FOR the wife, it was double tragedy, she had to lose both a friend and her teacher, but I had to leave. We hugged and kissed, and off I went. For sure, I will miss Addi and his wife, and will continue to miss them. I hope that one day I will have the opportunity of meeting with them again. I drove on and carried on for hours. At dusk, I parked my car and rested for the day.
It was a very stormy morning, though not as serious as the one that ushered me into Tamagasset. I drove very carefully and the storm continued for hours, up to about 9am. At about 10am, the temperature had risen to about 15o C. I camped to make my breakfast, since the storm had stopped completely. I rested for about an hour and continued towards El-Meniaa, but was not really able to make it into El-Meniaa because of the unfavourable tracks. I camped at the police post, where I intended to pass the night.
This was a big mistake, for, to my dismay, I was subjected to the most embarrassing interrogation I had ever passed through in my life. The session started with a physical check on the car. The car was searched inside out, from bonnet to bumper. I guess the fuel tank would have been searched, too, if they had had access to it. Then the search turned to my person, with my papers studied thoroughly. So diligent were they in their review of the papers that I wondered if they were going to write an examination on them. The currencies, too, were not spared this unnecessary exercise as they took pains to go through each one against the currency declaration form.
Then came the mother of all searches-the First Aid Box and my camera. They queried my possession of so many drugs and wanted to know if I was sick, their reason being that since I came this far from Lagos, driving several weeks and did not fall sick, that the need for the drugs was no longer there. My explanation of acting on my doctor’s advice did not save me as I ended up (after so much argument) sharing the drugs equally with them. Then the camera caught their attention. They saw my declaration form, which had everything except the camera. They claimed I purposely did not declare it because I was spying with it. They threatened to take it from me, but fortunately I was able to spot one of them who appeared to be a gentleman and I immediately began to work on him.
While trying to resolve this problem, we struck another deal. I decided to take photographs with all of them, since the camera could not be shared. The shots were taken, and yet these desert demigods could not be appeased, as they introduced another factor; they must have the photographs there and then. I pleaded with them that it was impossible, but these pleas fell on deaf ears. They
simply wanted me to perform some magic by printing photographs outside of a photo laboratory and in the desert, of all places.
This seemed to be the toughest obstacle to overcome, as there was no argument that could convince them. In all of my life, I had never met a dafter and cruder set of people. To say I was frustrated is to say the least. Just as I was about to give up, the gentleman in their midst that I had earlier worked on intervened. He assured them that I was sincere and so believed that I would keep my words to process and print the photographs and later send to them.
Acting then as a contact man, he gave me his name and address. Having paid my dues, so to speak, for not making it into town on time, I was now allowed some peace and I retired for the day. On getting to Paris, I made sure I kept my promise of sending those photographs, if not for any other thing, but to assure them that I was sincere in my mission. Ridiculous! But it was an experience. How could I ever think the police in Nigeria were the worst in the world? Forgive me. At this point in my journey, signals were beginning to appear and disappear on my telephone, offering me the opportunity to speak with the Nigerian Television Authority, and Abuja Mission Control that was monitoring my voyage in Lagos, as well as my family back home in Lagos. I had been able to charge my phone battery in Tamagasset, but still had no adaptor for charging it in the car.
The tracks were still very sandy and rough, but marked, though they disappeared occasionally due to sandstorms. The weather was also very kind, quite beautiful, especially in late morning and evening, which made up for the extreme heat during the day. My car was holding up very well with the Peugeot clutch fitted into it. I started seeing some rock formation and landscape, which provided occasional shades and beautiful scenery.
The sandstorm that heralded me into and out of Tamagassethad just subsided when I saw a signpost pointing to Algiers-1400km away. All of these markers brought back some beautiful memories of a voyage that was likely to succeed. Although the distances between places were still far apart, the likelihood of anything happening and the possibility of being stranded was no longer there. My next night stop in my diary was going to be in El-Meniaaand then on to Ghardiadia, and finally to Algiers. But it was soon not to be, because the tracks became very sandy and made driving very difficult and slow. Towards the later part of the evening, it was clear that reaching ElMeniaa before dark was out of the question, as I had covered less than 300km from Tamagasset. I had driven for eight hours, and the time was about 6pm, and I was tired. I sought out a nice beautiful location with some rock formation that provided some shield against the sandstorms, called it a day, and set up my camp for the night. I prepared my dinner, settling for a good meal of Campbell soup with corned beef and white rice. The temperature was mild and surrounding me were some of the most beautiful outcrops of undulated rock formations, and they provided perfect shade. This was most ideal for a camping environment! I had eaten one of my best meals in a long time (so I thought), and here I was in the most beautiful location I had come across. The weather was very good and from every indication, I was going to have a very good night’s sleep.
The tent was very secure, not only from the weather, but from every possible creeping or crawling animal, since life was beginning to return.
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