On the Road Again

Now for a more regular and serious posting I think I'll give you some stories about travelling in Nigeria in general. This is actually, I think one of the few amusing but also worrying things for me here. For several reasons.

The makeup of cars on the road here is odd. At first one might think - what's with all the luxury cars? (there are many Mercedes, BMWs etc.). It's all because Nigeria is a bit of a retirement home for European cars. Particularly those from Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Italy, and Austria. Why do I know this? Because they leave the EU stickers on the cars of course. The road is also full of lots of terribly UN-roadworthy trucks and buses, they are always by the side of the road being repaired with goods often scattered. Incidentally, buses here are more like converted minivans that what I would normally describe as a bus (in Australia.

Driving on intercity highways is a little frightening. Especially when one keeps seeing fatal and horrific accidents. On my way to Lagos this last week I think I saw a dead body for the first time hanging out of one terrible accident. I know I try to reassure people that everything's not so bad here, perhaps on the roads is one unsafe place.

Then there is another issue that's yet to affect me (And I damn well hope it never will), but affected my friend last week. He was also travelling to the conference in Zaria. Not with us, but on a public bus. Anyway, his bus got held up in a jam somewhere. Then people started running for their lives past his bus. So he too got out and ran into the bush. There he and others hid for hours as they heard gunshots and saw people running scared. Turns out there were armed robbers on the road. So my friend did not make it to Zaria, and indeed had to go back home and wait to collect his bag (the driver and bus disappeared from the scene). I'm not suggesting this is typical, but its damn well never going to happen in Australia is it (unless things have changed significantly since I left).

So needless to say, I’m always a little anxious on the road, though its not really going to stop me going anywhere I think.