Contrast’s of Nigeria

Beautiful gravel, absolute bliss

Nigeria is a country well known for it’s internet scams, corruption and on going fighting.  It is also one of Africa’s most fanatical Christian countries,  a little like the African version of the US bible belt. Some overlanders absolutely loved it, while other one’s hated it with a passion.  Because of all this we where very curious to see what it would deliver.  For safety reasons we chose to try and do as little of the far South and North of the country and we had to go to Abuja for the next set of visas. Our route would loosely follow a strip through the middle of the country and then right at the end dip down south to the Cameroon border, hoping to miss all the trouble areas.
It was with much trepidation that we entered the Nigerian border and went to get our passports stamped.  We where flabbergasted, both the customs and immigration went as smooth as ever, with unbelievably friendly officers working in both offices. Not even the slightest hint at an extra payment or ‘dash’.   Completely the opposite of what we expected.  Upon enter the first village the same followed. Friendly face after friendly face.  Every where we stopped people wanted to know how we are, how the road was, where we were going.  Smiling people everywhere, and we where overwhelmed by curious kids.  This was fantastic.  Africa at its best.

Soaked and dirty.  Life is good!

The road we took started at Chikanda (on the border) and loosely headed east to wards the main roads and Abuja.  The first bit was a hellish gravel road.  With lots of sand, deep ruts and numerous potholes.  Not really much more than a wide track at most times.  Very technical, tons of hard work and very slow. But importantly still a phenomenal amount of fun.  The second bit was terrible tarmac.  Numerous and big potholes.  At times the road was so broken up that the big trucks, mini vans and cars where actually doing long stretches next to the road.  A strange sight seeing these big trucks just dive off the tarmac for a bit  (usually at speed) and then swerve back on. And very scary when they swing towards you to miss the potholes.  The bad parts made for some tense riding, not what I would call fun.  Just very tiring hard work.  It took us nearly two days to cover the 200km stretch and we where all shattered to bits.  We where all desperate for some rest, and hoping Abuja would give us a chance.

Is bigger than it looks.  Infamous rock

Friendly locals

It was on the gravel piece that I also had my second big crash.  It was late afternoon with lots of shadows across the road.  I was close to the side to miss some deep sand, and didn’t see a big rock close to the edge.  It was covered in shadows and long grass and perfectly camouflaged.  Next I heard and felt an almighty bang.  My right sided pannier hit the rock full on, at speed.  The force was so much that my bike was thrown over onto its left side (The left sided panniers left deep ruts in the sand) and nearly fell down.  Somehow I managed to keep the bike up, but only for a few second. My front wheel then hit some deep sand and I smacked down.  Ouch!!   This was a big one!!  I was ok.  Luckily.  My bike had a partly broken indicator and a lot more scratches.  The pannier’s locking and fixing mechanism was bent and it wouldn’t quite fit back on the bike.  A bit of bush mechanics, some banging and bending, and it fit again.  Phew.  The pannier now sat even higher than before and a bit skew.  The right side pannier is really taking a beating.  Why always the same side?  I am quite impressed with what it has survived, so far.  I am even more impressed that there wasn’t more damage.  The rock was big, so big that I couldn't budge it,but the force off the crash rolled it out off the ground.  My guardian angel was definitely watching.

Camping in the village

Early morning obstacle

After my beautiful crash we where all desperate to stop for the night, and we took the first side road looking for a place to camp.  The little road continued for about half a kilometre and then ended in the most gorgeous little village.  A cluster of about 8 little huts sitting smack in the middle of some grain fields with chickens running around everywhere.  It was stunning and clean and well kept, so much different from the dumps we constantly see hugging the roads.  I immediately fell in love with it.  Only one woman in the village spoke tiny a bit of English, but we managed to ask to stay the night and they where happy to have us.  WHOOP WHOOP.  I have been desperate to stay in some villages, and its finally going to happen.  We where shown our camping spot for the night and had our tents up in no time.  A bucket full of water was our shower, but after a few days in the dirt it was as good as any western shower.  After we just relaxed and watched the people, I loved it.  This was the Africa I have had in my head for a very long time.  Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming, and super curious about our trip.  We tried our best to explain, but language was difficult.  Luckily hand signs and photos worked great.  For dinner they killed a chicken, right in front of us.  It was sitting in a tree next to us, getting ready to roost for the night, they shot it out with a slingshot and then killed it.  Brilliant.

Breakfast on the road

For dinner they brought us three huge pieces of chicken, I felt so bad, there where more than ten people eating from our pot and they gave us nearly half the chicken.  Their hospitality was out of this world.  It is amazing that people with so little so easily share what they have.  Dominique worked his magic and managed to fix a broken phone.  No running water and no electricity but there was two very old cell phones in the village.  There was one spot where they just managed to get a single line of signal for the phones.  As soon as the phone was fixed, there was a queue of about 10 people wanting desperately to send messages.  The poor kid who knew how to work the phone had to type everyone’s messages for them. 

Loving and hating the lens

The peaceful night’s sleep we where all desperate for didn’t happen though, we set up our camp right next to the tree the chickens roost in.  And they are a noisy bunch!  The roosters started crowing at about 3 am.  To our frustration they where all trying to out do each other.  Ouch!!  Sadly we had to leave early the next morning.  I had an unforgettable time, and the one night in the village is definitely one of  the highlights so far.








The last stretch towards Abuja was 350 kilometres of tarmacked main road.  On the bikes 350 km is a full day with good roads, but this road was horrible.  We started at 7am and didn’t arrive in Abuja until about 5 pm. I was so shattered that I was struggling to keep the bike up, and so saddle sore that I couldn’t sit on the bike anymore. All I wanted was a shower, some food and tons of sleep.  But thanks to the State Security Services (big guys with big guns) this was to be delayed by quite a few hours…