Jul

Nigeria – not as bad as people want it to be

mhoey on July 14th, 2010

First time I met the Christian’s, the two American’s was during a heavy thunderstorm 60 clicks from Abuja city. Bass and Justice had prepared their flashy for Africa by taking off the BMW emblems and using Scoth-brite on all the plastic. What an interesting idea! American people keep surprising me
I have never experienced such a heavy rain storm before. To start with I really enjoyed that it was raining. But after a couple of minutes everything was flooding and I was completely soaked. Ian and I never arrived to Abuja that evening, we had to fight us through the stopped traffic, flooded roads and tilted telephone poles in the middle of the road!
Ian’s GPS broke down after this horrible weather and out last hope of having coordinates for camp sites etc. was gone!
Great guy that followed us to the Sheraton hotel in an insane pace! We met this great fella on our way into Abuja city. He followed us to the Shareton hotel, where we had heard from the HUBB that you can camp for free on the parking lot. It all sounded good, so Ian and I decided to give the gentleman 5 Euros for his trouble.
It later turned out that the parking lot at Shareton hotel in Abuja was not exactly what we had expected after riding 3 days in extreme heat. We needed something a bit more luxury (air-conditioned room perhaps?).
Later the same day I lost all my charging equipment for camera, computer etc. on the very same parking lot. I couldn’t believe it when I arrived a couple of days later and they had found my thing. I got it all back and I was more than happy again!
I have already told you what I heard of Nigeria before arriving to the country. And it is no wonder that Nigeria goes under the reputation as the country with the greatest scams ever. Take a look on the left photo. Ian found this poster after we had finished our visit to the embassy of Cameroun. It was hanging on the wall next to an Internet cafe. For the Western world it is difficult for us to understand that people can believe in such thing. “The secret to healing virtually all diseases. But imagine living in a poor country having no education, I suddenly understand that some people get drawn to such kind of with doctors.
I guess I haven’t seen the best yet!
The biggest and most beautiful mosque I have ever seen Abuja can be a great city if you are a city kind of type. I remember it was a very chaotic and hot place to be. One could ride in a taxi all day for less than nothing. A taxi would take you across town for a 1 Euro or 2. It quickly became a great game between Ian and me to find the cheapest taxi to take us to and from embassies. In contrast the hotels were bloody expensive.
We were in town for one thing. Getting visas for Cameroun (17.500 Naira + 500 for the crook of a secretary. Pick up next day), Congo (10.000 Naira, or 13.000 issued same day), DRC (20.000 Naira and pick up after 24 hours), Angola (20 USD, bring US Dollars as the Angolan embassy only accept this. If you are lucky as I was, you can pick up same day!
Time for a (Z)igar Why not celebrate our achievement? Four visas in three days during our stay in the head capital of Nigeria.
Time to say goodbye to Abuja and head down to the border at Ekok to cross into the green Africa, yep it is Cameroun I am talking about. I think by now that half the distance to Cape Town have been achieved. I feels like I have been to the moon and back again. Africa has so far been hard on me, I admit that. I guess my fellow travel mate which I met in Gambia can say the same if you ask him! After I have heard of other people crossing Nigeria, I think I have been pretty lucky. I hope it stays that way?
Time to change map soon. Ian is thinking of giving his mint condition map to a local school before leaving Nigeria. I would have loved to do the same, but the half of my map is somewhere on a Mali road, playing with the wind.
Oscar the great reverend I met on the last day of my stay in Nigeria short before Cameroun. Both Ian and I was out of money and had to camp outside the hotel on a parking lot. The reverend offered us to lend his bathroom while he went to the local church. Later when he came back we all gathered in a circle and prayed for a safe and adventurous journey. He later asked me if we could do business together. He wanted to import some kind of fish bait from Denmark into Nigeria. I never heard from him since. I guess I didn’t make me go into the fish bait business!
We also met the Swinger’s, a group with two Land Cruisers, half of them was lovely South African girls. They cooked a great meal for us that evening. Lovely with some female company!
The VFR managed to get through yet another country though my rear suspension is starting to show some weakness. I have tried to tightened the preload up, but without success. I broke the tool instead. I guess I have never been good with a tool in my hand? Ask my fellow colleagues at Scandinavian Airlines System about that!
Other than that I can say that I haven’t had the luck on my side. Not a single crash since I crossed illegal into Mali from Senegal on the sand piste.
I would like to service the engine with some new oil, but haven’t had the great success of finding some motorcycle oil. Ian serviced his bike with car oil in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. His bike has started to knock in the engine and stall when in idle, but we keep believing that it is because of the bad fuel we get down here!