8 hours, 400 kilometers (240 miles)
Daily Diary
Life in Douala
I really enjoyed my time in Douala. As the largest city in Cameroon, it really had a lot to offer and the hotel I stayed at was fantastic.
Nice little pool to cool off no matter when because it was always hot and humid.
The banana guy.
Lots of “Senegalais” restaurants due to the large number of Muslims living in Douala.
And they had two SPARs!
No shortage of casinos in Douala.
Me and Joel hanging out at one of the clubs one night. What a great guy! He is from Bamenda, part of the English-speaking region and worked at a hotel around the corner.
My favorite spot for sandwiches and beignets!
Leaving Douala
Well, after being “trapped” by the elections and the “ghost town” protocols where they shut all traffic Mondays through Wednesdays, I decided I needed to make a move.
I arrived home from the Douala – Arrival and Departure to Benin (via Gabon), Ethiopia, Rome, Chicago, Ethiopia, Benin, and Arrival Back in Douala (via Gabon again) trip around midnight on Saturday morning. I got up early and picked up my bike from the hotel parking garage where I had dropped it off a week earlier. Everything was cool, but of course, the battery was dead. I gave it quick boost and drove it back to my hotel.
Much to my surprise, a couple of hours later, a new bike appeared!
This was Stephan’s a Swiss guy who travels with his wife for about 3-6 weeks a year in Africa, then stores his bike and comes back and picks up where they left off. Riding 2-up in Africa? Impressive.
I had dinner at the restaurant around the corner and watched some soccer. Decided it was time for a steak!
That evening his wife showed up and we had a beer and they discussed that they were leaving early in the morning (Sunday) avoid the ghost town shutdown. I decided then and there that I would do the same.
On the Road Again
Well, if you’ve been following along, it has been more than 2 week since my last ride, so I did some quick maintenance work on the bike and started riding out.
Made it out, finally! Most of the cities sprawl so much that it can take an hour just to get to the open road.
Yay! Open road!
I forget the name of this town, but people were not used to seeing motos of this size.
Between the towns the roads are decent, but you can always tell when you are entering or leaving them because of the giant holes and mud.
I mean, the ground is mostly clay, can’t we come up with a solution to dig a hole and bury this stuff, you know, like ‘Merica?
Riding up into the mountains, I wonder what’s next?
Into the English-speaking province. So weird how everything just switches on you in an instant.
Up the mountain and through the woods to Nigeria we go!
Border Crossing
Cameroon side was super fast.
The Nigerian side? Well…what started off as a rather uncomfortable situation quickly turned to the chief of the post having one the younger kids guide me from stop to stop! The chief also put me in contact with the local motorcycle club in Ikom in case I needed support or an escort.
Made it across pretty quickly after all the riding around from hut to hut. They didn’t even want any money or anything!
Ikom Crash
Well, after meeting up with the local biker club, they wanted to take me to a local hotel because at this point it was getting dark. I had no issue with it, I could always skip Enugu and head to Benin City the next day anyway.
They pulled over to the side of the road behind me in the opposite direction and told me to make a u-turn. They held up traffic while I started to pull away from the curb when out of nowhere came a moto taxi doing about 40 and slammed into my bike. The bike fell over and landed on my left leg, but we quickly got it back up and gave me and the bike a quick inspection.
Front fog light housing bent.
All in all, the bike just had some minor cosmetic damage. I had a slight bone bruise on my left shin and some minor road rash on my knee. What the fuck were they thinking?
Case was bent and now had a gap in the bottom seal.
My bike looking sad.
Well, nothing stopped them from having me ride over to a local party. Oh well!
This was the celebration for the community chief who was elected for the first time in 30 years.
Good times, but I was super pissed off about the whole thing. This is why you don’t change plans when on the road.
Matthew and I hang out way too late, but luckily the town was small so no issues finding my way back to my hotel. Oh yeah, and my hotel? It had just opened that day!!! I was the first guest in my room – all rooms named after UK football teams, I got Crystal Palace of course!
So now, given the damage to my bike, there was no way I was riding to Benin City tomorrow. Matthew had a shop and a mechanic who could “fix anything” and we agreed we’d get started in the morning on getting my bike roadworthy again.