March 20-22.: After Agbodrafo, we slowly started heading north. The landscape became increasingly hilly and green. Along the way, in one of the villages, we saw a large crowd – it turned out to be the weekly market day. We walked around the market, where traditional goods (like herbs used in traditional medicine) were mixed with modern Chinese products and second-hand items. Among the latter, you could stumble upon real treasures – like barely used, branded running shoes and hiking boots.

After the market, many people were sitting under small tents, drinking tchoukoutou from cups made of dried gourds – this is a fermented millet (or possibly sorghum) drink with a low alcohol content. Later, at a street vendor, we also found a tempting, ice-cold drink that looked like cola, and the locals offered us some. We weren’t sure if it was the same as the traditional tchoukoutou, since it looked darker – but it also had an interesting, fermented flavor.

Another special experience: we found homemade cheese (we hadn’t eaten any cheese in Africa until then). It resembled Indian paneer or Greek halloumi a bit. It was served as a snack with spicy sauce – we really liked it!

In Kpalimé, we found a cheap place to stay – finally, Togo was the first country where accommodation offered good value for money: for about 3000 forints, we got a clean room with a fan and running water, which would have been unimaginable in the countries we visited previously.

For dinner, we discovered the town’s most popular eatery: long lines stood in front of large cauldrons, from which older women served various meat or fish sauces – all loaded with chili peppers. You could choose rice or fufu as a side (fufu is a dumpling-like dish made from yam, which requires long and hard pounding in a huge mortar – real physical labor).

We took a little walk around town afterward. I had my shoes repaired – the sole had come off – and we were once again amazed by people’s honesty: they only charged 120 forints for gluing both shoes back together.

The next day, we handled some practical tasks first: we got a SIM card, exchanged money, and tried to find a laundry. We found one on iOverlander, and after getting directions from locals, we ended up in a courtyard where we had to wait about half an hour to an hour. What made it a special experience was that we sat in the neighbors’ garden while waiting – and they didn’t find it strange at all.

After that, we headed into the hills surrounding the town, driving along beautiful serpentine roads. There are many viewpoints and waterfalls in the area – we chose one and drove there. It took a bit more than a 30-minute hike through a village to reach the waterfall. The walk was surprisingly exhausting due to the heat. The waterfall was beautiful, though you could tell the rainy season hadn’t fully arrived yet – the water volume was still relatively low.

Even though it wasn’t the rainy season, we did get caught in a huge storm one evening – it was quite scary in our room. I went over to check on Anna to make sure she was okay, and in the process accidentally locked Ádám in our room – and then locked ourselves in Anna’s room because I’d left the key in the door. We ended up yelling in the rain for the owner to come and let us out – who, understandably, was first startled by what might have happened to us, then just laughed and was relieved.

The next day we wanted to leave early, but we had to wait for our laundry to dry. In the meantime, Ádám found a small garage where they replaced our diesel filter, and since we were already there, he asked if they could weld our roof rack – which had been about to fall off since the start of the trip. He found a young guy who welded it both inside and out for several hours, all for just 4000 forints.

So we got a bit delayed, but decided we still had time to visit the most famous viewpoint in the area – especially since a policeman stopped us just to suggest we turn right toward the viewpoint. At the top, we were greeted with a beautiful panorama and a place where you could even camp. We moved on, though, and spent the night in Atakpamé, halfway to northern Togo.

Togo amazed us with its natural beauty. Alongside Guinea, it was the most beautiful country we had visited so far. Another very positive experience was how open and friendly the people were. Although Togo is also a French-speaking country, many people tried to speak English with us – and if not, they enthusiastically communicated everything with gestures (Unfortunately, in some previous countries – similarly to Paris – we occasionally felt a bit of resentment if we didn’t speak French, but here we never experienced that).