The journey itself is my home. - Bashō Matsuo

29 September 2019, Nyamassila to Tchébébé, 60.77km
Auberge la Majeste 3,000XOF (R75)  

Our auberge is incredibly cheap, and we were thrilled that our hostess, once we’d asked if there was anywhere to have dinner in town and found out that there was not, offered to prepare a simple meal of spicy spaghetti and omelette. The sheet on our bed is a bright yellow, patterned with images suitable for a child’s room. We could not decide in the end whether the bed had been carelessly made, or whether the rumpled sheet bore testimony to a previous occupant. Either way, we threw our sheets over it, and were content.
We awoke this morning to a flat tyre, always a horrible way to start a day, and had another two punctures during the day, our first since July 23. The third puncture occurred when I was some distance ahead of Charl. I did not hear him whistling for me, so he had to change the tube alone, a more time-consuming exercise than our smooth team-work. Shame…
People are always helpful and generous. Today, a man pumped my back tyre for free, starting his generator with a tightly-wound rope. And a barman at one of our stops, when we asked if he could change 10,000 for us, took the note and wandered away, returning later with change.
It was clearly Sunday in Togo, with song and drumbeat issuing from every church in every village. Outside one church, two children beat a drum, calling out something or other to us. Also in every village is a small mosque. And children calling “yovo yovo cadeau” (white white gift).
It was hot and humid, the combination enervating, especially on the long inclines. We cycled past mall-scale farming: cotton, okra, peanuts, corn. It seems to us, though in our ignorance we cannot be sure, that more than one crop is grown in each field. Perma-culture?
We took lots of softdrink breaks, and ate, for the first time, a deep-fried milky cheese (we think). This cheese is also sometimes died red and sold whole and uncooked. And we had delicious barbecued pork with a spicy coating, threaded on homemade skewers.
Because of the heat, we stopped 15km shy of our planned stop, drawn in by a sign advertising the La Majeste on the roadside.

For today's route see below photos
For overview route, click on ROUTE tab above…