The second country we visited on our recent West Africa tour was Togo, a narrow country sandwiched between Ghana on the west and Benin on the east, with a small border with Burkina Faso to the north. Our first port of call was the area around Mount Klouto. We spent a couple of nights here, enjoying the slightly cooler temperature and the lush mountain scenery.
In this article, I will tell you all you need to know about Mount Klouto, Togo. For information on other places to visit in this amazing country, as well as travel tips, please read my Complete Togo Travel Guide.
In this article
The Geography of Mount Klouto
The Mount Klouto region is in central Togo, only a couple of hours north of the bustling city of Lomé and 12 km north west of Kpalimé. It could, though, be on a different planet!
The mountains here are covered in dense forest punctuated by gently cascading streams and waterfalls. A nature reserve has been established and the Togolese authorities are making efforts to encourage eco-tourism in the area.
Mount Klouto itself, also known as Mount Kloto, is 710metres high. It is an important habitat for butterflies; over 500 species can be found here.
A Guided Walk
The best way to understand the area, its flora and fauna, its culture and its people, is to take a walk with a local naturalist guide. We did a five-mile walk from our accommodation to a waterfall and back again. It wasn’t a difficult hike, but the ground was often slippy underfoot, so it’s advisable to wear good walking shoes (tell that to our Dragoman driver who did it in flip-flops! :-)).
African Marathon Challenge 2019
Although we were in a rural, largely unspoilt area, we were struck by the posters everywhere for the upcoming African Marathon Challenge. This is a competition where participants are expected to complete ten marathons in different parts of the African continent during 2019. One of these, the ‘Marathon of the Butterflies’, will take place on Mount Klouto on 5th March.
Flora
As soon as we left our campsite, our guide began pointing out local plants. He showed us how to get bright red dye from the leaves of a local variety of henna tree. Local ladies use this as lipstick, as well as to dye fabric. We saw lots of delicious fruit, both growing wild and being cultivated, including jack fruit, mangoes, bananas and pineapples.
Our guide demonstrated how to apply a temporary tattoo, the local way. He used Tina from our group as a guinea pig. First, he painted a design on her arm using the gum from the seed pod of a tree. At this point, we couldn’t see anything on Tina’s skin. Later, when we arrived in the village, he applied some charcoal from the remains of a fire and, voilà, the design appeared!
He also showed us the ‘black man’s tattoo’. He slapped a fern on his forearm with some considerable force. When he took the leaf away, he was left with a perfectly-formed white imprint of it. Clever!
Further along the walk, we visited a small cocoa and coffee plantation and tasted cocoa beans in their raw state. I chatted to a lady there who was just boiling some water for her and her grandson to have some tea – she told me she didn’t like coffee! When we entered the forest, we came across a nursery of young cocoa plants. They were being raised there because of the damp and shady conditions.
Village Life
During the walk, we visited the village of Kouma Konda and got a fascinating glimpse into the lives of local people. We met batik artist, Agbo Kosi, who was born in the village and still lives and works there. Batik was originally brought to the area from Indonesia by Dutch merchants. There, they use copper to separate the colours. In West Africa, they needed to find an alternative, so they use a paste made from cassava starch.
Agbo only uses natural dyes made from plants, vegetables and rocks found locally. His pieces are really vibrant and eye-catching and he has built up quite a following from visitors who come to his studio. As a result of his success, he has sponsored a number of litter bins in the village and along the footpath to the waterfall to encourage people to keep the area tidy. As admirable as this is, I remain a little sceptical as nobody could tell me what happens to the rubbish after it’s been collected.
I was quite taken with a tumbledown schoolroom. It had no roof and the walls were crumbling, but it was clearly still in use as a lesson was written on the blackboard.
Waterfall
From the village, we pushed on through rather dense forest to a waterfall. This was the section of the walk where we saw the most beautiful butterflies. There were hundreds of them. Unfortunately, none settled for long enough to be photographed. It was a hot and sticky trek, so we were grateful to get there and have a dip in the cool, clear water. This is where we had lunch. Some enterprising locals had brought in food and, more importantly, cold drinks which we had pre-ordered before setting out. It was a little incongruous sitting by the waterfall eating spaghetti with tomato sauce topped with a hard-boiled egg, but I’m not complaining!
Inevitably, there was also someone selling batik to tempt us to part with some money when we’d finished eating!
Dinner and Drums
On our second evening on Mount Klouto, we attended a dinner and drums evening put on by people from the village. The food was good and the entertainment, which included fire-eating and acrobatics as well as drumming, had us all on our feet dancing the night away.
I will post a video here soon, so please check back.
Our Accommodation
We stayed in the Hotel Campement de Klouto. We were due to camp in the grounds, but for the paltry sum of €6 for the two of us for two nights, we could upgrade to a room, so we did! It was lovely to have the space to sort out our belongings. I didn’t mind that the water was off for most of our stay – we had a bucket shower and we had a huge ceiling fan – we were happy!
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