Monday 24 February 2014

Nigeria

 Taking our chances in Nigeria


After struggling to find anything to write in my last blog I now found myself struggling to fit this fortnight into 1 update. After leaving Togo we entered into Benin and drove into a town called Ouidah where we walked along an old slave route to where we were camping on the beach, complete with pool and a 5 metre diving platform. We were approached by a local who offered to take us to a small village not far away for a chance to witness a voodoo ceremony which we graciously accepted, of course after a 20 minute negotiation about the price. After much singing, dancing and drumming they picked Nick from our group to be ’healed’ by their elder voodoo chief who was straight out of a B grade movie. The whole village continued to drum and sing and pass around a bottle of vodka/gin/moonshine which got replaced about 5 times during the ceremony. Every third swig however was taken by our chief in white who was puffing away at his Marlborough cigarettes every minute he wasn't taking a shot. A bowl full of bones, dried animal skins and a length of horse tail was placed in Nicks hands which he had to hold out in front of himself for about 5 minutes while they danced and sang. He was then instructed to hold it on his head while they painted his face, fed him a concoction of raw egg, ash, blue dye and water, added more to the bowl and spat the alcohol they were drinking into the dish, his neck and his face. Now holding a bowl above your head does not sound too hard but the action of simply keeping your hands above your head holding a heavy bowl can get fairly tiresome after a while. Approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes later Nick was still holding the bowl over his head, grimacing with pain, sweat dripping off his forehead. The noise continued the whole time with some of the young males of the village chanting incantations with their face 2 inches from Nicks, their demeanour was as if they were threatening or goading him. It was another surreal experience that I will never forget, the ceremony only ending as we were getting fairly restless and I think Nick was a lot stronger than they expected. One of our French speaking members spoke to some locals and we are fairly sure they were trying to get Nick into a trance but it just wasn't working. Apparently if the ceremony doesn't work the subject will become cursed so we don't expect Nick to make it to Cairo.
 
Voodoo instruments

The voodoo chief performing his ceremony on Nick
 



Leaving Benin we entered Nigeria which was a country that none of us were really sure what to expect. Nigeria has a very bad international reputation, I guess the thing most people relate to Nigeria is the dodgy email scams you constantly receive. Our impression of the country wasn't improved when we applied for the visa in Ghana and were turned away before we even got in the door because we were not a national. We eventually got the visa in Togo and our first impression couldn't have been further from the truth. The border was straight forward and the 21 police stops we went through on the 1st day was probably a bit over the top for any normal country but we rolled with the punches. Once we got into the heart of the country it was amazing, the people here as are friendly as those in Guinea and you could excuse them for having a grudge against Caucasian tourists but there was nothing of the sorts. Even in large cities the locals would be waving at us before we could even see them and Nigeria knows how to do big cities, with 1 in every 5 Africans coming from Nigeria whose population is around 160 million. The drive was a good indication of the density of the country with every inch of land taken up by cities or farmland.


Catching motorbike taxis in Ouidah
 

 

Fetching water

For the 2nd time on our trip we got woken just before midnight by police insisting we were not safe and that we move from our bush camp to their police compound. Woken from a deep sleep I was not too happy to be packing my tent up but it was the start of another great day through Nigeria. Upon waking the next morning we were escorted by the police to Onitsha where we had to wait around at the next police station while they organised more police to continue escorting us. The next police escort decided that we needed to go to Immigration so we back tracked to a very official looking building where we ripped off one of our spare tyres of the gate much to our drivers delight. Passports checked, we crossed the river and travelled for about 5 minutes before we officially moved into another state which meant we needed to be handed over to another group of police, all these stops taking approximately an hour or more. The journey continued with this police unit, 1 vehicle in front, 2 behind, all up around about 12-15 heavily armoured policemen protecting us from the pickpockets and beggars running strife in Nigeria. In some ways it made the trip quicker as they would just throw on their sirens and we would overtake cars, drive on the wrong side of the road and plough through intersections without hitting the brakes. In all honesty in slowed us down immensely as we changed over police units 3 times, they would drive at 30km p/h until Steve overtook them and they eventually got a flat tyre. They got tired of protecting us in the evening and left us to our own devices at a very picturesque campsite under some high tension power lines where we managed to all get a much needed river wash.


Our police escort behind us

Overloaded trucks are the norm
 

Camping on a cattle track
 
Ganvi stilt village


Fisherman from Ganvi
 


Reaching eastern Nigeria we pulled into Calabar, a modern city where we applied for and received our Cameroon visa within 2 hours, a PB so far. It was a special occasion, marking the 12th and last visa we had to apply for on the West Coast. Much to my amazement the campsite we stayed at had a squash court so I got instantly excited until I discovered they did not hire out racquets, balls or shoes. Non-deterred I found a racquet in an adjoining room, I taxied around town to find a squash ball and I played in sneakers that I had not worn for 3 months. After exhausting myself hitting the ball against the wall to myself I had a quick shower and helped prepare dinner. Just before serving up a group of locals arrive and I wonder over to have a chat and the next minute I’m on the court playing their best player in town. We had quite a good game, he beat me fairly convincingly, I have a massive blister on my thumb and I have not been able to walk properly since. It seems my fitness has not improved since sitting on a truck 24/7, drinking more often than not and snacking too often. Who saw that coming?
 
Teaching some locals the hokey pokey
 
Smashing a forehand drive
 

 
 
 
I know find myself in Cameroon which has been much easier travelling than expected as the roads have been improved within the last year. I am slightly disappointed as this was the part of the trip where we were supposed to be digging the truck out of bogs, holes and ditches and getting covered in mud. Although it has made the days easier now I may look back in regret that I came to Africa just a little too late.
 
Stunning scenery in Cameroon