Caboose

Looking for information about the forthcoming scheduled bus services in Abuja I couldn’t find anything official, but instead stumbled across Chippla’s Weblog. It has well-written and knowledgeable commentary on expensive new taxis, what will happen to okada riders if they’re banned from Abuja and religion in Nigeria among other things.

I’ve just upgraded WordPress, the software the manages most of this site for me. There are a few quirks I’ve noticed since the upgrade but most things seem to be working. If you have any problems let me know (one of the problems I know about is that the per-post “Contact me” links are broken).

Update (18 January): The problems were due to another bit of software (EzStatic), I contacted the author and he had an updated version of it ready in about four hours. Well done! As a result the “Contact me” links should be working again and the other static pages, such as the Nigerian glossary don’t look odd.

Dad emailed these pictures to me today, my Mum found them wedged into a frame behind another picture. They’re both of me at an early age, I think in the one on the left I’m probably around two or three and in the one on the right somewhere around five.

After a series of cryptic text messages (the first was “After 12 then”) Alex came round to take us on another hiking trip in the hills around Abuja. This time it was to be near Dutse and Dave, Marebec, Kate, Eva and Erin were going along.

The Harmattan dust has been quite bad the past few days, as you can see in these pictures looking down on the town of Dutse Alhaji. We’ve also had a few cold nights because of it, which means my shower water is getting pretty chilly in the mornings.

(more…)

After one last day of relaxing in Limbe Pete, Mary, Charles, Kay, Indar and I headed back to Nigeria. This time we took a speedboat instead of the ferry (the ferry didn’t sail on the right day), spending several hours hanging around the harbour waiting for the speedboat guys to bring their price down to something we could afford. We set off at about 1pm and had a mostly smooth ride, it was surprising how busy it was out at sea, even out of view of the coast. There were lots of tiny fishing boats and the occasional oil platform dotted around.

Three and a half hours later we arrived at Ibaka, a port on the opposite side of the river from Calabar. Pete dealt with immigration while the rest of us chartered a car for Ikot Abasi and stood around being stared at by the locals. By the time we got to Utaiwo, where the boats for Opobo leave from, it was dark but we managed to meet up with the group coming from Lagos anyway (Kim, Tammie, Tanya, Kate, Aine and Simon).

Due to our late arrival we had missed the boat regatta, so we sorted out who was staying where (girls at Pete & Mary’s, boys at Charles’s) and dropped off our stuff before going to Lady B’s restaurant for dinner. We moved to another bar for midnight, we had a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne”. The locals didn’t seem to notice midnight, they had been setting off firecrackers and guns all night anyway.

We had heard that nothing much would happen on the first, because it was a Sunday. Instead we went to greet Mr Bell-Gam and then Henry the boatman took us across the river to Ekereborokiri (I’d been before). This time the tide was out so we had to wade through the river mud to get to the village, where we were greeted once more by Steven Jaja.

(more…)

This afternoon we got back from our four day hiking trip on Mount Cameroon. It was lovely, although a bit of a slog in parts. Much more about it all once I get back to Abuja.

Hope everyone enjoys their New Year celebrations. I’ll be in Opobo Town with Pete, Mary and Charles.

An early start for the final day, a breakfast of Indomie, tea and hot chocolate and then off through more grassland, over low ridges, looking down on the clouds.

(more…)

Another bad night’s sleep, with the freezing draughts blowing across me. The view down onto the clouds from Station F was lovely though.

Fortunately day 3 is a short day, spending the morning walking from Station F down to Mann Spring. We passed the craters from the 1999 eruption, with a surprisingly varied landscape of cinder cones as well as grassland and patches of forest. Another surprise was how quickly plants are recolonising the eruption area, starting with lichens and mosses then the strange-looking “Mountain Flower”

(more…)

During a long night of tossing and turning, made complicated by being pressed up against Pete and Amy, I heard the pre-dawn departure of the two two-day tour groups. Few of us seem to have got much sleep, although Indar and Jonathan managed a fair bit of snoring.

We had tea and croissants for breakfast and set off at around 7.30am. It was a hard slog again, although some parts were easier than yesterday the air was getting thinner (hut 2 is at 2850m 9350 ft). The landscape above hut 2 looked almost mediterranean in the morning sun, just much colder! We were still stopped to rest more frequently than the guides wanted to.

(more…)

We took taxis to Buea, at the foot of Mount Cameroon, stopping along the way for our first view of (part of) the mountain. When we arrived at the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Organisation the porters and guides were already there and packing. We had bags full of food and an enormous quantity of water to take with us but the load was eventually distributed and we squeezed into taxis to take us to the start of the walk.

(more…)