There are some issues with our computer so no pictures for a while.
Blog update 3/8/13 racing through Nigeria
After we left parque national de W in Benin we drove to a hotel in kandi, about 200 km from the border with Nigeria. Here we did some light car maintenance and fine tuned our route through Nigeria. Kandi is a town of 100 thousand people with one cyber cafe.
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| Nice roads in the park.... |
Since we were the only white people in town it took only 5 minutes before the gendarmerie had found us. They ordered us to register at their office in town. We said that we would do that later but we had no intention to do that and spend an hour waiting for some bored police officer to write all our details in a big book. Unfortunately on our way back from shopping to the hotel we passed the gendarmerie office and there was no escaping, so we spent one hour listening to the police chief on how important it is to register with the gendarmerie. We think that it is better that fewer people know about our whereabouts, especially since we are traveling with two French people.
While at the hotel we were visited by some local kids. Rosana printed some pictures and gave to them. They were very happy. Rosana also bought her first souvenir made by the local artisan (weaver).
We also wanted to buy diesel since we heard it is in short supply in Nigeria.
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| Only gas station in town with fuel |
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| This one also had fuel |
So far in Africa, if you follow the main roads we have had decent to very good roads, well this ends as soon as you get to Nigeria. On the map it looks like there is a decent road from the border to Abuja however the first 100 km is a dirt road that has not been maintained in 30 years and gets worse during each rain season.
The other (ok I need to interrupt for a moment as while we are writing this in lobby of the Sheraton hotel in Abuja, we have the honor to meet the Nigerian guy who writes us all the Internet scam e-mails, the guy just came to us after acting a fake telephone conversation with a friend and now he is asking for 20 usd so he can get to his friend who's wife is delivering a baby, the guy is drunk and stupid as he told us he came to ask us because we are white. Later more on this Sheraton Brothel) 500 km to Abuja where, except from some sections full of potholes. It took us almost three days to get to Abuja.
The first two days we drove through some small villages and everyone comes out of their little huts to wave, sing and shout, really nice.
The only scary part are some of the roadblocks by the local police, heavily armed, no uniform and some of them obvious drunk and or stoned, not a good combination with the ak47s they are carrying. None of these folks were giving us trouble though, it was more a hassle to stop, show the inside of the box, smile and talk to them a bit.
The real pain started when we got to the potholed tar roads, where you have roadblocks by the police, military, traffic police and some other vague police departments in uniform.
Between the border with Benin and Abuja, about 600km we must have had over 30 roadblocks. Most of them we needed to stop, talk to the officials, show passport drivers license and show the inside of the camper and then we could continue again. We had about 5 or six where the police wanted something. They always start with the question: what do you have for me? Each time we get away with the same tactic, we either tell them that they can get a smile from us or we tell them that if we had known that they would be there we would have brought something. But the best tactic seems to be to ignore the question and just start talking about how great Nigeria is how nice the people are and then ask them directions. Most of the officials seem to have a short memory and they all let us go after a while.
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| African recycling system - Do you want a hamburger? |
We have had a few bad experiences where we had to resort to our emergency get out of trouble plan. The traffic police seem to be the worst. One of the stops by the traffic police was really bad. They first wanted to see Marc's drivers license and said that it is an offense in Nigeria if you do not have a Nigerian drivers license. Next he wanted to see the fire extinguisher and the emergency triangle and it was clear that he was disappointed that we had all these things. Our next offense was the extra headlights on the roof, also not allowed in Nigeria, he even took out the offense book to show Marc. Marc ignored him and told him that the car was inspected at the border and that we already had a few police stops and everything was ok. Did not matter he was going to write us a couple of tickets and keep our drivers license that we could pick up after paying the fine in Abuja, clearly expecting us to pay him some money.
Now it was time to pull out our invitation letter that we had prepared in Burkina. It consisted of two letters from the secretary of education of Nigeria. One was a confirmation that the four of us are working on a project to improve education in Nigeria. The second letter is addressed to the citizens and government officials of Nigeria where the secretary asks them to support and help us while traveling through Nigeria.
We handed the letter to the policeman and saw immediately that he was getting concerned as soon as he saw the colorful letterhead with the logo of the federal ministry of education. He showed the letter to his colleagues and it was clear that none of them wanted to get a call from the secretary of education, so they handed the letter and Marc's drivers license back and we were good to go.
This was our worst police stop in Nigeria. There were more police stops where we had to talk ourselves out of getting a fine or being asked for something but we did not have to pull out the invitation letter anymore.
When we finally reached Abuja on Sunday afternoon the roads were good and wide and the traffic light, so we quickly found the Sheraton hotel where they have an area in the back where over landers can camp.
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| Are we still in Nigeria? |
The Sheraton hotel was at one point of time a nice hotel but this one can in no way live up to the expectations you normally have of a Sheraton in europe or the US. This one has not been maintained since it was build over 20 years ago and we were glad that we could stay in our camper and did not have to take a room as they are going for over 200usd and according to the reviews on tripadvisor cannot even compete with the cheapest motel rooms in the US.
Campground visitor:
We were hoping to spend only a couple of days here to try to get the Angolan visa and then drive as fast as possible to Cameroon.
In the end we almost spend two weeks there. After a few days we started to feel like Roma gypsies as we were parked next to the hotel's landfill: discarded hotel beds, furniture, construction material etc. the only thing lacking was a couple of half dismounted Mercedes cars. The night guard was living next door with his 3 German shepherds and a Rottweiler which must have been the four meanest dogs in Africa. They were chained to a fence close to our cars and every time we moved they would start to bark and trying to attack us. We were sure that one of these days one of them would break lose. We had heard about another overlander who got bitten in his calf by the Rottweiler who was chained to a heavy iron bar that he was able to move to get closer to his prey.
So now you have an idea about our living quarters and why we wanted to leave Abuja so quickly.
Now the good news from Abuja. We were able to secure a tourist visa for Angola and also get a visa for both Congo's. It was not too difficult just very time consuming and a lot of running around. If you want to read the details then continue reading (or go to the bottom to read the update from Cameroon).
For other overlanders this is what we needed to get multiple entry tourist:
2 passport pictures
Letter written and signed by ourselves explaining what we want to do in Angola
Bank statement
Address of a person we know in Angola (we never had to submit an invitation letter)
Visa form
When we arrived at the Sheraton there were three brave Japanese (one girl was travelling by herself in a minivan, see picture, making us wonder why we bought such a big truck if you can make it with a minivan) that travelled all the way from Japan through Russia and Europe to Africa and they had applied for a transit visa for Angola. On our first day at the Angolan embassy they got their visa back. However the embassy screwed up the dates and they had only 5 days to drive from Abuja through Angola to Namibia starting from the day the visa was issued. This was probably our luck because when we applied they told us that a transit visa would not work so we should apply for a tourist visa. So that is what we did. Before we got to talk to the people processing the visa we had to get past a nasty woman who did not want to let us in because we did not live in Nigeria. We had all our paperwork ready when we got to this woman, the only thing we did not have is a 6 month Nigerian visa or resident permit, so we convinced her in the end that the angolan embassies in our home country told us to go to Abuja and apply there.
The other advantage we had was that Rosana speaks Portuguese as most people working on visas in the embassy do not speak English. For more details on the Angolan visa application please read the saga below.
Visa Saga
When reading the adventure below keep in mind that we had to take a taxi every time we had to go to an embassy or back to the hotel. We ALWAYS have to negotiate the fare and often we have to tell the taxi driver where to go since they don't seem to know the concept of addresses.
Day 1- Monday
at the Angolan embassy at 9:45 am. We were told by the receptionist that visas are not issued to non-residents of Nigeria. We insisted to talk to someone.
We were let inside and waited.
Around 11:45 am we spoke to someone who told us we would need a letter from our embassy because we are not residents of Nigeria. We had to wait to confirm a few more requirements since they were not clear.
A letter from the Brazilian embassy would not work for Rosana since she had her Nigerian visa in her Italian passport
At 1:45pm we left the Angolan embassy to try to get the letters.
Luckily the Dutch and Italian embassy are in the same building.
Marc waited, waited, waited and finally spoke to the secretary who said the embassy was NOT going to write the letter without a formal request from the Angolan embassy.
Rosana waited, waited and waited and was told to return next morning.
Day 2- Tuesday
Rosana called the Angolan embassy and told them the embassies would not create the letter without a request from them. They then asked us to return to the Angolan embassy at 11 am to speak with the person responsible for visas.
10:45 am we were back and the guards did not let us in because the embassy is closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After some explaining and waiting we were let in.
After some waiting we talked to 3 people who refused to put it in writing the need for a letter from our embassy.
They then suggested us to go to the Brazilian embassy which is next door so they could write a letter to me and Marc since we are "residents" of Brazil.
At the Brazilian embassy we waited and spoke to someone who called e Angolan embassy to explain they don't write these letters. The people at the Angolan embassy were going to check what could be done and return his call.
After the Brazilian embassy we returned to the Dutch and the Italian to try one more time for the letter.
Marc talked to the secretary who told him she was going to send her assistant with us to the Angolan embassy on Wednesday morning. We must be at the Dutch consulate at 8:45am.
Rosana went to Italian embassy and was yelled at by the guard because she was not there at 9am. Then the ambassador's secretary was mad because Rosana was not there before 12pm and also the fact Rosana doesn't speak Italian. She asked Rosana to wait.
After waiting, waiting and more waiting the secretary brought Rosana to the ambassadors office.
He was a very friendly guy but gave Rosana a lecture on how dangerous this trip is. He said he could write the letter but had to wait for the confirmation from the Italian consulate in Sao Paulo (since the passport was issued there).
The ambassador asked Rosana to return next morning.
We went back to the hotel to wait for the call from the Brazilian embassy.
4pm the Brazilian embassy called us back saying we could return to the Angolan embassy next day without the letter. They were going to process our application.
Day 3 - Wednesday
8:45 am we got to the Dutch consulate.
Waited, waited and waited. We left the consulate with the assistant and the driver and got to the Angolan embassy at 9:30 am
Waited, waited and waited.
Talked to the person that collects the documents for the visa application. Rosana had to do all the translation since the Dutch assistant did not speak Portuguese and the Angolan assistant did not speak English.
After a lot of talking and confusion they agreed on processing the application without the letter.
At 10:45am we left the Angolan embassy and went back to the Italian embassy. At 12pm the Italian ambassador wanted to talk to Rosana again.
He wanted to know all the details (and also practice his Portuguese, since he lived in Brazil).
After 30 minutes he said he would only write the letter if it was really necessary so Rosana had to wait for the answer from the Angolan embassy and then contact him again.
Rosana called the Angolan embassy around 3pm but they had no answer yet from Luanda.
Day 4 Thursday
9:30 am called Angolan embassy. No answer from Luanda.
11:30 am called Angolan embassy. No answer from Luanda.
2:00 pm called Angolan embassy. No answer from Luanda.
3:30-4:00pm called Angolan embassy several times but they were not answering the phone OR they were hanging up right away when they heard our voice.
Day 5 - Friday
Tried calling the embassy several times but no answer. We heard it was a holiday and they were closed.
Day 6 - Monday
9:30 am at the Angolan embassy.
10 am we heard our application got approved but they could not print the visa because the system was down.
3pm (yes, after waiting 5 1/2 hours) we heard they still could not print it. Asked to leave and return next day at 10 am.
Day 7 - Tuesday
10 am at Angolan embassy.
We were asked to wait because the system was still down.
We waited, waited and waited.
Rosana en asked to speak to someone and was told the system was still down. Rosana insisted on speaking to someone.
The assistant came and told Rosana sometimes the system is down for 2 weeks.
We then decided to take the passports back and go apply for the Congo visa while we wait for the Angolan system to be up and running again.
The assistant was going to send Rosana an email when the visa is printed.
Day 8
no email yet so we went to apply for the Congo visa.
Arrived at 9am at the Congo embassy and dropped off the documents.
At 11:30 am we came back to collect the passports and at 12pm we went back to the Angolan embassy.
Took a taxi and had only 30 minutes to get to the embassy since they close at 12:30pm.
The taxi driver stops the car after a few minutes because he has a flat tire.
There we go again, get a new taxi and negotiate the rate.
We got to the Embassy 17 minutes before they close.
The good news is the system is up and it looks like they are going to print the visa.
Visa in our hands we rushed back to the Sheraton to make the last few copies needed for the DRC visa.
Dropped off the paperwork at the DRC embassy at 2:30pm and after paying 17,000Nairas for each visa we were told to return next day at 2:30pm
day 9
2:30 pm at DRC embassy. Sorry no visa yet. Come back at 4:30pm
4:30 pm at DRC embassy. Sorry no visa yet. Come back at 5:30pm. we are waiting for an approval from DRC and will work late to help you...
5:30 pm at DRC embassy. Employees: Can we see the original of the drivers license, the original of the car document, the original of this and that.... It started to get fishy but since we had all the originals they said OK, everything is fine but since we had to work so late BECAUSE of you, what do you have for us? Rosana asked how much they wanted for working late specially for us. Their response was to give something from our hearts.
We offered 4,000 Nairas for e for of us (about 27 US$). They said "it is too small" but accepted it in the end and by around 6:30pm we left the embassy with our passports and visas.
Blog update 3/22 Entering Cameroon
With three visas in our pockets we finally left Abuja on Friday morning at 6am. It was 600km to the border and the last day that we were allowed to be in Nigeria. Based on the roads so far in Nigeria we did not think we could make it to the border before the evening. However the road was a lot better than we hoped for and we did not get stopped nearly as often by the police and army as on our way to Abuja.
The Road to the border:
We got to the Nigerian border just before dark. It was the usual African inefficiency so even though we were the only ones at the border it took almost two hours to get out of Nigeria. The carnet and customs was the easy part, next was the police, immigration and another government official whose responsibilities was not clear. These three individuals were in one office, one was taking down our passport information, the other two gave us each a different form to fill out the same information. After we completed the forms they took that form and copied it in the big book. So each desk had a big book with the same information. Next they took the passport to verify the information they wrote in the book.
After all three were satisfied we could continue to the Cameroon side of the bridge or at least so we thought. We started driving towards the one lane bridge when another official came screaming out of an office, clearly he was not happy that we did pay him a visit. We were done with Nigeria so we ignored him for moment and drove the car up to the gate so we were blocking the whole bridge and preventing local traffic to cross. When the official came to our car he asked why we did not come to him and show the passports. We said that we had already shown our passports to 20 officials and did not know we needed it to show it to him as well, especially as we already had gotten our exit stamp. While talking other people were getting impatient as we were blocking all traffic. The official decided not to cause more problems and grudgingly opened the gate so we could cross the bridge.
On the other side was the Cameroonian police, very friendly and still speaking English (officially Cameroon is bilingual but English is only spoken in the west of the country). He just checked whether we had a visa and then we could continue to the town about 500 meters further to get an entry stamp and our carnet stamped. We decided to park the cars at the border control office and stay there for the night (it was already dark) No problems on the cameroonian side of the border. Again they wrote all our information in a big book.
Camping at the border:
The next day we drove from the border town to Bamenda. The first part of the road, about 70km was slow going but a lot better than expected. Even though the rainy season had started the road was still good enough for regular cars. After Mamfe the road is very good.
We made it to Bamenda mid afternoon.
Camping at the mission in Bamenda
Bamenda is at 1200m altitude so for the first time in a month it is pleasantly warm during the day and nice and cool during the night. We decided to stay for a week in the are to enjoy the moderate climate and catch up on sleep before going further south.
After two days in Bamenda we took 4 days to drive the ring road, a circular road of 360km through the highlands in western Cameroon. It was a very beautiful and scenic route through hills, villages and forests. The first day we visited the palace of the kingdom of bafut. This area of Cameroon is still very much organized around little kingdoms that have some autonomy. The palace contained the oldest African building that is used for meetings and sacrifices by many of the secret societies that are part of the kingdom. The structure is 500 years old and was by far the most interesting part of the palace. The rest of the palace was just a couple of buildings that houses the many wives of the kings and heir children and some administrative offices.
In the evening we found a nice wild camping spot at lake wum. However when we arrived there we were told that we first needed to see the king to get his permission to camp and visit the area. Fortunately one of his sons was around so we could deal with him. It is custom in the area to give them a gift, usually some cheap local whiskey. We did not have whiskey and we don't necessarily agree with giving anything but we offered some money to camp. And as always it was not enough, so we told the prince that we would go find another place. And as always once you walk away they call you back and accept the money (2,000 CFA for both cars. About 4US$. Later we found out other people had to pay 6,000 CFA per vehicle).
Is this a good spot ?
The next day we had a similar experience when visiting lake nyos. There we gave the local king two of our precious beers to be able to have a look at a lake. The lake is nothing special other than that 30 years ago it exploded and a deadly gas came down on the valley, killing 1700 people. This is the official and most likely story. However the soldier who walked down with us to the lake told us that he and the people in the area think it was a white country who was testing a bomb in the lake. The white country had even written a letter to warn the villagers but somehow the person who received the letter had forgotten to tell the people about the bomb.
On the ring road there were many villages , with many missions, churches and schools. And everywhere there are children, many of them. When we drive by, they come running to the cars. One thing we wonder about is whether the children ever get any education. We always see children, anytime of the day either going to school, coming from school or playing around the school, we never pass a school and see children inside in a classroom.
Ops.... road block...
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