort of position, but I tried my hardest so as not offend the chief. We watched 3 more little ceremonies none involving volunteers though.
From here we moved on to visit 2 palaces, the fetish market plus the large everyday market. Due to the size of the group we didn't have enough time to visit the Temple Zewa.
Heading north to the border passing through the larger town of Nikki, this border post is further north than any previous overlanding truck has gone. This makes it as Chris says "a pioneering mini-adventure". We bush camped at
Dist. cov. = 332 km
26th - Continued to the border town and on to the border post in Nigeria.
