Nigeria

The population was experienced as very nice. Because very few whites come, the interest is even greater than in the surrounding countries. Fortunately, people are usually genuinely interested.

Robert and Wiesje: "People bought us water a few times. The people were incredibly warm, but we were not easily invited to their home".

Officially, the Sharia (law of Islam) is in force in the north. Robert and Wiesje: “However, when Wiesje crossed the border with a headscarf in the north, she was almost laughed at by the customs officers.”

The official language is English, it is spoken in the larger cities, but nobody speaks it in the smaller villages. The main local languages are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

Getting a visa for Nigeria is very difficult, but we've heard succesful stories. Please share your experience if you have been able to obtain it. You might want to contact these 2 Swiss guys. They obtained a bussiness visa in Benin with quite some hassle.

Source: Wikipedia.

Safety depends on the area you are traveling through. The south and especially Lagos and the southern highway are known to be unsafe. In 2020 there have been at least a few people that cycled from West to East Nigeria, staying on the South side of the country. DO NOT go to the North, this is where Boko Haram is located.

Robert and Wiesje: “Because of the friendly locals, it seemed safe to us: we left our bicycles 'unguarded' somewhere for a short time. But... we haven't been to the south, this seems to be a completely different world. We have heard many negative stories about Lagos, so we avoided that. When we told in the Netherlands that we would be cycling through Nigeria, we received a lot of warnings that it would be really dangerous. As with 'dangerous areas', those warnings became less frequent and more nuanced the closer we got to Nigeria. After a while we only heard that 'the south' would be dangerous, when we were in Nigeria they said 'only Lagos is dangerous', when we spoke to people from Lagos who reacted surprised to our question about safety, saying that only 1 neighborhood in Lagos that is really dangerous. We are not extreme daredevils, have flown over Sudan/Congos for example, but in our opinion the route we took through Nigeria is absolutely no less safe than neighboring countries.”

Gasoline is available for cooking, the quality is generally poor, it still contains lead.

Markets

The fruit there is fantastic. Food is available everywhere on the street, but this is usually very boring. Moin-moin is quite tasty, which should be steamed bean flour puddings, sometimes with egg in them. In small towns there is a good chance of finding something edible at the bus station, in small villages there are almost always women sitting under the largest tree in the village square with plastic containers with spaghetti or rice. The quality of this is poor and it is bland (spaghetti or rice with just some oil). Hygiene is particularly bad ('washing dishes' is sometimes wiping with a finger...) If you cook yourself, the supplies can often be found on the street.

Restaurants

In the larger cities there are good restaurants, quite a few from the middle east. Usually it is very difficult even for meat eaters to get enough protein: often spaghetti is spaghetti and nothing else. As a vegetarian you can therefore manage, but not for a well-balanced meal. If there is sauce, it often contains meat.

Drinkable water

Tap water, insofar as it is available, is often not to be trusted, as is the water from wells. Bottled water is not available outside the major cities. The water sold in half liter bags is NOT SAFE, even though they look official! Be very careful with your water supply: pumps are not very dense.

It is very hot in the north: in addition to enough water, make sure you also have enough salts (ORS) in your luggage. Robert and Wiesje: “We often suffered from cramps.”

Vaccinations

• Yellow fever vaccination is recommended and sometimes required.
• A DTP vaccination is recommended
• Protection against Hepatitis A is recommended.
• Sometimes a Cholera statement is needed.
• Malaria occurs all year round. Protective equipment DEET, prophylaxis, etc. are available on site.

Best time to cycle

The dry season is from October to May. Around March / April is the hottest period. With rain you can only cycle on major roads and that is a lot less interesting.

Spare parts

There are many small bicycle shops, with beautiful bicycle decorations: saddle pads, waving hands, pink plumes. Old-fashioned parts are everywhere, just like 28 x 1.3/8 tires of moderate quality, for more modern parts you have to rely on the bigger cities and/or luck.

There are bicycle repair shops everywhere, the hammer is his most important tool. Usually people are not familiar with the common travel bikes in Europe, make sure you know your bike well and are ready to intervene if you do hand it over to a repairer.