Benin by Boat (21st - 25th November)
On Wednesday morning my mum wasn't feeling very well so we took her to the hospital to get a check up and a malaria test. The doctor was very professional so we were reassured by her diagnosis of Lagos-tummy.

Fortunately she felt well enough to travel as we were going to try a new route to Benin: by boat, west along the creek behind the coastline to Porto Novo. This is about twice as far as the trip to the Statoil Beach. The difference between going by boat and by car was like night and day. I was glad Caroline and my mum didn't have to experience the latter!

By boat: faster, free to move around, fresh air, easy passport control. 1 hour 45 mins to Benin.
By car: Traffic jams, cramped in the car, 2 hours to clear the border, corruption, hassle and filth. 4 hours to Benin.

Inger-Lise had gone on ahead to pick them up from school and bring them to Cactus on the other side of the lagoon. We crossed over and picked them up and then we were on our way towards the Statoil beach and then carried on, passing "Whispering Palms", a hotel on the creek (but reportedly not that nice), the slave road, crossing the creek on the way to the "Point Of No Return" at Badagry. A hut on the bank marked the border with flags from the two countries (easily missed).

At Porto Novo, Micah was waiting for us at the jetty with the coach we had used the previous time we visited Benin (when it had taken 8 hours 30 mins to get there). The trip went smoothly and it took us only about 4 hours 30 mins to get to La Casa del Papa. It is a beautiful place and the rooms were great, right on the beach. The main pool was drained for repair, but there were 2 other pools we could use.

On Thursday, we had a nice breakfast and decided to go sightseeing in Ouidah. We had done this the first time we were in Benin and new that Caroline and Benin would find the slave history and the Voodoo interesting. We met our guide at the "Point of No Return" at the end of the slave road in Ouidah.


We drove past the carved tree in the centre of the town, depicting the town's history, to get to the Voodoo temple. The Roman Catholic Basilisk still stood there, as if standing guard. The bats were not in the sacred tree, like they had been the last time. We found them afterwards in the sacred forest, though! The guide told us a little of the rituals they have in the temple, which gave Caroline the creeps and then took out the sacred snakes.














After the forest, which was full of voodoo sculptures, each of which had a story, we went to the Oudiah Museum, which was set in the rebuilt Portuguese Fort. The Portuguese set fire to it when they were told to leave by the newly elected government of Dahomey in 1961. Sadly, there is not much to see in the museum, but the stories we were told about the history of Ouidah and the slave trade, were very interesting. I bought wooden Hippo and Water Buffalo sculptures and my mum bought some colourful wall hangings for Edward and Mathew - the same type as Erik and Daniel have.

On Friday, Caroline and I went for a jog down the beach before breakfast, which was nice. We ran down the track behind the beach on the way out, through villages and past staring children, pigs and hens! We tried to run back along the beach but it was too steeply pitched so we returned to the road.

After breakfast, Mike & Siobhan, Michael & Lone and Debbie arrive with their children, so suddenly there were lots of children for Erik, Daniel and Mathilde to play with. In the afternoon we went kayaking. My mum and Caroline went in one and Erik and I paddled Daniel in the other. We did the trip through the mangroves to the lagoon and it was interesting to see the villagers fishing and going about their business - what a different life they lead compared to us!

In the evening, Caroline and played tennis with Mike & Siobhan. We had a fun game but had to stop when it got too dark and we could not get them to put the floodlights on!

On Saturday, Debbie's husband Rob arrived while we were sunning ourselves by the pool after a big breakfast. Rob is the Finance Manager for Maersk in Nigeria had and had just had a board meeting, so he was celebrating with Champagne and we gladly joined him. Very civilised! The rest of the day we spent the day resting by the pool or playing in the surf.

On Sunday - Caroline and I went for an early morning walk on other side of the Lagoon. The light was fantastic and it was beautifully still. It was nice to walk and talk while exploring the tracks through the undergrowth scaring red land-crabs, which scuttled into their holes as we passed. After breakfast, Caroline and I played tennis again with Rob and Debbie, followed by a dip in the pool.


We left the packing to the last minute as none of us wanted to leave this tropical paradise. But leave we did, at around 1pm and reached the boat at Porto Novo by 3:30pm. We picked up the people who had gone to the Statoil beach at 4:30 and were back in Lagos by 5:15pm.

The next day, Caroline and my mum were due to leave. They took Mathilde to her school, The American Playcentre in the morning so my mum got to see where Mathilde spends her mornings. At 6pm, I took them to the airport. It would be only a few weeks until we would see them again for 10 days in the Isle of Man before going to Norway for Christmas.

Jeremy