Bypassing Nigeria.

[darren]

Does anyone out there know if it is possible to bypass Nigeria by boat from either Ghaha or Benin or Togo to maybe Cameroon or even Namibia.I don;t particulaly want to take the lake Chad route.

[gozell]

Why bypass Nigeria?

Drove Amsterdam-Capetown through WestAfrica and then Ghana/Togo/Benin/Nigeria into Cameroun.

The coastal border is very streamlined and altough they ask for a gift its not persistend. The roadblocks is something to get used to, but they stop you mostly to have a chat....

You will need to stay in Lagos for the Cameroun visa (or go to Calabar in the unstable delta region). We stayed in the Yaba district, it was quite an experience. Never seen such a hetic, energetic, bustling city. Ended up staying for a week or so.

Petrol situation is quite difficult, but mostly when you jump the queue (you gotta) and tell them you drove all the way from .... on this machine etc etc blablabla you will be served. They have a good sense of humor.

From Lagos we drove NorthEast into Cameroun, bypassing Abuja. The north is very different from the South, respectful moslim mainly and you are mostly being left alone.

You also gotta stop in Wikki Warm springs, very cheap national park were you can camp and relax in the hotspring..

Talk to people who've been through (www.tifua.com) and there are all positive. All the other (negative stuff) is mostly hearsay...

Grtz

[Erik D.]

If it's the "difficulties" of driving around Lake Chad that's putting you off, than don't worry. It is actually not too bad. We heard horror stories about it being a very tough drive etc. and were pleasantly suprised. Besides getting rocks thrown at us in Bol, for no reason but to entertain the locals, there weren't any particular problems! Skipping this part of africa to go straight to southern africa by boat is missing out on many of the best areas! We found west and northern africa much more interesting than the southern part.

Erik D.

www.dunia.no


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[AliBaba]

Hmmm, Erik
I think Darren is driving a motorbike and even if I have travelled the Lake Chad Route alone on a bike I'm not sure if I would recomend it to anyone else :-))

Fin hjemmeside du har!

[Erik D.]

Opps!

Didn't catch that you were riding a bike...
In that case I'd skip Lake Chad, even if AliBabas done it. I know of some others that tried and had big problems.
My hats off with respect to you AliBaba!

Erik D.

www.dunia.no

-Alibaba, skriver på de siste landene for websiden i øyeblikket. Hygglig at du syns den er fin! Ser at du har en "hvor nå?" knapp på dine sider. Noen planer?

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[This message has been edited by Erik D. (edited 19 November 2003).]

[darren]

The problem being guys we don/t have a Nigerian visa.It looks like it may be very difficult to get one in west Africa.So it/s either the boat or the Chad route.Motorcycle being a heavy loaded Tenere:

[AliBaba]

The Lake Chad route is not that bad, I would have done it again:-) It looks like you don’t travel alone which also makes it better…..

[Erik D.]

We got a Nigeria visa in Accra, Ghana.
As far as I remember it was US$ 55 per person, and we had to wait about 2 hours.
We ended up not using it, so it was money down the toilet...

Erik D.

www.dunia.no

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[gozell]

Got my Visa in Mali but also heard that with persistance you can also get in Cotonou - Benin...

[darren]

Thanks alot for your help, Reckon we,ll try and get the visas in Bamako and take it from there cheers Daz