The back roads of Togo

Enjoying great African gravel

While planning my trip in the UK, I wasn't sure whether I would go through Togo.  It was a bit of a detour with the shorter route going from Burkina straight to Nigeria, and the most common route from Burkina, to Benin and then Nigeria. Two things changed my mind.

Dirty biker, it's only 7am

One was our desperate need for some tyres.  There is a big KTM dealership in Lomé (the only proper big bike garage in West Africa), and the forums are full of people who managed to get tyres there, and of course some who didn't.  This is Africa and availability is a bit sporadic.  I am carrying a spare rear tyre, and that should last me to SA, but my front tyre is nearly finished.  I could at a push reach Abuja (Nigeria), but it would be completely bald by that time.  Morton needs both a front and back tyre, and his bike has some niggles he wanted to sort out.  The steering bearing has been giving some problems with his bike being difficult to steer at times.  Changing the bearing is quite a big job, and would need a proper workshop.  Putting it that way, we didn't really have a choice, we had to go to Lomé.

Fantastic single tracks

Secondly, the owner of our accommodation in Ouagadougou is a very keen motorcyclist and he takes groups of people on off road tours through Burkina and Togo.  He had a group coming in a few weeks and gave us the planned route, it looked fantastic.  Criss crossing the width of Togo while taking us down south to Lomé.  It also meant spending very little time on the main highway south, which is supposed to be a potholed mess, with lots off big trucks.  Something we would love to avoid.

Single tracks with high grass

Dom's first boat pirogue crossing

The first of these tracks started of as a nice gravel road, running along some small villages, but it became progressively smaller and ended up being nothing more than a wide walking track.  Was loads of fun to ride.   It was here that Morton had his first crash.  His steering locked and he fell over in some softish sand.  Luckily nothing serious but his bikes steering was now completely stuffed, luckily he managed to bush mechanic it enough to get to the next big town.  After some deliberation we decided that the plan was for Morton to try and fix his bike, while we do the next trail.  Worst case scenario he would have to transport the bike to Lomé, and we would be of no use and best case he would have the bike fixed in a day or so and meet up with us.  I didn't like leaving him, but we would be of no use, and Morton is a great mechanic.  He knows his bike very well and didn't need any help from us non-mechanical people.  And, of course, we all have phones, it not like we where abandoning him  in the middle of the desert.  We left him at the only hotel in town and set of for the next side track.

Overwhelmed by villagers 

Checking to see if safe to cross

This was a 100km semi loop of gravel road running next to the main road.  Was nothing more than a walking track running through some fields.  Was absolutely gorgeous with it alternating between rice, cotton and grain fields with patches off head high grass.  Sometimes the grass was so high that you couldn't see what was next to you.  Really stunning.  After about a hour we reached our first river crossing.  It was just after the rains so the river was quite full and we needed to cross with some pirogues.  I have done this a couple of times on the trip and was a bit used to the whole process.  Dominique hasn't, and he was very reluctant to trust his bike to these small little boats.  It took some time convincing him it's safe, and in the end I loaded up my bike and crossed the river.  Denying him the option of going back.  In the end we both crossed safely, and Dominique was very relieved that he finally did a pirogue crossing with his bike.  The track continued to run through fields and small villages, with the villagers being super friendly, and everyone wanting to chat.  In the one village we were told that we are the first guys with trail bikes in a few years.  Result!!  It was slow going on the trail and we weren't even half way when darkness and fatigue set in.  I had a low speed fall in soft sand.  Just lost my front wheel, but I had my bike up before Dominique even managed to stop properly.  Definitely time to stop and at the next village we asked the chief for a space to pitch our tents.  The town had a catholic mission with place to stay for travellers.  Great stuff, our first stay in a mission.  And what an interesting stay it turned out to be.

Our accommodation at the mission

The main priest wasn't there and in typical fashion Africa took over.  The hospitality at the mission was faultless.  They took us in after dark and gave us a place to sleep and shower.  It just after unloading that a guy came over and asked us for a present in exchange for the services of a young girl (15/16) that was with him. WHAT!!  He was a bit drunk so we just ignored him, and that was the end of the story.  For the rest of our stay we had a constant crowd off onlookers though. Five or more people just standing around, looking at everything we where doing.  It was really weird to be scrutinized like that.  Still everyone was very polite and they where just curious to see what these strange white people where doing.  Very funny!! Had a great night sleep under the starts and then head off early the next morning.  The rest off the track was easy riding, and we had a fantastic morning just cruising through to the main road.  When we reached the main road I was covered in a layer of red african dust, makes you feel like a proper dirty biker.  Whoop, whoop!!

Some of the crowd at the mission

We then spend the rest off the day cruising south on the main road to our next detour point.  The main road was decent tarmac with some potholes just to keep you awake, and enough big trucks to make sure you don't daydream to much.  The scenery was stunning though, with it slowly becoming more hilly, and the vegetation transforming gently into green forests.  Love the way you can see the landscape change after a few days on the road, and so glad to finally be out of the desert.

Small river crossing

The next morning we met up with Morton again, he managed to bush mechanic his bike and it will now last to Lomé.  Fingers crossed.  Our next detour was to a small town called Badou on the Togo/Ghana border.  The road there was absolutely gorgeous and loads of fun.  It was a small tarmac track, with big potholes, lazily snakking up and down some beautiful little hills with dense forests and plantations.  After the long flat dry desert stretch this was absolutely breath taking.

Red dust everywhere

Breakfast

Beautifull forest tracks

Badou has one of Togo's few big tourist attractions, a big waterfall in the forest.  Naturally this meant lots of guides trying to get hold of our cash.  We had quite an adventure with dodgy guides and people trying to sell us under aged prostitutes.  But I'll leave that for the next blog.