across the country to travel to the other side of Nigeria, in a completely different culture, was our goal: Go to Maiduguri, a million inhabitants in the middle of nowhere, the capital of Borno State, the last set members ended the state of Nigeria. The city was a few years ago in the press, was killed as over the Danish Muhammad cartoons 46 people and many churches were destroyed. Us it was very run down before, but on the other hand, beautiful, spacious and with Lagos as many shady trees along the roads.
is populated Maiduguri - Borno State as the whole - from the Kanuri, the language is spoken mainly. On the other hand, is everywhere and Hausa, the language most spoken in Nigeria which incidentally, is used in much of West Africa as a trade language.
From there we made trips to the Lake Chad and to Sukur. Lake Chad, we were driving through desert, past camel and cattle herds in small villages and the city Basthütten Baga, which is still on many maps as a peninsula surrounded by the sea. At the moment, the lake is no longer even on Nigerian territory, so we had to go out of Baga from a long, hellish trip to third on a motorbike through the sand to get to a channel, the Lake Chad out. Due to problems with an "immigration officer" but we have not made any Botstour. But how fast is the disappearance of Lake Chad, we can see impressive on this trip.
Sukur village in the south of Maiduguri on the Cameroon border is one of the two World Heritage Sites in Nigeria. To get there, we had an hour-long, very strenuous and very steep hike to make up the mountain on which lies the village. At the top we were able to welcome the king of the kingdom of Sukur, which includes several mountain villages in the area, and hand him a gift. The village is quite original, even if we even at this remote City could buy Coca-Cola and Fanta. We slept in a simple traditional stone cottage and enjoy the cool mountain air. The next day we were allowed to visit the Royal Palace, which consists of several huts for different occasions. Overall, this trip was very interesting, even if it is incomparable with the entire village of world cultural heritage.
drove After a brief stay in the town of Bama, we then in a Bush Taxi with four people in the back row and three people in the front passenger seat (which we were) without problems on the Nigerian-Cameroonian border.
