We crossed the Finish Line!
There is an African proverb that says “to go quickly, go alone. But to go far, go together..”. This is so true. I have set and overcome quite a number of personal goals in my life. But I was clever enough to know that to achieve anything significant in this life and to overcome great obstacles in life, you need the support and cooperation of others, and oftentimes others who are much smarter than yourself. We knew from the beginning that this adventure was going to be very challenging and would demand that we remain focused, very dynamic, creative and doggedly determined to do our homework carefully and then hope for the best.
Right off the bat we grappled with visa difficulties for Fodeks and I. But we simply refused to quit. When the Spanish embassy in Lagos denied us the Schengen visa (which happened to be a very significant segment of this adventure and would also make it possible for us to ride in Europe after holding our passports for over four weeks), we decided to ride our motorcycles 750 kilometers to Abuja, the Capital city of Nigeria, where we then applied for the same visa through the French Embassy. We were smiled on by God’s grace when the gentleman that interviewed us happened to be an adventure biker himself. Things began to look hopeful. Ten days later, we received our passports with the Schengen visas. Unfortunately, we were allowed only 15 days of stay in Europe, but we were massively grateful still. Things had changed for good. We were quite excited. We then applied for the 
Morocco visa which we were also granted. But by then, we knew that the adventure had to be limited to Africa and Europe on this first leg, so we made the Arctic Circle our final destination of choice. The journey commenced on the 2nd of March, 2015, after Raph and Raha had spent five days with us in Lagos fine-tuning the plan. It was five gruelling days of tuning, fine tuning, tuning again and then repeating the process over and over. A process that will only end the day we finally ride back into Lagos.
Right from the African continent we began to face massive challenges, the most frustrating of which was the Mauritanians’ refusal to grant us access into the country at the border. We had gone through the process of loading the bikes on the ferry that crossed the Senegal River into Mauritania at the Rosso border (which wasn’t cheap by the way) against the advice of all the touts at the border. We had all the right paperwork and had gone through too much to be turned back. Besides, officially, we were entitled to visas at the border, so there was no plausible reason on earth that we should have been refused entry into the country. We even had in our possession, a letter from one of Nigeria’s most popular ex- Presidents making us pretty confident that we would be allowed in. As it turned out, our confidence was misplaced. The immigration officers seized our passports and told us we couldn’t proceed any further and had to pay for the return tickets and get back on the ferry before they gave us our passports, which is exactly what happened.
Reentry into Senegal was an unnecessarily long and annoyingly painful process. Anyway, we rode back to Dakar and flew our bikes to France. Not as easy as it sounds in that one sentence. It was five days of painfully frustrating work in a predominantly French speaking country. We then flew ahead of the bikes into France to continue with the adventure. The bikes were delayed by an additional four days in Dakar. And it took us three needless days to clear the bikes from customs in France. But surprisingly, the actual event of clearing the bikes through customs and collecting the bikes took less than two hours. So the other remaining time was lost to ignorance. The company that the agents consigned our bikes to in France were experts at shipping fresh produce. Not vehicles.
We got our bikes and after dealing with a few mechanical and electrical issues in 5 degrees weather in France, we rode off for the Europe leg of the adventure. Logging an average of 600 kilometers almost everyday through France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and back and then heading to Denmark and finally a train ride from Stockholm to Kiruna in Norway, where we arrived the finish line. We had ridden day and night in freezing cold and in the rain. Through flat plains, hills, the Swiss alps, tunnels, slow roads, fast roads, big cities, small towns, good times, bad times, happy moments, sad moments. But we got here! Kiruna is actually 200 kilometers into the Arctic Circle so we beat the deadline and the finish line by an additional 200 kilometers. When we disembarked the train in Kiruna, we were overcome by all sorts of emotions. But we were overjoyed, relieved, very fulfilled. Now we could exhale. However, the journey is not over yet. The battle and tweeting continues until the bikes arrive Africa, clear customs and we ride back into Nigeria. Then and only then will be able to sign off and lean back for a rest….
I’m sitting and typing this from the reception at the Ice Hotel in Kiruna, while Raph and Fodeks are walking around in the snow in minus 2 degrees, and it’s snowing. I find that I’m quite satisfied with the dosage of snow exposure I’ve had for the moment. Thank you. After spending hours on a snowmobile in the Swedish woods last night where we were told there were brown bears and wolves up in the mountains, and after sleeping in a room built with ice and sleeping on a bed made from ice, I’m quite ready for the African tropics, thank you.
We thank every single person and organization that supported us from the beginning to the end. A A Rano Nigeria Limited, Lakeside Energy Limited, Castor Vali and Touratech. We also thank Tanglewood for doing such an amazing job. We made it to the finish line because of your professional ethics and versatility. So, the return journey begins in a couple of hours. And after simmering for a little bit, we shall pull out a world map again to decide the next destination, the next challenge… The adventure continues..
Mr T
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