16 April – “Welcome to Nigeria!”, the sign came a little sooner than expected as we hadn’t yet checked out of Benin. After a quick trip back into Benin to locate the unmarked customs office to collect the requisite stamps and relatively uneventful customs procedures in Nigeria (painful nonetheless, these chaps are some way off installing a Heathrow style ‘Iris’ machine!) we were back on track.
We covered the next 100km to the first major Nigerian town, Abeokuta, in 3 hours due to 12 police, army and customs checkpoints en route (‘please park very well next to the road and come with me’ said the large Nigerian wielding a Kalshnikov, fortunately just another police checkpoint!).
Arriving late in Abeokuta we treated ourselves to the ’presidential suite’ at the Mokland hotel. As you might imagine the chocolates on the pillows and a few other niceties such as running water were absent, but the price was right after we had split it between the 7 of us that crammed into it so no complaints.
17 April- We had hoped to make the 600km to Abuja despite the potholed 
roads but hadn’t counted on 80% of the rest of the traffic comprising slow moving petrol trucks, so we settled for half that distance to Jebba.
18 to 20 April- One of the advantages of travelling through post-colonial Africa has been that we have often been able to make use of great (if somewhat past their prime ) clubs, hotels and resorts, often at no cost and almost always with no one else to compete with for service from the bar. The staff at these places are mostly just happy to see a few customers, even if they turn down the rooms in favour of putting up tents in the hotel courtyard.
Abuja is not a city that fits into that mould. Having been built as the country’s new capital using oil revenues it is neither post-colonial, and its hotels struggle to attract guests. Despite this, and we are still not sure why, the Abuja Sheraton allows overlanders to camp within its grounds. No complaints.
Its a modern city with good infrastructure that contrasts starkly with the decrepit state of its neighbouring African capitals, as does its citizens obvious wealth with the poverty of the majority of Nigerians.
21 April and 22 April – Two day trek to Calabar to check out the town which is well known as being one of the nicest in Nigeria, as well as to get our Cameroonian visas. Tracks 4 Africa took us to Le Chateau, where the owner was so excited to be the only hotel in town on the GPS that she put us up for the night and also very kindly took us on a tour of the town the following day.
23 April – Obtained Cameroonian visas in Calabar and headed back up to Ikom, a small town near the Cameroonian border. We had dinner with two bikers also heading to SA, which is the final destination of almost all overlanders we meet these days.
