11/12/05
We decided to spend the day lounging around Naimey and catch up on some rest. Before I could fully wake up a tourguide convinced me that I should take a pirogue (the local river boat) ride and he guaranteed that we would see some hippopotamus. So after some price negotiations we agreed on $10 person and off we set. We hopped in a taxi in front of the hotel and headed to where he kept his boat, the cab was cheap at 50cents per person (I had to pay for the tour guides cab fare as well). His friend owned an omlette shack near his boat so we stopped for the typical breakfast before taking a ride down the Niger river. After breakfast we headed down to the river and piled in the pirogue.
Anna was a little worried not only about the stability of the boat but the general condition of the boat as well, I told her not to worry and that I am a trained expert and those leaks were supposed to be there and they had the latest technology in water removal system, not really a bilge pump but more of a plastic bucket.
The ride up the Niger River was quite amazing, we hugged the shore along the way up, passing the American Embassy which had great waterfront property. As we headed up the river we felt like cheesy tourists, we were sitting in the middle of this canoe with our feet up relaxing as two men paddled up river, and we would pass many people going through there daily routines, washing themselves and their laundry in the river and here we were like tourists at zoo going by looking and taking pictures. After a while we got over feeling like tourists, justifying that they were staring at us with as much interest as we were staring at them (Niamey doesn't get allot of tourists so we are kinda a rare sight as well).
The pirogue ride was quite amazing but when we got to the spot where the Hippos where supposed to be there were none, so disappointedly they turned the pirogue around and we headed back.
Once back at the hotel I began renegotiating the price for the pirogue ride. I would have gladly paid full price if I had seen a hippo but since he guaranteed me hippo's and failed to produce so much as a hippo fart, well after 30 minutes of negotiations we settled on half price.
After a trip to the market for some fresh vegetables we had dinner with a german guy who had just got back from a 500 mile camel ride. Now a 500 mile camel ride through desert doesnt sound like a fun way to spend a vacation, but who am I to judge I have been sitting on the back of a motorcycle for 6 1/2 months now.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Naimey in Niger
11/13/05
We were in no big hurry to get on the road since it was only a 2-3 hour ride to the park. We met the owner of the hotel who was a nice Canadian lady and then we met an American girl who was in the Peace Corps and spent the last 3 years working in the villages around the park, she gave us some good info and even the name of the park manager. So after a slow morning we were finally on the road by noon.
The first 50 miles to the park were nice paved roads then at the town of Say they turned to dirt. We decided to stop and have a break and fill up with some gas before continuing on to the park. As I sat there in the shade I checked my thermometer and it read 97F and here I was in full riding gear. I quickly thought of an email from my Safa friend Geoff who noticed I hadn't been whining so much about the heat. So I guess I have finally adjusted to the heat.
The dirt road to the park was in pretty good shape and we made it to the park entrance by 4:00. After a quick drive by Tapoa Hotel (who wanted $80 a night, we quickly said no thanks) we decided to go check the park entrance.
I can honestly say the next hour was one of the worst experiences I have had in Africa. We were greeted by a man in uniform who quickly tried selling us a truck ride through the park at a very expensive rate then tried getting us to pay for two days entrance fee then tried charging us $10 to camp by the gate then threatened to take us to jail if he caught us bush camping and it went on and on, I sat there with a smile on my face the whole time and he finally got to the point where he was yelling "Just give me money". So after I finally had had enough I politely said we were going back to Niamey and got on the bike then I mentioned if the Park Manager was around and name dropped the name the Peace Corps girl had given me. He became even more rude saying that I came from America with this name trying to scare him, After I explained he was a friend of my friend from the peace corps I could see the gears slowly turning in his dimwitted little brain and his attitude changed and grudgingly said we could camp in front of the gate as he skulked off in defeat.
After getting out of the riding gear we decided to walk back to the hotel and see if we could get some more water before we set up camp. The town of Tapoa is quite small, about 20 mud huts and a 4 start hotel. At the hotel we bought a $2 bottle of water and started talking to the hotel manager, after explaining our situation and discussing our adventures in Africa he offered us a bungalow for $40 well after several rounds of me saying we were fine camping he finally said we could take a bungalow for $10. I quickly decided this was quite a good deal and we had the whole place to ourselves since guests don't start showing up till December.
So after a swim in the pool and a pasta dinner we called it a night.
Todays Specs
Weather: 105F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Naimey to Park W
11/14/05
After waking up I walked into the village to try to find some breakfast and see if I could find a guide for the park. Luck was with me today, the dimwitted guard was nowhere to be seen, I found a guide who had a motorcycle and I even found a lady making little Niger version of pancakes( they were very tasty even without Ms Butterworths maple syrup)
About 9:00 we set off into the park, the road started out pretty good and we quickly saw some crocodiles at the first water hole we came to and a little further down the road we came across some hippotrauges. Hippotrauges are these giant gazelle looking beasts that stand about 10 ft (3meteres) tall, they were very impressive. Our guide swore he saw a leopard but by the time I pulled up on the noisy BMW it had supposedly ran off into the dense brush. The road quickly turned from nice dirt road to no road that I could see, in fact I couldn't really see anything at all as we were driving through grass that was a meter over my head. The grass gave away to some very rocky parts where Anna decided she would walk as I crawled the bike over some small boulders. The guide insisting the worst was behind us we continued on the rest of the day down a road that wasn't much more than a trail which switched between sand and tall grass. After a couple breaks, one at a big watering hole, where we only saw some footprints, and another break at the campground inside the park we headed back to the entrance.
We made it back to the entrance by 5:00 and after paying our guide we decided we needed to go for a swim in the pool, ah this Africa life is rough. We were quite worn out and really felt like we were hard core safarian's exploring the wilds of Africa. Even though we didn't see many animals the ride through the park was very exciting in itself.
After a nice swim I decided to head back into town to find some bread and onions to go with our pasta for dinner. I found the onion no problem but the town was out of bread but my friend from the hotel took me to the bakers hut and introduced us. It turned out he was in the middle of baking a batch of bread for tomorrow. So I ran back grabbed Anna, then we rolled up our sleeves and helped the baker make some bread. There was no electricity so all the work was done under the moonlight and his oven was a cool mud brick oven. We were thinking if we only had cheese we could introduce pizza to the village of Tapoa. Once the bread was done we were given some free bread and said goodbye to our baker friend.
After enjoying our bread and pasta the day quickly caught up to us and we called it a night.
Todays Specs
Weather: 105F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Hotel Tapoa to Park W
11/15/05
After saying goodbye to all our friends at the hotel, since we were the only guests we were quite popular, we headed back to Niamey. As we pulled back into Chez Tatayi it felt as if we were coming home after a long trek through the wilds, we were greated by several hotel guests and the owner as well. We quickly told our stories of the wilderness and seeing the Hippotrauge and everyone was quite impressed or so they pretended.
We relaxed that evening and enjoyed some company of some fellow hotel guests.
Todays Specs
Weather: 100F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Hotel Tapoa to Niamey
11/16/05
This morning I went through my gear once more determined to shed some more weight and lighten things up even further. I came across my spare set of brake pads that I have been carrying and decided it would be a good time to change them. Typically this should have been a 5 minute job but as anytime tools end up in my hands it turned into a Gilligans Island 3 hour tour. As I was cleaning the calipers I pulled one of the pistons out too far and brake fluid drained all over, stupid Josh. So I decided now was also a good time to flush the breaks and replace the break fluid. So with Annas expert help we also changed the brake fluid.
After the bike was back together we headed to the market, Anna wanted to try to find some souvenirs for herself. With some vague directions from the hotel owner we found the Petite Marche (small market) and quickly found the artisans section. It was clear that we were the only tourists that had been through here in a while, we were quickly ascended on by all the shop owners as we got close to there shops. One shop owner was quite friendly and kept telling us that his name was Mr. Goodprice to which I quickly replied my name was Mr. Cheap. Anna found two necklaces and again after some hard bargaining which ended in him refusing our final price and us walking away only to be chased down the block with him saying he was losing money but would take our final price. The bargaining is half the fun of buying stuff here, though I learned don't even hint at buying something unless you truly intend to buy it.
After we left the market we found a nice western supermarket where we decided to splurge and get some wine, sausage, stinky French cheese, and a big bar of chocolate. The supermarket was filled with sour looking Europeans (mainly French) I noticed they treated the people working in the supermarket quite bad. As I ordered my sausage from the meat counter I believe I was the first to treat the guy with some respect, his attitude quickly changed and he happily got my order for me.
After leaving the supermarket we happened to bump into the big boss man from Hotel Tapoa who had came to Niamey to do some shopping for the hotel. He was quite happy that we enjoyed our stay and of course invited us back next time we were in town.
After fixing dinner we enjoyed our wine and food and were quickly joined by several other hotel guests. The group that joined us almost seemed like well off refugees (one lady and guy from Congo, a boy from Nigeria, and another lady from Benin) when I asked them why they were staying here they all just replied when things got better in their countries they would go back.
After a bottle of wine I was feeling quite good and decided to call it a night.
Todays Specs
Weather: 100F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Niamey
11/17/05
This morning we packed our tent up and said goodbye to everyone at our hotel that had began to feel like home and once again continued on our journey. From here feels like a transit stage to get to Cameroon, cutting across Southern Niger then crossing the top of Nigeria. We made it Dogondutchi where we found the only hotel in town where for $5 they let us shower and set up the tent, the tent wasn't much cheaper than the room but it was much cleaner and mosquito free.
After asking around if anyone knew a mechanic one guy did and went to fetch him for me. I needed to get some repairs made to my panniers as the locks that were holding them on had not withstood the abuse of Africa and were starting to fall off. After explaining what I wanted to the mechanic he nodded in agreement, it did take quite a while since he didn't speak much, well actually any, English. After settling on a price I asked him if he would be interested in trading his work for my spare tools I had been carrying and had never used over the last six months. He was quite excited about the idea of some nice shiny craftsman tools. So he ran off with my panniers and his new tools to return an hour later with them all fixed and stronger than the Germans had made them.
As we looked around the parking lot there were several of the same type of new white Landcruisers that we had been seeing all over the roads. These are the $50,000 Landcruisers of the charity organizations. We sat there and wondered why do the charity organizations need such nice trucks, wouldn't a $30,000 truck do quite nice and they could use the rest of the money to oh say do some good. I thought of the gold miners who where driving older models and getting around just fine, I guess that is the difference between private enterprise and free charity money.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F cooling trend coming in
Distance: 170 miles Niamey to Dogondutchi
11/18/05
After leaving Dogondutchi we made our way east towards the Nigerian border. As we were riding along we came across another overlander heading the opposite direction. Andy was a Safa living in London who came down through the desert in Libya and was on his way to Timbuktu before continuing on his way to CapeTown for a wedding in April. After sharing some stories we and wished each other well and set off again.
We decided to bush camp tonight and found a great little spot off the road where we could pitch the tent. Before we could get the tent up two local boys found us and decided to help us, they quickly cleared the area of any bushes and even brought us a bag of peanuts (the main crop in this area) After several photos and them sitting there staring at us for 45 minutes they said goodbye and wandered off.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F
Distance: 220 miles Dogondutchi to bush camping
11/19/05
Well today was the big day, crossing into Nigeria, only one of the most corrupt countries in the world, No Big Deal.
After a brief stop in Maridi for some breakfast and fill up on gas we headed to the border.
I was completely surprised at the border station. Everybody was extremely professional and after I broke the ice by quickly offering a handshake with a big smile they became extremely friendly. It was very good to be back in an English speaking country where communication made things much simpler. The border was quite organized and I had to visit 5 different offices, police to stamp the passport, customs to stamp the carnet, health office where they reviewed our shot records, and two welcoming offices where they basically just greeted us into the country. After clearing all the offices which took about 45 minutes we stood in the parking lot talking to several of the officials about what else, motorcycles. I asked one of the officials if he knew where I could exchange some euros, he quickly called one of assistants over and told him to go to town with us and help us exchange money. The border guy told a car passing by to take his assistant to the town and we were to follow the car. We followed the car to the open market where it pulled over and the guy got out. I parked the bike and left Anna to stand guard it as I went with guy to exchange the money. We went to a small stall where a man in a blue robe pulled about a million dollars out of his pocket and we started the transaction. It turned out he didnt know the exchange rate for euros so he made a few phone calls and ended up giving me about $16,000 somethings for my 100 euros. I am sure I did pretty bad in this transaction from the smile on his face after we were finished, but by the time we were done there was a crowd of about 75 people gathered around watching. Not really the scene I wanted when exchanging money in Nigeria. The border assistant and I went back to where we left the bike and I could barely see Anna behind the crowd of over 100 people that had gathered to look at the bike. As I pushed my way through the crowd I found a relieved Anna who was ready to go. So as I got on the bike and did the usual start the engine and scare the crowd trick, I know it is sick but I really enjoy seeing gawkers jump two feet in the air when I start the engine.
We headed towards Kona or so we thought, the road quickly turned to a really potholed dirt road and I was pretty sure we were going the wrong way ( we decided to lock the GPS up in the panniers while in Nigeria so I was traveling by the old way). We turned around and headed back to the town to find the right street. Once we found the right road we decided it was coca-cola time so we stopped at a little shop. We were pretty much left alone to drink our drinks until we got up to leave then one of the locals came over and ask if he could take a picture of us. A little confused as this was the first time I had been asked if someone could take a picture of us. As a crowd quickly gathered, him and his friend produced an old 35mm camera held together with electrical tape and took turns taking pictures until they ran out of film. They politely asked if we wouldn't mind waiting for 10 minutes while they got more film so they could take a few more pictures. Feeling quite safe and deciding this was a good opportunity to take some photos ourselves I said no problem. Before we could sit down one guy ran off to get some new film and the other guy quickly produced to Guinness non-alcoholic malt beverages for us to drink ( a local favorite drink that were actually quite good). A crowd had gathered and there were about 50 people around the bike, the one guy saw me glancing over at the bike to check our stuff so he quickly picked up a stick and went and stood guard by the bike, quickly swatting away any onlookers who got to close.
After his friend returned we took several more pictures and after finishing our drinks we said goodbye, as we pulled away a crowd of 50 people were all excitingly waving goodbye. This definately wasnt the welcome to Nigeria I was expecting.
Ok well maybe we had been lucky at the border and at the soda stand, now time to go through one of the checkpoints. The first checkpoint we came to we were quickly greeted and after some greetings and handshakes the policemen excitedly asked us questions of where we had been commended us on our sense of adventure and waved to us as we pulled away. Ok maybe we were lucky at the first checkpoint.
The next checkpoint before we could get our helmets off the guard was asking if he could take a picture of us with his camera phone. So after another small photo opportunity we said goodbye to that checkpoint. And so it went all the way to Kano, nothing but friendly police.
I will say Nigeria has the worst drivers I have ever seen, I would get in a car with an 86 year old one eyed Chinese lady in San Francisco before getting in a car with a Nigerian. They are really bad here.
We made it to Kano about 6:00 and were quickly lost in this urban sprawl holding almost 3 million people. After asking a local on a bike if he knew how to get to the hotel we had heard about from the border gaurd he quickly told us to follow him and off we set. After 15 minutes of driving through horrible traffic and even worse pollution we made it to the hotel. After checking in and parking the bike in hallway outside the room we went across the street to get some Chinese food. I believe we found the best Chinese restaurant in Africa, there were even real Chinese people eating in the restaurant, always a good sign. And to make it even better across the street from the Chinese restaurant we found an ice-cream store ran by a Lebanese guy who took great pride in his ice-cream.
So for day one in Nigeria, the most corrupt and one of the most dangerous countries in the world, well day one was quite nice.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F the cooling trend continues
Distance: 200 miles bush camping in Niger to Kano Nigeria
