Abuja and Drill Ranch, Cross River State, Nigeria

We had crossed from Ghana, through Togo, through Benin and were now traversing Nigeria across the centre of the country. We were either bush camping or in camp sites but the internet was poor so I was not able to blog. But on the way to Abuja we passed several fascinating volcanic necks, the central core of a volcano after it has ceased erupting and the cinder cone has been eroded to leave just the solidified throat of the volcano now standing high above the surrounding plain and very resistant to erosion.

 There is not much to do in Abuja, it is the capital but it was formerly Lagos and moved here after the civil war and attempts at succession by Biafra in the 1960's. It has the potential of being a wealthy country but mismanagement and corruption has eaten away at the country's wealth potential. It is a leading member of OPEC with plenty of oil but petrol distribution is haphazard and when there is a delivery, word gets out very quickly and people queue up. The price is about a quarter of what it is at home.

We were only visiting Abuja to get our Cameroon visas but the embassy was shut on a Friday so we would have to wait until Monday to hand them in and perhaps not collect them until Tuesday which was too long. So we went to Plan B to get visas from the consulate in Malabar which is near the border with Cameroon.

But it did mean that we had time to visit Drill Ranch, a primate centre in a national park. The communal eating area.

The food preparation area at Drill Ranch.

We were camping but the facilities were quite rustic. The shower with the blue tank on the roof with steps up to it so you could fill it using a bucket from the well.

A close up of the shower area and the basin. It seems open but there is only a long jungle path to it and there is a bit of rope for you to tie across the path leading to the shower so that other people know that it is in use.

The toilet down another jungle path. It is quite sophisticated considering some of the facilities that we had used. Privacy was obtained using a rope across the path trick.

Then the real reason why we had come it...the pirates. These are endangered drill monkeys within a seven hectare enclosure. There is an extensive breeding programme with several enclosures and plans to release troupes into the wild. A female carrying a youngster.

The dominant male.

Regretfully a blurred photo of the males bum with its colouring.

 A close up of the males face/

There were also four Red Earned Guenons ready for release. They have red ears but they also have distinctive red tails.

And the other primates at the ranch, chimpanzees. These are all orphans or chimps rescued from illegal owners. They have a 30 hectare enclosure but they do not breed and there are no plans to release them. This is just an orphanage to give them somewhere safe to live out their lives. The oldest is twenty but they can live to be 60/

 We threw some peanuts over the wire and they came to feed.

A some group of chimps.

 Another group. There are different sub species as came be told from the larger and greyer chimp.

 And then it was off to get our visas from Malabar and we stayed at Ikon just 2okms from the Cameroon border ready to cross early the next day. A view of the jungle through which we were driving.

 And the state of the roads. This one was being upgraded and the journey will be much quicker when it is complete but right now, the going was slow over bad pot holed bumpy tracks dodging the earth moving equipment.

 Another road building section.