Crossing the border from Benin to Nigeria was a fairly pain-free experience. A good start since the security situation in the northern parts of the country (which we’re not even getting close to) is not the best and due to the general corruption level in the country.
The rest of the first day was however pretty terrible. There were checkpoints everywhere. Checkpoints for immigration, military, federal police, state police, health authorities to check yellow fever certs, or just random guys with sticks with nails that want to make some money. All in all it took us almost 7 hours driving (without lunch stop) to get the 80km from the border to the first city, Abeokuta. People were grumpy, the drivers tired, and it was getting dark so when we got to the city we stayed one night at a hotel instead of searching for possible spots to camp that might or might not have existed. Probably the most western place we’ve stayed in Africa.
We had a pretty good evening in the city, eating some fast food from a local joint, and trying some of the local beer brands in a bar. As in most African countries the beers are mainly light lager due to the climate, except for Guinness Extra Stout that can be found everywhere. How can anyone drink a 7% stout in that climate? When we returned to the hotel the staff was not too happy without for going out after dark without extra security, but the area we wandered around in felt perfectly safe. I had really low expectations for Nigeria so we’re off to a pretty good start.
The plan for Nigeria was pretty much just to drive through the country so the next day we went straight for the motorway. Luckily there were fewer checkpoints along the larger roads so we didn’t have to repeat the pain of the first day. Instead we had to survive the Nigerian motorways. The motorways are pretty much standard motorways, two lanes in each direction and a barrier or grass patch separating the directions. The quality of the road varies though so a lot of cars and trucks sometimes find it easier to drive on the wrong side of the barrier. Oncoming traffic on the motorway is not really that fun, especially not combined with crazy overtakes in both directions…
The further south-east we got the smaller the roads and once we reached the town of Aba we took off from the motorway to continue by highway. There was only one problem. The road was pretty much washed away and gone. With a 4×4 truck like ours we could get through quite a few holes and puddles (more like small lakes about a meter deep at the deepest spots) but eventually we had to turn around and find an alternative road out of town.
Eventually we reached Calabar, the only place in Nigeria where we actually planned to stay for a while. The main reason is that it’s the easiest place to get visas for Cameroon. Of course the president of Cameroon was on a visit in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, and the local counsellor therefore there too and not in Calabar. We had to wait a few days til he got back just to be able to apply for the visas. Once the applications were in the process was quick though. €80 and a few hours later everything was completed.
During our wait for the visas we had time to have a look around in the city and there were a few sights including the national museum, the local market, and the marina. We also went to see the new Captain America movie and it was amazing to see how enthusiastic people were, especially with scenes from Nigeria when people started cheering.
The highlight of the city was the Cercopan Monkey Sanctuary. The sanctuary keeps, breeds, and eventually reintroduces monkeys to the wild under very strict and controlled international methods. They had 6 different species of monkeys and mainly got their animals from people who’ve had them as pets (which is illegal) until they grew too big, or orphaned monkey babies from the bush due to hunting (also illegal). We had a very passionate guide who showed us around and talked about the different monkeys and what they’re doing. The monkeys seemed really well taken care of and the whole thing was entirely based on donations, including our visit. A very positive surprise in a country like Nigeria where everything else seems to be about money.
Calabar is fairly close to the Cameroon border but all the big roads require a long detour north so we took a shortcut via smaller jungle roads. One last night of bush camping before crossing the border. And that night I made a small friend who was staying with me for a few hours. Tomorrow Cameroon.
