Getting into Gabon

Slash and burn

It was cool that morning when they started off from Ambam. It was Sunday and hence the town was more quiet except for the loud thundering music coming from a car in the parking lot. It seems rather unnatural for people to listen to music at a low volume in these parts. Which is also why she thinks that they do not hear when one talks to them in a reasonable tone.

Road works

There is a bit of a downhill to the border and there are very apparent signs of the logging/slash and burn that has taken place across the years.

The Moroccans made a feeble attempt at it, there were some signs in the Western Sahara and Mauritania but it was more apparent in Senegal, Gambia and even Mali – planting of trees along the towns/villages. It was more systematic in Burkina Faso. In these countries there is a programme of stopping desert advancement and reforestation.

Then in Ghana where things would just grow on their own, this town embellishment or whatever it is stops. Very few towns and villages in Togo and Benin have planted trees except for the actual cultivation/plantation. And in Cameroon one sees no sign of this whatsoever. What is it with these countries then? At one look, it is a big forest, so they do not replace when they take out? There is such wealth in these places but one just cannot go on taking without replacing.

Road from the north

Northern Gabon looks much like Cameroon, a bit less ‘rain forest’, more open space between the trees and villages. Here, however, the officials seem a bit more educated, more aware of what they have to do, what procedures are – even if it was a Sunday morning when they passed. They are both more articulate in writing and reading too.

Procedures on this border is rather lengthy, customs here at one village, immigration in the next town, Bitam, gendarmerie in the next and so on. But the road is nice and the place quiet.

Ah! At this immigration post, they need photocopies of passports and stamps and such. Of course, there was a cabin just opposite the office where they could do the necessary.

Then it was back to the customs where the officer was a bit more awake and signed off the ‘carnets’. They were then on their way further south. The road was good, newly cut into the escarpment through the forests where there were signs of logging and other road works. There were little signs of much else than logging, very little pineapples, one active rubber and oil palm plantation but otherwise a rather neatly kept environment with not much agricultural activities.

It is certain that this place has less population density than Cameroon but it is better kept, the houses are better built and the road side towns and villages cleaner. Even the wooden houses were better built in general.

Logging truck on the road

The road being like it was, they thought they’d push to Njole and spend the night there. That was without reckoning that 60km before Njole the road got bad to very bad. They are still working on this road but these last kilometres to Njole when everyone was tired was gruelling.

The bad road went through wonderful canopies of giant bamboo. Parts of the road side were being cleared to make space for the new road and there were signs of burning in many places. They crossed the Equator for the first time that day at around 16h00

When they reached Njole they had to hunt for some accommodation. It is a crowded and noisy town on the edge of a nice river with white sand. It could have been so much nicer with just a bit of planning but there it is, just another chaotic African town.

River beach

They booked into Hotel Papaye where the lady in charge started by being rather blunt and unhelpful. The other option was Auberge St Jean, a European Inn style place that is steadily falling apart.

Since the Papaye ‘Chinese’ lady was not there to open the restaurant/bar, Elismé cooked and even shared a bowl of food with the grumpy lady.

Roadside picnic

Starting off from Njole on a reasonable tar road it was again through roads cut out of the escarpment, lots of bends, uphills and downhills, progress was slow. Then the land evened out a bit and they could make more speed. They stopped at the equator to have some ‘breakfast’. At this point it was not marked, they worked on GPS 


coordinates.  There were numerous police check points and they were stopped many times.

Then 80km away from Libreville, the road goes bad, broken, similar to Nigeria. They are not working on this part. The only redeeming factor is the lack of heavy traffic and people walking just everywhere. On the approach to the city the roads got a bit better, to get worse as you enter the city.

Down to Kribi

Douala traffic

Doula from the river

The next morning they woke up too early for breakfast, so they packed and then the guy on duty made an effort to have some breakfast for them and they were on the road. There they were met by the G4S people who guided they through Douala on the way to Kribi.

Cameroon can seem a bit like a huge rain forest but you certainly see signs of big plantations. On this leg we saw bananas and oil palm, a little cassava and maize. Even though they seem to have offshore oil, they have so far maintained their agriculture but there is still great poverty in the place, lack of food security and lots of banditry.

View from Tara Plage

They were told that the place where they wanted to camp is close to the presidential week-end home and that the man himself was there that week-end. So they were advised to go to the Tara Plage, a small, simple inn at the end of a beach overlooking some oil rigs and the Gulf of Cameroon.

Tara Plage

Beach view

They chose a room seeing that the rains were threatening. The others settled under some trees outside. The room was simple enough, with cold water, a shower and fan, rather flattened mattress but the bed has a mosquito net! Of course there is electricity but this is an oil producing country and the power cut later on.

Settling camp at Tara Plage

They had shrimp fritters with tartare sauce for lunch and then went for a nap. It started pouring rain when they thought they should start dinner. Since there was not wind, she settled to cook some couscous and meatballs under the veranda. She tried the dish with red palm oil this time and it came out nicely.

Sunset on the Gulf

It was nice to settle for sleep with the sounds of waves crashing and night insects. Later it started to rain in earnest.

Waterfall into the sea

The morning activities had to do with vehicle maintenance while enjoying the sounds and view of the sea. Quick shopping, tyre repair etc in a rather slow, 


sleepy town where internet was not working and then a visit to the Lobe falls, rapids that come down into the sea, a quite spectacular and rare sight.

Beach kitchen

Fisherman's resto

Later, they went to a small fishermen’s cove to eat at a place set up on the beach: basic benches and table and the guy is cooking the fish right there at the beach. It was delicious fresh baby barracuda with bread fruit accompanied with a hand crushed chilli sauce of local invention.

A good nap, vehicle management and then dinner of braai bread and steak on the veranda of the Tara plage auberge followed by sleep in the dry comfort of the room. It poured that evening again and it was very pleasant and peaceful.

Bridge on the logging route

Activity along the logging route

In the morning they were up with a cup of coffee and biscuits and were on the road south and then east. It is a logging road and it is in the state it is because of the loggers. They managed to do only about 30km/hour on this road and they got to the tar only after noon.

They took the decision to find some place to stay in Ambam town, not far from the border instead of crossing that same day. They found Résidence Hotelliere du Monde, a small place that allowed the camping cars to park provided they took a room to shower etc and ate at the restaurant. This small unpretentious place is clean, serves good generous food that they had prepared for them from scratch.

Ploughing through the rain forests of Cameroon

Building style in the rain forests

Farewell St Francis - Mamfe

There was about 20km of very good road leaving Mamfe, all marked and well indicated. Then was a section of road under construction (the Chinese and their crew are still actively at work in these parts, despite the rain), the old road, foundation road and more tar before reaching Bamenda. It was not as hectic as getting to Mamfe and the scenery was beautiful. It had rained a lot the previous night and there was still mist on the rain forests of Cameroon that morning.

The mud road ended in the town a Batibo and from there we passed Bali and Wosing and then into Bamenda. It was a relief that there were no hectic tugging and pushing to be done this time. There were a few roadblocks where Michael did some name throwing and we managed to pass without too much hassles.

Michael guided us to the Mill Hill Missionaries (the place is not indicated on the roads), the St Joseph’s Missionary Society where they were welcomed by a Dutch Father called father Arnold who was dressed in full Cameroon style. He was expecting us a bit later but the rooms were ready. The place was spick and span, well organised and nicely set up on a hill with a view of the hills and part of the town. It was a great relief to be in such an environment after all this terrible roads and tedious driving.

The men went to have the car washed and a few things checked out. It is Sunday, so not much work can be done on the cars if parts have to be purchased. The girls set up the rooms and made tea and had biscuits.

The cars came back looking rather bright. She fed Coen on some beef open sandwich and then he had a nap before having dinner that the Mission had invited them to. They both found some books in the Mission’s bookshelves and sat down to read before dinner and after dinner.

Drinks before dinner

Dinner was a convivial affair with some drinks before and then all sat down around round tables to have some pasta which the Mission’s cook prepared for them. Then some more reading before closing for the night. It was quiet and peaceful. By then electricity was back and they could both have warm showers before bed. The bed, however, was just about a foot too narrow, they are meant for priests on retreat, not for the casual travelling couple.

Mission mechanic

The next morning they had breakfast in the refectory prepared and served by the cook and then the men started on the serious jobs on the cars. It was drizzling and cloudy and she did not feel like going out into town so she sat down to update the draft of her blog, to try the father’s internet and read.

Lunch was prepared by the Mission, a baked bonito with plantain bananas, fried potatoes and mixed veg. She was given the head of the fish which was prepared ‘à point’ and excellent. After that Coen had a nap and then they went into town to buy sim cards and have them registered. It was drizzling again.

At the MTN office they wanted photocopies of the passports and dealt with them quite swiftly. Getting back to the Mission was another story, it was peak hour in Bamenda and it was raining. Finally they had to stop a taxi and offered him more to get them there. She was sopping wet by then but they got there all right.

That evening they prepared jaffles for the Father. He was pleased with the change. After that they retired to the rooms to try the Internet again, read and to bed. The plan was to be on the road to Limbe the next day.

Scenic road down

Rubber plantation

Gathering their possessions and packing after breakfast, they said their farewells to Father Arnold and were on the road. A very scenic road up first through the hills of Bamenda, and then down an escarpment and through banana, pawpaw, date, cocoa and rubber plantations towards the coast. Down that road there are many villages built of wooden houses with tin roofs. It is certainly more edifying than Nigeria scenery or its lack thereof.

German style lodge

The roads were good, some potholes here and there and not much traffic. There were police roadblocks, less than in Nigeria but no less hinting for handouts. They stopped briefly at Loum to look into a ‘centre climatique’ built by the Germans in the old days.

Limbe

They managed to make Limbe in daylight, appreciating the dimming light over the sea as the weather changed. They chose a room at hotel Miramare that was chosen for the camping option. This is a crumbling place set in a nice bay overlooking a few outer islands and an oil rig and Malabo in the background.

View of Limbe Bay

Coen was tired; only he drove today because she is on these antihistamines that makes you sleep. At first sight, Limbe looks like a sleepy coastal town going to seed. It seems that it was called Victoria in the time.

Child carrying load

Mariana made dinner that night and they retired early to find out that there was no hot water because they did not put the heater on. After some discussion, hot water was delivered to the room in a bucket.

In general it was quiet, with a bit of va-et-viens from the other patrons of the place. Constant light from the garden neons made it not so nice to get some sound sleep but it worked out in the end. In the morning it was clouded over and started drizzling by the time we sat down for breakfast.

Hans’ contacts at G4S gave us some assistance to do some more work on the car: Stephanus had a flat tyre, Hans had to sort out some electrics and so did Coen.

Fishing port

Shrimps on the port

After the works were done, they went to investigate the fishing port. It is a small place with lots of fish being landed when they got there – a hive of village activity. There were fish of all sorts and sizes but since they were in Cameroon, they opted to find some prawns. They sat at a table overlooking the sea and the girl brought her to her ‘medem’ who was cooking the seafood a bit further away. She proposed shrimp skewers with plantain banana.

As they were sitting there watching the port activities, a guy came by with some CD’s, she purchased some. She wanted some Cameroon music. And then the food was delivered – no cutlery. They tucked in with good appetite. It might have been a bit on the hot side for Coen but it had flavour and the banana tempered the heat down quite a bit.

Camaroes of Cameroon

They then went around town a bit and settled for a nap. That evening Hans had booked a table at the wildlife conservation centre up the road but since Elisme was not feeling well, only the 4 of them went. The food was made from scratch and this time they chose to have gambas. It was well served, rather enormous and chewy.

And then came Cameroon

On this border, the officials are not very nice and painfully slow at everything. And they strongly recommended us to take a guide because from there onwards was a mud road – got worse with the rainy season. Changing money and getting organised was painful. The ‘guide’ was asking a fortune for 160km of road, EUR310.

Stuck 1

Well, there is price to pay for everything around here and this is the price we are paying for choosing to get into this country in the rainy season. Barely 5 minutes on the mud road and they could not pass because there was an overloaded pickup truck blocking the road because he was stuck in mud and was leaning on its side. Hans pulled him out and went through. We got stuck  and Hans pulled us out with the other guys pushing and pulling and we carried on.



Informal toll



Next to land slide



Land Rover in the ditch

On another stretch Hans went on his side in a ditch, the excess of mud just sort of threw him there. It was hectic and he had to be pulled out. Coen finally attached the Land Rover’s winch onto the Cruiser and Hans was winching in while she was standing on the brakes. It took a while. Such is the road after the Ekok border of Cameroon in this season. There are 'road blockers' on is road too - informal road blocks that you have to pay informal toll to or else you have to pass through some other more dicy path!

Stuck 2

Deep in but rolling

Coen got stuck in the mud and had to be towed out and it did happen to all three cars that the ‘guide’ had to tug hard on one side, Hans or a few other guys pulling in front to just ease the car out of a nasty bit.



Ploughing

 A bit past 16h00 they decided that they should call it a day and the ‘guide’ said he knew a place in the town of Eyumojocko where they could camp in safety. It was in the backyard of an unused hall of sorts. And Coen set up to sleep in the car. She was preparing to serve Brazilian bully beef with macaroni. Everyone helped everyone else and soon dinner was ready. Coen closed off part of a space next to Hans’ car for a private shower and Mariana set the table.

As they were finishing dinner, the lady mayor appeared and sat with them explaining what is being done in the town and how they wish to develop it. Meanwhile she was showering precariously trying not to come into contact with all the mud on the cars. It was a difficult task and when Stephanus was showering the water ran out and had to finish with poured water from one of the gallons. It was very amusing.

That night her itches and scratches came back in the same place, on the forearms. It was rather nasty, getting warm and preventing her to sleep. She did get some sleep after she dabbed the area with tea tree lotion.

*&^%$#@ Nigeria

fuel geting into Benin

Mariana was not feeling well but they decided to push on to Nigeria from Porto Novo. There was a slight drizzle when we started off. Coen pulled to the side of the road to buy fuel from the ‘Nigerians’ where it is about a third of the going price. This is sold from 20litre glass big bellied bottles that are put into the car through a filter. The people doing this type of job looked rather young…

Pobe - Benin border post office

As the cars moved closer to the Benin border with Nigeria, Pobe, these pseudo road blocks were more present but they seem to let foreign cars go by. Then we got to one where they just would not open and finally after a phone call, they were told to open but there was another one 50m ahead and that one stayed closed. When Coen alighted and enquired, a rather miffed person sitting under the ‘porch’ of a hut told him that this was the border post and papers have to be stamped there.

This process was slow and of course there were people around asking for hand outs. Finally the spikes were moved and they proceeded to Bolelo, the Nigerian side. There, the people were set up in roughly put together wooden huts in which they both live and work. They must not have seen foreigners in a long time – their immigration forms where pitted with moth holes (Coen said it was for the IBM punch card computers :) .

The immigration guys were nice enough but desperately slow at everything. Next building was the customs and when the paper work was done, the officers wanted to inspect the cars. They wanted to look through everything, open many boxes and rummaged through and asked about medication etc. Then they went to the health department where the guy labouringly copied the information from the vaccination cards in his big book. And there was the motion control forms to fill for the ‘secret service’. The lady was not very nice and rather abrupt but chilled out after a while.

In about an hour they were out of there and was almost congratulating themselves about it when they realised how many road blocks there were ahead. At first it was one every 100m and they would all want to stop them ask silly questions and ‘a dollar for the boy’ and wave us by. Then we got stopped by another immigration post and they wanted to see all the passports and also inspect the cars. It seems that their boss was there that day and asked that they should go meet with him.

They swiftly saw the right immigration stamp but were asking why the visa was issued in Bamako and why Hans has this page in his passport written in a differently language. Coen figured that the guy did not know it was actually the Shengen visa and thought that it was a page of the passport itself.

Country people going to market on motorbike

This took a bit longer because they again laboriously recopied the information in each passport in their big book and then waved us on. A bigger pack of liars you have not heard of. They said that we were welcome in Nigeria, that Nigeria likes tourists and that it is a peaceful country – hmm, not when they are actually killing each other in the northern states as we pass.

Main roads of Nigeria

The original plan was to go through Abuja and Coen wanted to see the town of Kano because of the old university. The plan was abandoned long before we got into Nigeria because on the news there were daily reports of skirmishes between Muslims and Christians and killings and such.

Load of donkeys in the traffic

And they moved on at a very slow pace because of all these road blocks. They reached the big town of Shagamu early enough and because they saw that it was an ‘expressway’ they thought they could reach Benin City before nightfall. That was without knowing what a joke this ‘expressway’ is. It was all right for a bit then it had potholes and then downright broken in parts; let us not mention the flattened handrails on the sides where there are bridges!

Broken vehicle on the side of the highway

And then the traffic went to a standstill in the country side. And they waited and moved a few metres and waited more. Eventually as they were moving at a bit of a pace there was a heavy load coming up their lane and more vehicles were following behind it. Godfried had mentioned that to her back in Ghana but she did not realise that it would happen on the ‘expressway!’.

Country side through broken handrails

Traffic and the state of the roads

Then they saw the three cargo vehicles that jack-knifed in the other lane and were just being cleared off. It was a terrible scene of mayhem. And the progress on the road was slow. They got to Benin City in the dark and had to ask their way to the University Palace guest house which was fully booked for the night. They were directed to Osty hotel on the main road.

That is a rather badly put together place but they were tired and it was dark (no power in that city – capital of the state though it is), so they took what they got. The people there were helpful enough and the girls were quite pleasant at getting them sorted out in the rooms.

The next morning breakfast for one was served at the room itself: slices of bread with a small portion of scrambled eggs and a hot chocolate which Coen had. And we were off to the other leg of the journey across Nigeria. The target was Enugu.

Onitsha - bridge over Niger river

Bad road of big cities

Market below the bridge

Again, there were bad roads, getting worse in big towns, getting better for a bit, complete with road blocks and policemen asking for hand outs and silly questions. It was a slow progress but they still managed to make Enugu early enough to ask their way around to the (once) Protea hotel. It was known as the Nike Lake Resort now – pronounced Niky Lakey by the locals much to Coen’s confusion.

It is a very nice place in a very nice set up, camping was not possible. Their prices were a bit steep but negotiable and the girls at reception very nice and helpful. One of the girls called a taxi for Elismé and Shahnaz who were to find money and sim cards. It was a Merc that pulled up and a middle aged driver who was a bit mono tasking. He took them to the places they wished: the ATM’s were not working and there was a long queue at MTN for the registration of sim cards. The money changers were more than happy to see them, even escorted them into their premises under a big umbrella – it was pouring by then.

The driver even came up to see if they were all right with all these transactions. However, they were wondering if they were not out of their minds doing this since this is Nigeria after all and they were dealing with quite a bit of money here, two women alone in an unknown city. But all came out right in the end and the driver brought them back safely to the hotel.

Snack platter in the room

That evening, after some chips and a drink at the rather popular bar of the hotel, they had sandwiches from a put together platter by Mariana (who was feeling better). They had a good bath to wash the grime of the roads off and went to bed. The next morning, they had coffee and rusks in the room, packed the cars and were on their way.

Traffic in Onitsha

They wanted to see the engraved monoliths at Abakaliki and then move to Ikom and see if they can make the border the same day. What with more road blocks, bad roads and traffic, they made it to Ikom. They did not stop to go see the Monoliths which were some 43km out of Abakaliki on the Ikom road though.

At Ikom, they clocked in at the Catholic mission of Father Emmanuel who welcomed them heartily, even shared his lunch with them. He got them settled in a room – basic with running water but rather iffy electricity. The room could have done with some brooming and dusting but it was genuinely offered in good faith.

Bush dentist

That evening, feeling a whole lot better, Mariana said she would cook. Before starting her cooking she helped Shahnaz do some bush dentistry on Hans who thought the filling of his one tooth fell off. They were to stick it back in with super glue. It was a delicate affair because it was the tooth that broke and took a piece of the filling with it. She made a few unsuccessful attempts because she had an audience that was making snide comments on the side – she nearly threw them out of the surgery. But it worked nicely in the end.

While Mariana was preparing dinner, Emma, the boy who seems to run errands for the fathers came up to say that he was told to kill and feather a chicken for them for dinner. He was very disappointed that dinner was already on its way. But Coen told him to keep the chicken and have it for All Saints Day and to think of us on that day. He gave it a few seconds’ thought and seemed satisfied with this plan and went off to his other chores.

At dinner it suddenly started pouring. Mariana and Coen managed to finish their dinner under the awning but she joined Stephanus under the smaller awning to finish hers while Hans and Elismé were standing under their awning trying to make the best of a very wet situation. All that time while the people of the mission were watching these crazy foreigners have dinner in the rain.

It was very quiet and peaceful except for the odd traffic from the main road but a bit later, they were already in bed, there started some sort of ‘revival’ church thing next to the place where they were and it was loud, the people were singing badly and the preacher was doing his schpeel as if it were a political meeting. Fortunately it did not go on for long and they managed some sleep after that.

The good Father was already at morning mass when they started up that morning. They put an envelope together for him, packed the cars, had their morning coffee and biscuits and were ready to roll when he got back. He said he was very pleased of their visit.

Had it not been for these individuals met on the journey: the Father, the hotel people and also the Nigerians they know outside of Nigeria, one would tend to have a nasty impression of Nigeria of its people – especially if you only have encounters with the people at the innumerable road blocks.

That was an education too. She observed the behaviour of locals at these road blocks. If the vehicle was overloaded, you see a hand pop out from the driver’s side, finger tips curled. It looks like a left hand shake but then you see a folded piece of ‘paper’ changing hands and then the policeman slides it in the side pocket of his trousers. Sometimes they even open it up and check what note it is.

It was very noticeable the lack of electricity in many parts of Nigeria where we passed and stopped – which were mostly capitals of the State we were in. In Enugu, the hotel’s generator went on and off a few times that evening and the power fluctuations were rather dramatic. Power cuts and oil producing countries seem to go well together in Africa!

Let us talk about what Nigeria smells like – burnt fuel most of the time: from badly maintained vehicles, fuel: if you are driving behind a tanker truck (they leak), throw in the smell of garbage and sewerage for good measure in the towns and some country sides. There are also very visible half finished building and estates here not to mention the broken trucks, or trucks that drove off the road or that jack knifed.

village of Nigeria

However, the good padre said the road from Ikom to the border is good and it is. Well tarred, well marked even with road signs and village names etc. They got to the border in good time. There it was the same slow procedure of filling forms and the official filling it in his big book, more useless questions, pass the passports on to the other guy who stamps it and another who checks it all and then to the ‘movement controller’ who rewrites it in his book and off through some bad dirt road of no-man’s land to the other side.

For the creole speaking audience: So they passed Abakaliki to Ikom and were crossing the border at Ekok but you will understand why they chose not to go to the town of Bobok in Cameroon after seeing pictures of what roads there look like  (:->>>.