Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the wordpress-seo domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/bcm/src/dev/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121 road trip | Zikoko!
Pelumi Nubi’s solo car trip officially kicked off on January 31, 2024. She started off in London and updated followers via an Instagram post, saying she arrived in France on February 1.
In another post shared on February 4, three days after she set off from Paris, the content creator arrived in Barcelona, Spain, marking the second stop on her ambitious journey. She spent some days exploring the country and reached 100k followers on Instagram.
After six adventurous days in Spain, she announced her arrival in Morocco — the third country on her itinerary — on February 10.
Over the next 14 days, Pelumi explored cities in Morocco and drove through the dreaded desert wasteland, No Man’s Land — a three-kilometre strip that separates the country from Mauritania.
The biggest women-only festival in Lagos is BACK. Get your tickets here for a day of fun, networking and partayyyyy
She announced her arrival in Mauritania on February 24.
On March 3, about a month after the journey kicked off, Pelumi arrived in Senegal.
She spent a few days exploring some tourist attractions, visiting the tallest statue in Africa, located in Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, and Goree Island, a former transatlantic slave trade hub.
She announced her exit on March 7 and made it to her next stop, Gambia, on March 8. She spent 24 hours in Guinea Bissau before she made it to Guinea, the ninth country on her list, on March 14.
On March 17, she headed to Sierra Leone, where her entry was delayed over her “right-hand drive” car, which had been banned in the country in 2013. However, a kind border officer stepped in and secured her entry.
Still in Sierra Leone as of the date of publishing this report, her next stop is Liberia, after which she has five more countries before arriving in Lagos, Nigeria.
The road trip, estimated to last two months, is on track as she’ll likely complete it in the last week of March 2024.
If you’ve lived long enough in Nigeria, you should already know travelling by road isn’t exactly suya and sunshine.
But with air ticket prices the way they are, we’ll all need to embrace road trips soon. You can even pretend to connect with your adventure-loving self and plan a trip with your friends. Don’t go without knowing these tips, though.
Start your trip early
Whether you’re travelling interstate or within a state, leave early. Especially if you’re moving from Lagos. You don’t need me to tell you why.
Have money
Because what’s a road trip without buying orisirisi on the way? You’ll also run into the odd police checkpoint, and you may be asked to “show love”.
Eat ahead
Traffic, checkpoints, and the usual bad roads can increase your travel time. Because, Nigeria. Don’t let hunger kill you.
Don’t eat before your trip
Imagine entering into a crater-sized pothole with a stomach full of beans. It’s either you kill your travel mates with hydrogen sulphide — or kill yourself with embarrassment when you have to beg the driver to let you do a “number two” in the bush.
Buy pain relievers
Remember those pot-holes we mentioned? Better buy paracetamol.
Look poor
In case you still don’t know, Nigeria has an insecurity problem. Don’t go displaying your iPhone 14 Pro Max and giving unknown gunmen any ideas.
Google Maps is your friend
Don’t rely on interstate traffic markers if you intend to drive yourself. They’re so few and far between, and you might find yourself in Yobe if you aren’t careful.
Don’t pick up hitchhikers
Hitchhiking isn’t even in our culture, so if you like, go and pick ayamatanga on the road. Na you sabi.
Share your location with friends
Because it’s just common sense.
Take pictures
Because after all this wahala, it’s unlikely you’ll want to make another road trip anytime soon. You should keep memories of the beautiful landmarks you’ll encounter.
You think you know hunger until you’re stuck in a stuffy, rickety vehicle travelling by road across Nigeria with no restaurant in sight. There’s a high chance you won’t go and meet your maker if you can get your hands on these 8 food combinations.
Number 2 has been saving lives since 19kokoro.
1. Boiled egg and bread
Just divide the bread into two equal parts and shove the eggs. If you are lucky, you can even see someone hawking butter to spread on it. Bon appetit!
2. Akara and bread
Missed breakfast because you were trying to catch the bus? Good old Akara and bread or just Akara will save you from dying of hunger. Just be patient till you get to Ore or Ibadan ehn?
3. Gala and soft drink
The classic go-to. Lacasera, Coke or Big Cola. All join. The aim is to quench thirst. Even though Gala sausage is now smaller than your middle finger, it will still save you from starvation.
4. Corn and coconut
Best eaten straight from the big cooking pot or grill. Who knows, your seat partner might even offer you some. Don’t be shy, collect and chop abeg.
Image source: Cookpad
5. Garri and fried fish
Where will you find it? Pray you have one of those old Yoruba women passengers in your vehicle. They always have one protein or the other to munch. Greet them very respectfully so they’ll remember you at the hour of hunger.
6. Zobo and buns
Soft drinks are nice, but if you taste some of those chilled Zobos after sun has dealt with you, your brain will reset. Buns, puff-puff or fishroll will not be a bad idea as well.
7. Boli and groundnut
There are some traffic jams from hell where you can even get down from the vehicle and look for those women roasting Boli. Still, there’ll be no movement. At least you have eaten. Torh.
8. Banana and groundnut
The groundnut is to add to the overall filling effect. If farting starts smelling in the bus, everyone will know who to blame sha.
Going on a road trip is an adventure that requires a lot of packing and planning; the road can be annoying, and you’re going to be far away from the comforts of your home — better to be safe than sorry.
The Jollof Road team are currently touring West African countries, having the best time of their life and telling important stories while at it. Before they left, they had to do a shitload of planning to ensure that nothing goes wrong on the trip.
Here are eleven travel tips they’ve got for you on what you must have before embarking on a similar trip:
Get the right documents:
Passports, and yellow cards are some of the important documents to carry. Having these important documents will ensure you don’t waste time when it’s time to cross a border.
MAKE SURE TO GET ALL THE SHOTS DONE
This is to avoid stories that touch the heart, TBH. It’s true that you can pay the officials off to not get the yellow fever vaccine and just get your yellow card. BUT we advice you not to, you don’t know where there’s an outbreak and whatnot. Secondly, it’s important to get the meningitis vaccination done. When you get to Ivory Coast, if you don’t have proof of having done it, they’re going to make you do it.
Agent Or Fixer:
If you’re going to be crossing a border or several borders like the Jollof team is doing, you want to ensure that you factor an agent or fixer into your budget. Who is an agent or fixer, you may ask.
An agent is a fixer is someone who knows the right palms to grease to ease the process as you cross. Which is a lot more difficult and expensive when you are crossing with a vehicle.
Take medications:
You might get an unusual bout of diarrhea attack (especially if you’re trying out a lot of weird, new food, like the Jollof team is doing), a cold or a headache. Taking along some off-the-shelf medicines will save you the stress of trying to buy one at midnight, particularly in a country whose official language you don’t speak.
Pack just a few clothes and only the necessities. Extra clothes can always be bought on the road. And to me ‘necessities’ include medication.
Tosin, Jollof Road Team Member.
Get A Translator:
Except you are multilingual and can speak most languages, you might wanna hire a translator to travel with you so you don’t have problems communicating or having the best experience in the foreign country. Or, maybe just try Google translator if that works best for you.
For Jollof Road, we have Tosin who speaks superb French. She’s made like extremely easy for the team
Yeah, your phone camera will work but if you desire flawless images you should buy a camera, it doesn’t have to be a DSLR, unless you want it to be.
Pack as little as you can and pack a whole lot of gear. Two cameras, two mics, a drone, a couple of 18 terabyte hard drives and of course a drone because you can’t spend 80 days travelling through West Africa without a drone.
Kayode, Jollof Road Team Member.
Have A Comfortable Wardrobe:
You’re going to need durable running shoes, easy clothes that don’t have so many trappings and can withstand the heat.
Take Care Of Your Skin:
Get sunscreen if you don’t wanna roast. Your favorite body and hair care products should always be with you. Oh and bug spray too, because the mosquitoes have upgraded their biting skills and you don’t them to ruin your trip.
Extra Cash Is Good, But Your Debit Card Is Better:
Having a bank account that allows you to withdraw cash whenever you need it is bae. Ecobank is your best bet for that, since they have branches in more than 30 African countries and you can use Ecobank Pay everywhere across West Africa. Whew what a relief.
Travel insurance is really vital. It saves you from thinking of the what-ifs. So, get a cover for medical, financial or any other oopsies that may happen while you are in another country. That’s why we’ve got our trusty Leadway Travel Insurance, to keep us rest assured.
Be Ready To Buy New SIM Cards:
The best way to stay in touch with those you left at home, and people you are going to meet in the foreign country is by buying a new SIM card that keeps you connected. Oh, and a broadband plan to get you online, because you’d be wanting to keep your peeps abreast of your travel experience, like the Jollof Team has been doing.
Follow us on the Jollof Road! In addition to our website and social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, which you should totally subscribe to and follow, we now have a Telegram channel. The best part about this channel is that it’s going to have all the bits of gist, photos and information that don’t make our daily journals and videos. You can join the channel here. Tell someone to join too!
The Jollof Road team. From left (top to bottom): Tosin, Toketemu, Taiwo, Fu’ad, and Kayode.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you must’ve have seen/heard us (Zikoko) making noise about a project named Jollof Road. Well, it’s finally underway.
If you don’t remember what it is, here’s a refresher course.
For 80 days, a team comprised of Fu’ad (head noisemaker), Toketemu (minister of enjoyment), and Kayode (video guy with sentient eyebrows) will be travelling across West Africa with their trusty guide, Tosin, and their bus captain, Taiwo.
80 Days. 14 Countries. 5 People. 1 Van
They’ll be looking for amazing stories about food, culture, money, the impact of technology, and the people. The best part? At 9 am and at noon every day, they’ll be sharing those stories with the world at jollofroad.com.
On Day 1, Toketemu shared a journal on how to pack for an 80-day trip. Today again, she shared an entry about the team’s experiences crossing the border at Seme and navigating life in Cotonou, Benin Republic. To read today’s entry, click here.
Very few things give me a greater rush than food, as you probably already know. If you don’t, you should watch these to understand what I’m talking about. One of those things is unending road trips, through Nigeria’s treacherous roads in cramped buses that are guaranteed to break down at least once during the trip. My last road trip from Lagos to Enugu and back took a total of twenty-two hours to and fro. Which is 5 hours more than it should have taken.
I interrupt this transmission to inform you that Enugu is one of the most beautiful cities in Nigeria that I’ve ever been to. And if you’ve never been there, you can live vicariously through me here. Ok, carry on.
As I unpacked after my trip, I noticed that there were a couple of things I’ve carried with me religiously in my carryon bag since I started actively travelling around Nigeria in 2015. They don’t necessarily make my trips comfortable, but they do make them survivable. Apart from the obvious like phones, cameras and chargers here’s my list of road trip essentials:
Pepper spray for protection
There are certain factors I consider when I pack, the first and most important is that I’m a woman who never travels with a male companion. It’s very important for me to feel secure, which is why I never travel without pepper spray. The odds are that if I’m unexpectedly ambushed, I won’t even have time to reach for my pepper spray. But knowing I have some sort of protection is comforting to me. Here’s the great thing about pepper spray: it’s powerful enough to take down an assailant if well-targeted, but not enough to render him unconscious or worse so that you don’t end up in the middle of Ore, with a tire around your neck.
A money belt
I first learnt about money belts from my mother when I was 10. We were getting ready for a road trip to Delta when I saw her stuff a long strip of material with a wad of cash. When I asked her what it was for, she said it was back up cash in case we got robbed, so we don’t find ourselves stranded. The first time I travelled alone to Delta when I was 15, she gave me one, and I’ve carried one since then. I’ve never had to use it because I’ve never been robbed but I never travel without it.
A multipurpose scarf
Not multipurpose in a style sense, but in a utility sense. For warmth when travelling through unexpectedly cold regions, like driving through Jos at 10 pm during the rainy season. As a nose guard when travelling through dusty regions like Kaduna during the dry season and you are allergic to dust. As an extra layer of clothing to salvage your stained clothes when your period starts unexpectedly or you waited too long to change your pad or tampon.
In the rare occasion, I find myself travelling while on my period, I only wear black. I also wear a tampon and line my underwear with two sanitary pads stacked from top to bottom.
A whole lot of sanitizer and baby wipes
I’m not a clean freak, I slept in the dodgiest of hotels and eaten at even dodgier bukas. However, I’ve found that sometimes, the only thing standing between you and a horrible case of food poisoning while buying and eating food on the road is being able to sanitize your hands before you eat. The baby wipes help to provide temporary relief from the film of grit and ickiness you are bound to get coated with when you embark on any road trip longer than 5 hours. I also prefer to use them instead of tissues to clean up stains and spills because they leave no sticky residue behind.
Sunscreen
This is a fave because it’s lightweight and never leaves a cast.
Sunscreen is the most recent addition to my list. I only started carrying one around last year. The truth of it is that after the initial application I put on before I get on the road, I never reapply the sunscreen. But I’m adding it to this list because it’s a good habit to form and you are probably a better person than I am.
Straw hat
I don’t always carry a straw hat, but if I’m travelling through or to any Northen Nigeria state, it’s high up on my list of essentials. I’ve never had a heat stroke before, and after spending 5 days in Bauchi at the peak of the dry season I could certainly say the only reason I didn’t get one, was because of this straw hat and the fact that there was a bottle of water in my bag at all times.
Bottles of water
Talking about water, when I can, I try to pack my own bottles of water to avoid buying water off the roadside. This is ironic because I’d literally eat anything off the roadside from pekere to edible worm. But I’m very particular about where my drinking water comes from.
Painkillers and Imodium
Running stomachs and headaches are guaranteed during long road trips. You don’t want to buy painkillers or any sort of drugs from a place you barely know.
Meanwhile, have you heard of Jollof Road? We are touring West Africa, to find the story of Jollof and everything that travelled down with it from Senegal to Nigeria. Watch the trailer here, and watch this space, something exciting is coming.
