Benin's answer to the maldives...

...is how the guide book starts to describe Grand Popo, what it should also have mentioned is ..'a very nice place to escape to with a few friends on your birthday...'

If you have to get older, I figure you may as well have fun doing it. So off we went with that aim in mind...and fun we had...
Benin is not like home, playgrounds are rare, to find two on the same day was beyond exciting for the smaller members of the birthday fun club. And with them happy the rest of us enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch (you don't get much choice about that as food is cooked on African timeframes...) overlooking the gardens of the hotel grounds, followed by chocolate crepes and ice cream. Oh yes the fun is going well.

By now the weather has decided to cooperate too and we have a lovely sunny day in time for swimming. So we have fun splashing and diving, and being kept an eye on by the swimming pool 'police' - a man who would not let shoes anywhere near his pool, nor any person that had not experienced the freezing cold shower, nor jumping in such a manner as to splash water everywhere....


Then we headed to the beach, we ate, we played, we ate more. Did I mention that we ate? Everyone had been baking yummy things and so we ate possibly the most un-balanced meal ever. But it was fun. And it was a picnic - in Africa. That is not something that happens everyday. And it was shared with family and friends, sadly not all of either, but it was a day to remember.
Ok so this is us discovering the camera had a timer and showing the boys the magic of the camera taking a photo all by itself...
And this is the beach at sunset. One of the rare photos that wasn't of all of us being silly :-)

To make the day more memorable we did a little off road driving on the way home, but that might be a whole different post...