Series 5 : EP1 : Jet Lag, Little Wet, Cotonou - Travel to Benin

It's the 11th of September, 2025 and its time to get moving again. I know, two trips in one year, but that's just how the opportunities played out.

This time we are off to Africa again. First to West Africa, Benin, Togo and Ghana. A whole area we have not been to before. Then to Botswana with a slight detour back to Namibia. In our last Africa trip we did a coin flip to work out whether to visit Namibia or Botswana and Namibia won. This time it's Botswana's turn.

So for West Africa we'll be in a small group, like Uganda but a bit bigger. There will be eight of us rather than five and like Uganda it's been organised as a photographic tour. This area of Africa is quite heavily populated so lacks wildlife. The focus of this leg of the trip is more cultural but wildlife has not been neglected.

Then Angela and I head off to Botswana for 16 days. Self drive again, centred on the Okavango Delta, a place that has been on our collective bucket list. Unlike last time we won't be camping. Not because of lack of opportunity, but more advancing age. We decided to give the rooftop tent a miss this time and go lodge to lodge. Still plenty of opportunity for advanture as you'll find out.

So the first thing we have to do is to get ourselves to Benin. Turns out the best way for us is Perth - Singapore - Addis Ababa - Conontou (Benin). At the time you could not fly Perth - Johannesburg direct so that option was out.

It's a long haul, approaching half way around the world. about 21 hours of flights and 6 hours of layovers. We are going to get to know Addis Ababa airport pretty well as we will pass through it three times on this trip.

We also have to do some climatic adjustment. We are leaving southern Australia in early spring and arriving in tropical Africa, only 600km from the equator a couple of days later. It's hot, very humid and raining every day. Locally it's called the 'Little Wet Season', I think becuase it doesn't last long becuase it's more than 'a little' wet.

Cotonou turns out to be an interesting place. Facing the Atlantic Ocean with miles of beaches. They are planting lots and lots of coconut trees along the beach. Kilometres of them. The crews were working outside our first hotel which was on the beachfront in the east of Cotonou every day. This stretch also turned out to be the major promenade where people would walk or jog in the morning and evening. There was even a walking group with a band just to liven things up a bit.

So we have a night in a hotel which is a collection of small cabins on the beachfront and then we move to the hotel where everyone else is gathering for the trip. There are going to be eight of us all up plus a crew of three. Edmond, who is the guide, Koffi who seems to be the guy who makes things happen in the background and Williams who will drive our Toyota Coaster bus. We'll have more room than in Uganda as the vehicle is more than twice the size.

So this episode gets the show on the road. We have one full day in Cotonou to get rid of the Jet lag, we'll for the four Aussies at least. The other four have come from the UK and there is only about 1 hour time difference. In the next episode we hit the road and get swept up in the lively culture of West Africa.

Nerd Note : In visiting Benin, Togo and Ghana we'll be visiting the areas once known as the Slave Coast, the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast.

Production Note : This is a short episode as there is not much you can do with 20 hours of posterior on airline seat plus limited window seats. There is a LOT more content for forthcoming episodes. Also, in deference to the lively culture of the region I've swapped intro music to a piece called Lagos by Quincas Moreira. While not actually in Nigeria we are just up the road and the vibe seems to be similar.

#travel #africa #benin