Nigeria
Day 124 06/05
Sheraton Hotel, Abuja
11570 miles
Nigeria has been wonderful so far. We crossed the border into a very rural part of Nigeria and found a really muddy, narrow, dirt track through the bush and loads of litttle villages. It was a great drive and the people were so excited to see us comming through. It was a nice change to get big smiles and excited waves instead of 'give me money'. We bush camped the first nigt on a path through the bush and gave a local the fright of his life. He came along the road on his motorbike in the dark and turned onto our path. We were parked blocking the way but he didn't see the vehicles till the last minute. He then accellerated and went crashing through the bush without a backward glance.
The next day was some more dirt track and lots of muddy puddles to splash through before hitting a potholed tar road. Give us dirt any day! We stayed that night in a really run down motel at New Bussa as we could camp in the grounds but we had to take a room for the use of the toilet and shower. The room was clean an airconed and had a huge bed so the four of us took one look and decided we could all fit on the bed. So for $13 we had a lovely cool, comfotable nights sleep. We made it to Abuja the next day where we met up with the two Dutch couples again. They had no success getting their Angolan visas on Friday but we thought we'd try again anyway. We sent Kieth and Julie in with all our passports and they came back with the news that the bloke who issues passports is on holiday and nobody else knows what's going on. We're going back this morning to see if any more information has come to light otherwise we'll just apply at every Angolan embassy we encounter on the way south.
Day 132 14/05
Metropolitan Hotel, Calabar
12064 miles
Life is tough in Africa! We're having to camp in another 5 star hotel car park for free and getting to sit in the air-conditioned lobby using wifi etc, etc. We ended up spending 6 days in Abuja and managed to get our Congo and Gabon visas there, but no Angolan. Abuja is a very clean, modern city with some impressive buildings. We were also collecting overlanders at the Sheraton so we eventually left on Saturday morning in a convoy of 5. We had an extremely long day of 540 km and ended up, after a short cut that involved a great bit of tar and then dirt track and bridge building, driving in the dark into Ikom. Not a good idea, especially on Nigerian special potholed tar roads. Some of the holes are big enough to lose you car down. We got to Ikom in one piece. We were forced to go down market in Ikom and stay in a very African hotel. We are now in Calabar and close to the end of our Nigerian experience.
Day 137 19/05
Drill Ranch, Afi Mountain Reserve
12261 miles
We sorted out our Cameroon visas in Calabar and then visited 2 primate sanctuaries in town. The first was CERCOPAN which deals with monkeys and the second was Drill Ranch which deals with drills and chimpanzee. Both very interesting places and a great opportunity to see the animals close up although in cages. Both places have release sites on the border of the Cross River National Park which we visited.
CERCOPAN was first ans ended up being more than we bargained for. Heidi, the research co-ordinator for the project, was returning to Rhoko - the bush camp - so we travelled in convoy with her. There is about 26 km of dirt track from the main road to Rhoko which is slow going and should take about 1.5 hours. All was going well until we reached a bridge that the villagers had decided needed rebuilding and had dismantled that morning. True to African form the materials for building the new bridge wern't there yet and the only alternative route was a very muddy track through the river. Heidi tried to drive through and got stuck so we had to tow her out then construct a causeway using the wood taken off the old bridge and do a bit of pruning to make a better path up the far bank. Kieth went first and got through without a problem, then us then Heidi. Next we had to stop and visit the village chief as the camp is on their land. We had to sit and drink kai-kai, which is a local spirit brewed from palm sap, a bit like tequilla and not altogether bad, and chew on kola nuts, very bitter pecan nut sized nuts. We discretely spat most of it out. Due to a fallen tree across the road Kieth and Julie couldn't get their vehicle right up to the camp so we ended up camping at the visitor's center which had a nice grassy patch outside. The next day we saw the Mangaby monkey's which are kept in a huge fenced enclosure in the rainforest while waiting to be released. It's a great set-up for seing the monkeys in thier natural habitat.
The next day we headed off to Drill Ranch which is on the road between Ikom and Obudu. We left Cercopan by another road which was marginally better and had solid bridges and had an uneventful trip to the ranch. A great set up in the heart of the rainforest. The campsite is a little clearing in the forest with a short walk to the toilet and shower through the forest. The next day we took a guided tour which involves seeing the drill troops, chimpanzee (again in huge enclosures in the forest) and a walk through the neighbouring forestry commission reserve. There is a canopy walkway here which is much better than the one in Ghana. The walkway is a better construction, the forest is in better condition and the walkway is longer. The guide then took us up to the river where there is a great pool for swimming in. We got back to camp just in time for the afternoon storm with thunder and lightning. Although there is a lot of rain the storms never seem to last very long and everything dries up quite quickly. We made our dinner and were just sitting around chatting when Campbell started jumping up and down and swearing. It turned out he was being bitten by ants and after shedding some light on the situation we saw that the whole area was swarming with ants - the ground was literally moving. So some very quick packing up and some jumping and dodging it was up into the tent for the rest of the evening. We enjoyed the drill Ranch so much that we decided to spent another day just lazing about. We went to see the chimps again and took a walk up to the swimming hole again. Thankfully we didn't have another visit from the ants so we could sit out and enjoy the evening.
Nigeria Summary
So much for getting through scarry Nigeria as quickly as possible - it's possibly been the best country we've been in. There are a lot of police, military, traffic, local government, etc check points but the guys are really friendly and happy to have you in their country. They often ask for something but aren't bothered if you say you don't have anything. The route from Nikki, Benin to Abuja and then south to Calabar was fine. The villagers seemed really excited to see you and there was nothing but huge smiles and lots of waving. Abuja is an incredible city. It is well laid out and very modern. The people here are also very friendly and we were out at night and never had any trouble. The primate sanctuaries are well worth the visit and are a great opportunity to spend some time in the rainforest. It was really good to camp in the wilds again rather than dodgy hotel carparks.