Day 99: Into the forest
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Sat 12 Feb 2011 19:15
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Day 99: Friday 11 February 2011 Afie Drill Ranch,
near Ikom, Nigeria. N06 17.955 E008 59.884 Distance driven 150
km
Having made known to the Manager last night that we were
not too happy with several aspects of our stay at the Cattle Ranch, we were
descended on by a posse of middle managers who were very receptive to our
comments and awarded us a complimentary breakfast. We left feeling much
more positive about our stay than we had been last night.
We descended from the cool of the mountain to the steamy
heat of Obudu and filled up with diesel from a decrepit pump in town. We
had tried 3 other stations before we found one with diesel. On entering,
we asked the girl manning the petrol pumps, today's price of diesel. She
quoted 150 Naira/litre. I asked the male attendant to fill the tank,
noting that the dial started off at 10 litres! I had expected an argument
about quantity but he readily agreed to the dial zero error but then demanded
160 N/litre! Then ensued a violent argument about price, the female attendant
agreeing that she had quoted 150 but the male demanding 160! We eventually
departed having paid 150/litre, saying that they should bring either the manager
or the police, or both. Fortunately, I had the correct change. This
is the second time we have been involved in this type of argument in
Nigeria and I think the problem arises because the price of diesel varies
from day to day and they cannot be bothered to adjust the price/litre on either
the external sign or on the pump's register, calculating the total price on
their mobile phones!
I suspect there is another, more
serious, problem. On filling up I insist on filling the tank
until it overflows and I record mileage and volume and monitor our fuel
consumption between tank fillings this way. Since we
entered Nigeria our consumption has increased from an average-to-date of
25.6 mpg to around 17 to 18 mpg and I can find no technical explanation for
this. There are certainly no leaks, so it is a real mystery. Being
Nigeria, I immediately suspect fraud and just wonder if the litres recorded at
the pump are more than the litres actually delivered? On the other hand it
could be that the old, badly maintained and decrepit pumps are just out of
calibration, but to the customer's detriment? Let's see what happens when
we cross to Cameroon!
We drove south from Obudu on a deteriorating tar road
and then west 13 km on a very rough, narrow track into the rain forest to
the Drill Ranch. I must say that this rain forest vegetation is absolutely
magnificent and certainly the best scenery we have seen in the whole of Nigeria.
In fact it is the most attractive scenery we have seen since leaving the Malian
desert. Ghana, Togo, Benin and most of Nigeria have been dried-up, dismal
bushland and savannah and not at all attractive. Here we have dense, lush
forest with a variety of trees, abundant tropical fruits and lots of bird
life.
The drill ranch is a conservation project to protect the
Pandrillus monkey, started about 15 years ago, and is a wonderfully remote and
interesting place. More tomorrow!
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