As the hostage taking continues in Nigeria we are being subjected to tighter security. I can’t go anywhere without my three body guards. They stopped putting a policeman in the front of my vehicle because I complained that I’d more likely get killed when the attackers were attempting to take out my guard rather than later if I became a hostage. So far of the 59 ex-pat hostages taken this year none have been murdered and all have been released. Considering that at least 15 police and three Nigerian abductees have been killed in crossfire, the risk factor is in favour of me getting kidnapped and surviving.

So now my vehicle and driver have to be followed by a chase vehicle with one driver and at least three mobile police. It’s quite a parade to behold with me, by myself, being chauffeured in this 20 passenger bus and being followed by the keystone cops of Nigerian police in their Toyota Corolla. The good thing is that if a troublesome vehicle blocks our way on the drive home from work the mobile police jump the driver and give him a good beating in order to clear the road. What my wife wouldn’t give to have my mopols for an afternoon in our home town in Canada to give those suffering from driver’s rage a sound trouncing.

Canadian drivers are absolutely nuts. If I so much as pull in front of someone within a kilometer of their speeding vehicle they will fly into an immediate and irrevocable rage. The fact that there is lots of room between them and me when I pull out is not the issue because they have to actually speed up in order to “show me” how unsafe I am.

When I was home in Sept I passed a green Corolla on Hwy 59 out of Winnipeg which is incidentally a double highway. This guy was so enraged that I had dared to pass him that he decided to teach me a lesson. After flashing me the finger he immediately sped up and got on my rear bumper. I thought he was going to hit my wife’s car. The fun part was that it had just rained heavily and while I was watching in my rear view mirror he lost control of his car.

He began to hydro-plane and his new green Corolla started to skid sideways. Since he was still accelerating when he began his slid he actually almost caught us from the rear before he over corrected and, with the poetic justice of slow motion, spun into the muddy ditch. Too bad he did not over turn but instead just ended up backwards deep in the rain soaked ditch. Not that his stupidity would teach him a lesson, but I felt as good as if my mobile police had given him a personal thrashing.

Since the Port Harcourt International airport is closed for repairs we have to now use the Owerri Airport and that would normally mean a two hour bus ride across along the highway from hell. With the security being at red alert and to avoid the highways we now take the helicopter to the airport to catch the Boeing 737 flight to Lagos.

First we take the Chevron Deep Water S76C+ from the Port Harcourt NAF Base to the Owerri Airport.

Captain Haqui got his B737-300 type rating at 57.

In Owerri we are met by the Chevron dispatcher.

CHC Helicopter pilot going on leave.

CHC Captain.

Aero Contractors Co-Pilot.

CHC Global S76C+ in the foreground and Bristow Group Bell 212 in the background.

Aero Contractors Nigeria Boeing 737-300

Aero Contractors Nigeria Dash-8

Once in Lagos I had the job of meeting the new amphib Caravan pilot and helping him sort out the landing and takeoff areas for the new floatplane base in Lekki. Ron has come from Thailand where he worked for Blue Water in Phuket and Coco Seaplane in Koh Somoi.

Chevron’s Boat Captain

Chevron’s amphib C208 Caravan in Lekki

Captain Spiff picked me up in Owerri with the Bell 206 L4 to take me back to Port Harcourt.

Virgin Nigeria’s Airbus in Owerri

I am back in Port Harcourt and getting ready for the weekend.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Anuenki. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.