We have arrived

Day 1

It was an early start, leaving home at 3.30. We got to Gosforth early and the taxi was there, so we quickly dropped off the keys for #3 daughter. The taxi driver was chatty - his parents were from Bangladesh but he was a Georgie. He said his parents had been to Saudi a few times but it cost £10000 to go the Hadj now and as he wasn’t very religious and he was saving to take his kids to Disney Paris.

On checking in we found an essential bit of documentation was missing. We had our visa and Covid pass but no immigration form completed. Until this was done we couldn’t board so we spent all the time till boarding trying to do it, going round in circles as it kept saying something unspecified was invalid. Mr C was sure we’d already filled it all in. At the gate for the Paris flight they needed to see it so we showed the first page and they let us on. Hopefully that’s it !

It took over an hour via bus from plane to the terminal plus queuing for security. You needed to know which zone you were heading for though there was no info anywhere so someone scanned our boarding pass to find out.

AirFrance is great - champagne and a nice meal. I saw 2 films ”Elvis” - and 1988 “The Breakfast Club”. That took me back.

We arrived in Lome - our destination being Togo today and Benin tomorrow - to a complex system at immigration. A big queue to show passport and visa, (all was in order! Phew) then a queue for camera, then a man re-checking it all, then a man to check the Covid vax info to be awarded a sticker, then get the bag, then get the Covid sticker taken away, then queue to go through a scanner then find our guide. Then queue for money change. It was only 20 minutes to the hotel where we had more scanners and lots of armed guards wandering in the car park. More forms and eventually we got our rooms, 21 hours after getting up. Bed now as it’s a 6 am start so no partying tonight.