Caboose

When I was at the skillshare workshop in Akwanga the other week, Tracey was talking about a trip down to the South-South she had been planning and said she was looking for people to join her. A few weeks later Tracey, Jenny and I met up in Abuja to start the two-day journey to Akassa.

We took the ABC Transport coach to Port Harcourt, much more comfortable than the bush taxis we normally use. The coaches are the same ones most of the companies in Chile used, made in Brazil by Marcopolo, with air conditioning and reclining seats. They even served us a meal on board and showed videos recorded from satellite TV.

The added luxury meant that the journey down to Port Harcourt was just boring, rather than the usual combination of both boring and uncomfortable. It was also quite noticeable that the coach wasn’t stopped at the police checkpoints along the way. We stopped at a few places along the way to drop off passengers, arriving at ABC’s terminal in Port Harcourt in the afternoon.

Ine had recommended staying at the Ferguson Guest House, so we took machines. The okadas in Port Harcourt (usually abbreviated to “PHC”, locals just call it “Port”) seem to be in more of a hurry than in Abuja, at one point I thought mine was going to pull a wheelie. The city seemed pleasant and was noticeably busier and more lively than Abuja.

We checked into a NGN4500 (< £18) room, which had a bed big enough to fit the three of us in comfortably. After a quick wash we wandered out to investigate places to eat and immediately found a stall doing Indomie (noodles) and egg. The noodles are cooked and then fried with eggs, onions and peppers, making a nice and cheap meal. Just round the corner was a bar we had spotted from our room, we made up for the money we had saved on food by paying NGN250 (<£1) for a beer. The next morning we had to find the motor park for buses to Yenagoa. Ine had given us instructions, but communication difficulties with the okada drivers left us in completely the wrong motor park. We took a drop from there to another one and managed to get on a Yenagoa bus. This journey was interrupted by many police checkpoints, especially once we entered Bayelsa state. The police down there are noticeably ruder and more aggressive.

Yenagoa is the capital of Bayelsa state but we didn’t see very much of it, heading straight to the market to pick up some fruit and veg for Ine and Amy. The okada drivers told us we could walk from the market down to the quay. While we were at the market Jenny and Tracey asked permission to take pictures of the women running one of the stalls, the women were very keen to be “snapped”. Suddenly a man appeared from the crowd and started having a go at them, after being repeatedly told that it was none of his business he left.

Unfortunately the quay near the market wasn’t the right one (more miscommunication) and we had to take okadas across to the hospital road waterside. We still had plenty of time before our boat left, so after buying tickets Tracey and I went to get some lunch. The stew was some of the best I’ve had, very “pepperish” but actually tasty as well.

Boarding the boat was a typically Nigerian chaotic scene, lots of people milling around, people entirely unrelated to the boat company giving orders and nothing much happening for long periods. We left at around 1300, after only half an hour sitting in the baking sun.

The two hour speedboat trip was quite fun, although the combination of bare plank benches and slamming our way across the wakes of other boats caused some bruising to the backside. Towards the end of the journey it started to rain heavily, the driver passed a tarpaulin up and we spent the last fifteen minutes of the trip huddled under it, unable to see outside. After a while the ride got even rougher (as we got nearer the sea and changed course) and we emerged from under the tarpaulin in time to see the approach to the jetty at Kongho community, Yenagoa, where Ine was waiting for us.