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My Naija Hustle

Have you been on Motorcycle before?

HAVE YOU BEEN ON MOTORCYCLE BEFORE?



Have you been on motorcycle adventure before?
Get a peeve into how adventurous Nigerians are and check out what we found out on the streets of Naija.

Life is an Adventure…
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From Mali to Mauritania…

Toyin Sunday 15th march

Hello everyone, we were so busy with trying to forge ahead on our trip in the past two days that I haven’t had time to write much. But we have a compulsory rest day in Dakar today (15th March), because the Mauritanians turned us back because of our Nigerian identities. So we have time to rest as we plot our next moves, which will surely entail transporting the bikes and ourselves either to Morocco or Spain and then continuing onwards from there.

 

I was not too pained by the fact that the Mauritanians refused us entry. We had received all sorts of information about how difficult they were and even at the border, almost eight different people told us they will most likely refuse us entry so our minds were kind of prepared and we had been plotting next steps ahead of time. What hurt was the amount of time and effort it had taken to get to that point. Secondly, it hurt that Mauritania would refuse a Nigerian entry into their country. They are 3.5 million. We are 183 million strong. And we are richer. And more educated and developed.

 

Anyway, time to let that go and move forward. But first, I’d like to talk about the past two days for a little bit.

 

We departed Dakar for St. Louis on the morning of 13th March. It was a lovely Friday morning. After saying our goodbyes to Amico and our new family we rode off. Dakar is developing fast. Almost everyone we saw along the way, even in the rural areas carried smart phones. The weather is quite pleasant too. Not boiling hot like Mali. Even though as you ride away from the city, northwards towards Mauritania, the land gradually transforms into the loose sand of the Sahara. It also becomes even drier. There are loads or rickety cabs and busses, but what stomps me is that the people do not seem to be worried about this at all. Some cabs are so rickety that you see the floor from inside as they ride. But they don’t care. They have electricity nonstop and water runs. I’d take that to new cabs and busses any day or time too. The people are relaxed and seem quite content.

 

The mode of transportation as you travel within Senegal are the buses and mostly carts drawn by horses. Very popular here. And they have a way of cutting into traffic without warning.

 

Anyway, we spent arrived St. Louis around 5 pm. It’s a largely colonial town which seems frozen in time. It’s as time there is an embargo or any attempt to modernise  the towns architecture. It’s very obvious that it has a deep ancient history and that the people love it as it is. Loads of tourists too. I learned from Wikipedia that the railroad linking St. Louis to Dakar was the first railroad in French West Africa when it opened in 1885. It’s however, no longer in use. There are relics from that era all over the city. Even the hotel we stayed in was converted from a French air force quarters. But the new owners maintain the old structure. And believe me it’s very beautiful and iconic. We took a tour of the city on a horse cart with a guy called Sinere goading us on and on even though we hired the cart for 30 minutes, which fast turned to over an hour. He almost talked our ears off. From the relevant to the mundane. Sinere has the tall, lanky build of most Senegalese. Very dark complexioned too. Donning a funny golfers hat. But quite a pleasant guy.

 

St. Louis is mostly a fishing town. That’s why you perceive the very strong smell of fish on all the highways and trucks carry fish all across the nation and even to other countries from there.

 

There are carcasses of all sorts of animals beside the highways. Donkeys, sheep, even a few monkeys, but mostly cows. By the time we ride for hours on those roads, we all smell of dry sand mixed with the smell of dead animals. It’s so strong in the air.

 

We eventually had dinner at the Flamingo bar, where a ragtag band with a white drummer was playing Senegalese music and soon after headed off to bed. Raph said they band played played non-stop until around 4 am but Fodeks and I heard nothing. Thank god, because we needed that sleep badly.

 

We then get up around 5:30 am and head for the notorious Rosso border crossing from Senegal to Mauritania, which is about an hour and 15 minutes ride from St. Louis, and the rest of the story you already know. What was however intriguing was that we were treated so shabbily as we went through the formalities of re-entry into Senegal from the same border, especially by the gentleman who’s office issues the laisses passez for our motorcycles. That is the document you need to enter into a country with your vehicle. It is simply an undertaking indicating that you entered the country and with and is collected at your exit. The gentleman kept us for almost 2 hours. He could speak English, but simply refused to and harassed us for not speaking French. He appeared calm and nice but just had a very difficult and somewhat sarcastic undertone. We were given 5 days the first time we entered Senegal, but he have us only two days. Which is barely enough to sort ourselves out and exit the country but what can we do but our best.

 

Well, we shall pursue our options today and tomorrow and decide and pursue the best and fastest way to transport our bikes and ourselves to Spain. The mission continues. Viva OON!!!!

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Fodeks’ Highlights day 1 to 3 – Out of Nigeria!

5th March Tired Out of Nigeria riders are doing great. We ride out tomorrow morning (6th March) towards a town who’s name I cant pronounce yet. (will practice thru the nite). My tooth is still bugging me badly. Hopefully i’m going to get it pulled tomorrow! We are having a blast though. Even at this early stage of our trip, I’m really optimistic about the volume of interest we are getting from people around the world. I’m reminded daily just how important this project is. Our interactions with people from all works of life and cultural backgrounds keep throwing up thought provoking questions. These questions, In my opinion, help me develop an even stronger conviction about the need to embark on a journey of thus magnitude. Even the timing could not have been more apt. Filming realtime and updating these interactions and places are awesome, though I must admit that being in front of camera is not my strongest suite and quite challenging. Raph assures me it will get easier with time. I fear that we might be back from our trip before that happens. The reaction of people to us whenever we ride is priceless. I love the quizzical look, commonly followed by a look of disbelief, that greets us everywhere we go. It proves a few things I’ve known all along. One is that people are generally curious and for most, this curiosity trumps apprehension any day. The second is that, properly used, motorcycle and adventure can be a vital tool in bringing a message and ideology to a large audience. I want to thank everyone who has followed and or contributed to this project online. Tour support and messages of goodwill are the fuel we three have been living off of these past few days. I hope that we can properly do justice to the issues which are the foundation of this project as we travel and we loom forward to your questions, comments and requests as we go on. We leave Abidjan tomorrow, heading north towards the border of Mali. There are some historical landmarks which we hope to visit and document as we go. Tired, but excited. Honored to be a part of this epic project and grateful in no small measure for the presence and managerial and organizational skills of the Tanglewood team of Raph Goldberg and Raha Danesh-Kazemi. You guys rock. I want to appreciate the Touratech Group for their generous invitation to be hosted by them when we get to Germany. They have also offered to upgrade our bikes with Touratech accessories. I feel like a kid in a candy shop. I’m certainly working on my list pronto. Thank you for your support and recognition. I’ll post pictures of my visit to the dentist tomorrow. Hope I don’t pass out first………… Update from March 6th I didn’t get any sleep at all last night. Pain in my tooth kept me awake all night despite having consumed an award winning quantity of painkillers. The team agreed that it was better to get the opinion of another dentist, since the first seemed to be a dud. A new friend we all just met had called and booked us an appointment with his own dentist somewhere in town and I was once again in the spotlight. Turns out that I have an infection for which he prescribed an antibiotic. I’m to watch how this works for three days or so. If it sorts the problem, then all’s well that ends well. Otherwise, I need to see another dentist, pull the tooth and rest for two or three days. Afterwards, we checked out of our hotel and got the hell out of dodge.   Once out of Abidjan, the road to Yamoussoukro is awesome. Really good surface. We even had time to try out our Sat Nav equipment. The jury is still out on that one tho. Our first stop was to visit the Basilica of our Mother of Peace. This Basilica was consecrated by Pope John Paul II. Our guide told us the the pope visited the region on three occasions in 1980, 1985 and 1990. This Basilica is the biggest in the world.   The first thing that you feel in this magnificent structure is the size. It’s dome reaches an awe inspiring 38m in height. It’s said that the marble used for the floors, if laid in one place, would cover 7acres in total!!   While photography is restricted in the main auditorium, we were permitted to take as many pictures and videos as we wanted around the magnificent courtyard and imposing entrance. The main cathedral boasts very impressive stained glass windows depicting various events as told in the bible.   The ride to Bouake was, if anything at all, ordinary. A bit less than average road surface, parts of which are just horrible. This leg of the trip took about an hour and a half. We were met in Bouake by members of Flash Interventions, a security outfit operated by our new found friend, Alex. Part Greek, part Italian, part Irish, borne and raised in Cote D’voire, he is quite simply a character. His guys put us up in this quaint, earthy hotel, the Mon Afrik Hotel. A shower, dinner and……(lights out)…..

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