Saturday 14 April 2012

Travelling in the North - Friday 6th April

So on our last day, we were in Kpalimé - very familiar for both of us, and such a nice relaxed little town too. We had another brilliant breakfast at the café,  and then headed back to the hotel to be met by the guide who was going to advise us on waterfalls. After a successful negotiation - we halved his price, yes! - we headed off (two on the moto... eek...) to an unnamed waterfall. Access to these waterfalls is always a bit tricky, but honestly, this was something else! Nearly vertical, up and down, by the time we got to the bottom we were definitely ready for a swim! It was such a beautiful waterfall though; secluded, quite big with a pool encircled by rocks, and an enormous rock exactly like Pride Rock in the Lion King. Being African, our guide of course scaled this in about 2 seconds and spent the time sunning himself on top. Being English, I decided to stay in the water... Which was cold!! But definitely worth the scramble. Afterwards however, we then had to get back to where we'd left the moto... Not as difficult as I'd feared it might be, it wasn't at all easy though! The ironic thing is that after you've came back up from the bottom of the waterfall, you need another waterfall at the top to cook off again... Unfortunately, it seems they only exist at the bottom of very steep hills, not at the summits, definitely inconvenient.

We spent the rest of the morning at the Centre Artisanal, which is very interesting as you get to see all the artists at work, but sadly extremely expensive because of that factor. Bought my sister's birthday present though (Gwyn!) and tried to get a really cool keyring for my car keys at home thrown in too, but the man was having none of it - meanie.

So after a lovely relaxing and touristy last day, we made a little tour of the market (and got lost - well done us...) where I bought the best honey EVER, plus presents for Mama and the girls which was fortunate. On the way back to the taxi station, we passed a taximan who called to us asking if we were going to Lomé, we said yes and that was it! We threw our bags in the back, hopped in and set off! He even stopped at a roadside market so that we could buy fruit for the families - I think the easiest taxi we found the entire trip haha.

Arrived home at 4.30ish and was met with such a lovely welcome by all the girls - even the people down our road were telling me 'bonne arrivée' cos I guess it was obvious I was coming home from somewhere...!

Will write a separate post to tell about the history of the Tamberma etc now because it is too much all in one, and when we've written our highlights list will also put that up on here. Had such a fantastic week, despite some of the difficulties we did it and managed to get back home  all in one piece too!

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