Political corruption has brought tiny Togo to its knees, but it is still easy to see why the country was once considered the pearl of West Africa.

Woodlands and waterfalls, such as the dramatic Akloa Falls, are plentiful as far north as the national icon of the Aledjo Fault, where the Route Internationale winds through a chasm in the cliff. Further north, savannah takes over and temperatures rise the closer you get to the Sahel with its harmattan onslaughts. Apart from the hippos in the River Oti, Togo is short on wild animals, which were scared away by farmers and rioters during the 1990s.

In Togo’s coffee and cocoa triangle west of Atakpame, waterfalls crash through the undergrowth, 700-metre-plus hills offer views into Ghana, and iridescent butterflies flutter in the forests around the French-style Chateau Viale. Though they are mostly devoid of animals, national parks such as Malfakassa Zane de Chasse and the pointedly misnamed Pit of Lions boast woodland, savannah, cliffs and more waterfalls.