Dassa-Zoumé, Benin

2019-08-09/10: The 41 hills of Dassa and the wonderfull Armands Ecofarm.

Armand's and Johanna's Ecoferme Maktub:

The entrance gate of the farm.

 
This eco - farm is a small green paradise.

Gandalf at the Maktub farm in Dassa-Zoumé.

 
Armand, the owner, has a master's degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cotonou but his dream has always been to have a farm. After his studies, an importand land owner of his hometown, Cové, gave him 20 ha of forest to exploit. This was a hardnut to crack and he had to give up after 3 years of hardship.

At that time he had an offer of teaching post in Dassa which he accepted to restore his financial health. As soon as he arrived he knew that this was where he would settle. He immediately fall in love with the region.

His next project has been well thought out. A farm, yes! but on a family scale. And that's how he started his ecological farm here in the year 2000. They had to work a lot, he and his wife, Johanna. Today they have employees to assist them. The 6 mango trees for example are so fruitful that they produce some 1000 jars of jam each year. As for the papayas, the harvest is such that they cannot transform it all into jam, although they produce around 1600 jars per year.
In addition to this small hectare they have a plot by the river a little further where during the rainy season they grow rice. They also entrust part of their livestock to a local farmer to take care of it.

Johanna and Armand the owners of the Ecofarm.

The large central part of the lodge is made up of thatched huts, a large one in the middle that serves as a restaurant and two or three others around it, smaller, for relaxing.

The large central hut.

Christine relaxes under a straw hut on the farm.

Two or three bungalows positioned on the outskirts complete the tourist accommodation part of the farm.

The bungalows

Maktub Farm, private outbuildings.

The rest of the land is dedicated to the farm and private homes of Armand and Johanna.
The land is not quite 1 ha and Armand and his team grow a little bit of everything there in small quantities. Similarly, the various enclosures for breeding remain on a family scale (goats, sheep, ducks, guinea fowl, hens, etc.). It’s Armand’s motto, his small business must remain on a human scale, just enough to support a family,

Delicious diner with friends

Hike to the 41 hills of Dassa on 2019-08-09.

We are not alone at the farm. Five young people have just arrived with whom we sympathize immediately. Two French young men, one French girl and two German girls.
It is with them that we will undertake our hike in the 41 hills of Dassa.
We are talking about the 41 hills of Dassa. In fact they are much more numerous but the number 41 has a religious value in Dahomey and it is found in many rites throughout the kingdom. In Fon culture, the country's main ethnic group, the earth was considered to be one of the 41 children of God.

Armand is organizing a guide and some zems (the famous motorbikes in Benin) for tomorrow 9:00 am.The zems are on time. The guide will cost us 2,000 CFA (3.14 €) per person, we must add 1,000 CFA per head for the zems, which is ridiculously cheap for 15 km and just over 3 hours time.

We understood that we were going for a hike to "Prince's hill" in Dassa. I am somewhat surprised to learn from our guide that we are actually going to the "wells hill" above the village of Awaya some 6 km in the opposite direction.

We each get on our motorbike, I have the honor of riding behind our guide, Noé. We join the main track which suffered a lot from the heavy rains at night. We are twice obliged to dismount to pass two large streams of rainwater. One of them is partially blocked by a car that got stuck in trying to get past it.

The track is flooded by the night rains.

It takes us half an hour to reach the village of Awaya and the start of the hike. The drivers store their motorcycles under a covered courtyard in the village where they will be waiting for us. One of them accompanies us during the hike in addition to our guide, of course.

We start with a flat stretch, first through a small wood of teak and tall grass which turns out to be mint and from which Noé praise us the anti-mosquito properties. Nice, but I would still not give them my anti-malaria protection! Then along fields of cotton and corn. We already know the plants and trees that Noé presents to us: cassava, african locust beans, baobabs, cashew trees, neems…. etc.

First part of the hike, very wet.

The two girls are in shorts, Johanna even wears sandals. It’s not really the perfect equipment for walking in the bush! I even regret not having put my real hiking shoes instead of the lighter fabric ones, because the ground is completely soaked with water.
After 1.3 km of flat path we arrive at the foot of a huge granite monolith, the "hill of wells" which we will begin to climb. A very delicate climb at some places because the humidity makes the rock extremely slippery. Christine will even pay a small part of toboggan on the buttocks. For the most critical section I prefer to take off my shoes, the grip being much better barefoot. The few children of the village who accompany us barefoot and the zem driver in sandals do not have these problems and climb like goats!

The rock is wet and it slides a lot!

Once at the top we understand why this block of granite is called "hill of wells". Natural bowls dug in the granite hold rainwater, some never dry completely, even in the dry season. In the old days people from the village came here to get water. This seems rather unimaginable. Climbing every day to the top of this 90-meter-high block of granite and coming down from it with dozens of liters of water must have been quite a chore. Today, boreholes have been dug at the village level and villagers no longer have to climb on the monolith to get their supplies.

At the top of the monolith: the wells!

 
We spend a long time at the top admiring the panoramic view towards Dassa and its hills to the west and the wide plain dotted with hills to the east towards Nigeria about fifty kilometers away.

Panorama of "the hills" from the summit.

View towards Dassa and its hills.

Rice fields.

The whole troop at the top: Delphine, one of the children, Florent, Johanna, Thierry, Christine and Rémy.

After half an hour break it is time to resume the way back. We descend from the monolith on a slightly less demanding path.

On the path back to the village.

At the village. The mango tree.

Once in the village we get back on our motorcycles to reach the farm. The effects of the rain have faded somewhat, the streams and ravines carry much less water and the motorcycles pass without us having to dismount.

Back on our zems.

We are back at the camp at 12:20 p.m. We pay Noé, 6,000 CFA (9.42 €) for both of us. He takes care of paying the zems.