Day 78 - Nigeria, Ibadan - Forgotten Passports
Trip Start
Nov 09, 2008
1
59
163
Trip End
Jul 02, 2009
Ibadan,
Nigeria
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Harold's been moving during the night so toe very itchy. It doesn't look like a worm.. well kinda you can just see a raised line in a U shape. Oliver thinks it's a blister but I'm pretty sure it's not. How can flipflops blister the top of your toe. I'll let him live a while just to find out.
We spot a man standing on a hill watching over us. Very inquisitive this lot. They rarely approach... just watch out of interest. Word has obviously got out about us to the kids and soon enough an army of them come bounding over.
One has a bike which Kristy picks up and starts riding around in circles. Myself and one of the boys soon chase her and he jumps on the back thinking it's a right laugh. Really lovely kids - all smiles, laughs and waves. End up throwing our empty water bottles and a balloon down to them which they all push and shove for. One little boy didn't get any but ended up with all of them so I think they just love the push and shove of it all.
Mornings drive took us to the Benin border and onto Nigeria. Benin was easy... Nigeria was hard in that we couldn't find the darn thing... or at least that's what it felt like. Usually you cross through one, continue in a straight line and cross through the other. Not so with Nigeria. There appears a sign "Welcome to Nigeria" so you turn right and drive through the back streets of a town. "Are we in Nigeria?" we all ask, thinking that yes we are but no we're not as we haven't passed customs.
Soon enough, after driving round what seems like circles, we arrive at Customs. People are nice despite not having enough stamps for everyone's passports - to get by this they just simply write them in. Whether or not that complies with international laws I do not know. I got a stamp.
From there we entered Nigeria and instantly we noticed a change in the people, being near as friendly as those wonderful Malians. Wave, whistling, shouting hello, glowing smiles on their perfect complexioned faces.
First major town we arrived in was Abeokuta (population 600,000+)_ where we said our goodbyes to Jim and Teresa who were leaving the tour and jumping off to hail a bush taxi down to Lagos.. some 2 hrs drive away, in the hope of catching a flight to Cape Town that evening. Hugs and goodbyes exchanged we drove off waving madly. The group was now down to 24.
Or at least that's what we thought until we got some 500m-1km down the road and realised we still had their passports! Problem! Mum jumped out and tried to hail a taxi but as is always the way in Africa, 10 minutes later she was still sat there haggling over the price so rather than waste any more time she simply got out and decided to leg it, with a couple of our lads chasing after her for safety.
Despite waiting back at the place we dropped them off, Jim and Teresa were nowhere to be seen. Disaster. After a few hours we had no choice but to continue on our planned route, hoping they would contact the office and meet up with us in the coming days.
Being set back a few hours the drive was long and late. We accidentally drove past the planned bush camp and ended up on the outskirts of Ibadan (Nigeria's second largest city). Tired and hungry we tried one guest house but they were fully book. Into the city we drove, getting stopped about 10 times by police with guns questioning our intention and destination. I waved to one guy who, upon returning the wave, also raised his gun. Yeah you can point that down sunshine.
There are no street lights so was quite funny to see all the street side stalls lit by candle light.
Eventually we found another hotel and after an hour of haggling (yes an hour!) we were granted their conference room to stay in. It was now 8.45pm and we had been driving since about 7am. I was on cook group and due to the lateness we made it simple - 2 minute noodles - by far the easiest cook group dinner on the trip! Bonus.
I went for a nice refreshing shower which involved me standing on the sides so as not to put my foot in the 3 inches of rancid brown water pulled at the bottom. Lovely.
All clean and somewhat revived we headed to the bar for some much needed drinks in order to celebrate Clara's birthday. Good bar with cheap beer, pool and band setting up.. which didn't sound too good due to feedback but we stayed and hoped for the best.
Eventually they came on and we were all pleasantly surprised. They sang Happy Birthday to Clara, the lead singer taking quite a shine to her. A drink was bought out for her with birthday candles and quite a few people ended up getting slightly messy. Oliver telling the whale joke to Barsby and Kristy which was hilarious. Chinese whispers ensued resulting in some rather funny stories which will no doubt turn to rumours.
I headed to bed at what I thought was 1 but was later told it was closer 2.30. Others stayed up till 6. Ouch.
Very pleasant day to a rather chaotic day. We just hope Jim and Teresa are okay.
