How cycling in Nigeria really looks like!!

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Bida is just a place, like every other place in Nigeria I have seen so far. In this entry I would like to tell you how cycling in Nigeria is so far.

So I got out of Abuja on a 2 lane highway, full of speeding cars which were accompanying me for about 30 km out to the countryside. Although I do not see a difference between the city and country!!!
I turned off the main road and missed a turn to Mina because there was no signs on the roads!!!!. I would ask somebody about the directions and he or she would shout with broken english or common pigeon english, throwing his or her hands in all directions.
" You go that site and go dat way and turn that site and straaaaait to Mina!!!!"
And how far it is? I will ask
"Far" they answer
How far? I ask
"Very far" Nigerians know nothing about distances and directions, and if they haven't driven on a road a few times they can't tell you anything. Even if they have done that it is still difficult to get proper information.
Then I go on the road, racing cars and trucks with motorbikes somewhere in between, overtaking one each other with roaring speed!!!!!
No respect for cyclists, they have no rights on the roads.
And fumes, a lot of fumes. I can bet that none of the Nigerian cars are using clean fuel. All of them use some cheap fuel!!!
A motorbike would come close to me and then the driver would take a look at me first from behind then from the front. All the time spewing out these awful stinky fumes!!!
Time and time again!!!
No rules, no regulations. Just drive and leave the rest to the Gods. They have the most bizzare types of christian churches in the world. Some of them you will be able to see in my photo gallery. Of course the local magic is not far from people's mind and some drivers believe that they will disappear in an accident!!!
You pass many signposts on the way advertising every church, passing every big village. And I passed many of them!!!

First you see some corn fields then some people walking, mostly women carrying something on their heads.
Then houses and more houses, motorbike workshops and car workshops full of broken cars waiting for further demolition being kept for spare parts.
In every place people shout at me, hissing and so on, trying to draw my attention. They want to say, 'hello', 'welcome', 'where are you from' and so on.
They don't even notice that I'm just passing through have to watch the road. Although I do try to answer some of the more polite greetings!!!
If I decide to stop for food, it will be the same food as everywhere, Maize meal, rice, beans, and some meat in spicy and oily sauce. No fruit, no vegetables. At the beginning it was interesting but after 3 weeks it is a nightmare. Sometimes I get some fried eggs in a Chai shop, but chai is not chai it is something like hot chocolate but much worse.
It is very hard to find a decent restaurant and a chai shop in the same place to combine a decent rice and omelette meal with chai. For some reason they are never close together.
Always when I stop people surround me, kids especially. They just stand and watch whatever I do. Many adults want to speak to me, even when I do not want to!
I want to rest and have peace of mind and relax with my meal in front of me. There is never a chair and table. You always have to keep your hot plate in your hand. I have to sit on a broken branch or something else under me without any shade.
The situation is improved a bit by very shy and colorful Fula people selling their dairy products. Usually sour milk, sometimes butter or local cheeses!!!!

Everywhere is a lot of garbage. If the food shop is next to a workshop it will be full of spilt diesel!!!!
They have tar roads in town but also very deep sewage canals with no way to cross them on the bike and of course no way to go up the high concrete steps at the end.
When I entered the country I was stopped many times by some young police officers who checked my passport and tried to persuade me that it was for my own safety.
The most bizzare police check I had just recently was on the way to Benin where there was a police check post. Two fat guys, one of them with a huge belly. None of them in uniforms or even a t-shirt!!! The guy who questioned me was sweating worse than I was but I had been cycling for half a day already under the burning sun.
He asked me some stupid questions like, "Where are you going' and. 'where did you come from" What the hell? What does it matter if I am not breaking any laws??

So I passed through a lot of villages, a lot of small towns and some big ones as well, although I have been desparately trying to avoid the big ones.
I will do my favorite dayly distance of 120 km in a day. I must say that I'm back in my old shape!!! I was tired and I needed a shower and some rest, but I still had to eat diner, and try to take some nice photographs in the afternoon light.
I stopped in the next small village and had the same boring food, and again had difficulty finding a nice comfortable spot to sit, with annoying people who seemed to have some paranoid fear of being photographed!!!
I have gotten into the habit of having a cold CocaCola at the end of each day which is something to look forward to.
When the sun is just about to go below the horizon I fill up my 10 litre camping water container and cycle to the fields to find a nice camping spot. I usually have no problems finding somewhere to camp.
After CAR and Cameroun sleeping in the churches, I have gone back to my old habit of camping in the bush. No talking with people any more, no explaining why I want to sleep here and so on. I just pitch my tent and sleep.
I hang the waterbag on a tree and have a shower. Quickly though because there are malaria carrying mosquitos all around. I zip my tent up and lay down on my sheet but the sleep won't come straight away. I still have to sweat for the next 2 hours into my sheet until the air is cool enough to let me sleep. With mosquitos fighting on the other side of the thin tent walls for the right to feast on my blood!!!
You will probably be asking yourself why I wouldn't choose to stay at a cheap hotel or something? Well I will tell you my friend. Finding a cheap hotel takes time. The room will be small and heated so much in the daytime that it will be hot all night!!! Just great, isn't it??? The toilet will be in the bush or in a stinky claustrophobic chalet anyway, and very similar for the bathroom, most likely the same place!!!

Despite the squalid conditions, I have seen some nice waterfalls on the way to Mina and some spectacular rocks as well but the memories that will stay will me will more likely be of the above!

Nigeria welcome, or goodbye? I prefer, 'Hasta la Vista'!!!

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