.. and they never die, spots from the Peugeot kingdom

[pshome]

- when everybody in the boarding area has three large bags and seems to have forgotten to check in his luggage...

- when after about 7 hours in one of these modern flying machines, you think "why always me?"

 

 

... then you have arrived in Peugeot Kingdom! Welocme to Cotonou!

 

Proper means of transportation has been assuered to accomodate the family of seven: V8 power and no need to waste time thinking about which gear to select.

 

 

Speedo is in miles and last worked at 198456, who needs to know the speed anyway? Various red lights greet you when you turn they key and impress by remaining on throughout the voyage. A good indication that this car will be as reliable as it can possibly get. The important things are in good shape: Aircon works and mirror glas won't be stolen.

 

Somebody recently claimed the old Pugs in West Africa are a thing of the past, modern shite took over. True? Let's have a look.

City taxis are now 99%  rather new cars, but its not Asian crap that takes you around the city if you don't want to use the Zem's. Dusters everywhere, Vive la France Roumanie!

 

 

You don't know what a Zem is? Zem stands for 'Zemidjan' which in Fon means as much as "Take me there quickly", They indeed do if you dare taking a ride with them.

Here is one of these folks filling up at a gas station.

 

 

They take care of at least 90% of the public transport needs. Cheap service, gets you directly where you want and there is always one around when needed.

 

That gas station looks funny? Have a look at two proper ones:

 

 

 

Notice something? Yep, no cars! Why, out of fuel? Not the reason, there is plenty; however at the station fuel costs a lot more than the black market stuff that comes across from Nigeria and is for sale everywhere.

 

So where are the old pugs? Are they still around?

Of course they are, plenty of them!

 

There was already a nice 404 on that Duster picture. The 504's and 505 just refuse to die. Some of the 404's are now getting quite nicely restaurated. The J's all look totally fucked, but do their duty day after day, propably for another 50 years to come, at least. More to come...

[sierraman]

Much second hand imported stuff from UK there?

[pshome]

Much second hand imported stuff from UK there?

None, people won't buy cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side.

[Junkman]

Never mind a Pug, I see one every day.
But look at that Berliet!
 

 
My guess is it's a GBH 280.
 
Coincidentllay I just saw a docu made by the German telly about Benin, which is Africa's turntable for imported Autoshite from Europe, especially German TÜV failures. Due to having the lowest import duties of the African Union, most cars are imported to this country and the rest of Africa goes there chod shopping. To my utter surprise the docu ended with the conclusion that if all those cars are good enough to happily live on in Africa for many years, then maybe the TÜV standards are too strict. I thought I would never hear anything this controversial from a public German telly corporation.

[davocano]

I love seeing photos from countries that are nowhere near the tourist trail.

[Junkman]

Like England?

[DSdriver]

Brilliant, thanks for sharing! Looking forward to the updates

 

I love the ballpit balls in lacy car bra effect going on here. Purely decorative? Can't imagine what purpose they would serve?

 

Marine navigation lights, perhaps it is amphibian

[pshome]

Brilliant, thanks for sharing! Looking forward to the updates

 

I love the ballpit balls in lacy car bra effect going on here. Purely decorative? Can't imagine what purpose they would serve?

 

Green, yellow and red are the national colours. World cup was not so long ago, so I assume that is to make the bus irresistible to football fans.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Like England?

Arguably "we" are only tourists in "our" country. We're just there to make the place look busy for the political honchos and the oligarchs....

[Junkman]

Aside from joking, the Ununited Kingdom is the world's 6th biggest tourist destination, with over 37 million bloody foreigners visiting annually and counting.
Tourism constitutes over 10% of the GDP and 11% of the British workforce is directly employed by the tourist industry.
 
The top 10 peoples having visited the UK in 2016:

Frogs - 4.06 million
Septics - 3.45 million, but they spent the most money
Krauts - 3.34 million
Bog Trotters - 2.89 million, so each and every one of them
Manuels - 2.39 million
Clogs - 2.06 million
Wops - 1.99 million
Car Thieves - 1.92 million and they all stayed
Waffle Boys - 1.04 million
Convicts - 0.98 million

 

 

Okay, back to Peugeots in their natural habitat, please.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Aside from joking, the Ununited Kingdom ....

Untied Kingdom, surely?

[pshome]

Have some trucks as requested:

 

 

 

 

motos rule the roads

 

 

 

here they could get their oily mix, but they prefer the bottles.

 

 

no lack of lions

 

 

 

 

Still moaning about driving standards in the UK? Come here and drive for a week, and you will then praise the UK drivers, all of them!

 

 

... more to come

[Junkman]

You are driving the wrong hire car!

 

[pshome]

today i did a bit more truck spotting, i know nothing about shite above 5 tons, hope some of the spots are good ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a 405 was spotted, the only one, they are obvioulsy not made for here...

 

 

nor are Volkswagens

 

 

Then it started to rain, which means roads become rivers...

 

 

only 04's (and maybe old V8 Landcruisers) survive, everything else gets stuck inthe mud.

 

[hairnet]

whats the diff in petrol between the bottles and the stations

 

how long would you be there if you filled the cruiser from a bottle

[Split_Pin]

Renault G series, excellent spots, extinct in the UK for many years.

[timolloyd]

This is my new favourite thread

[Junkman]

a 405 was spotted, the only one, they are obvioulsy not made for here...

That's because they are made for here and Carlo and I will soon dictate the price.

I do like that gent's speaker grille solution though, it shows he is a true enthusiast.

[Alan_Green]

Great stuff.  More please. Exactly my type of holiday.  Chocked up many a mile on various coastal recreational road trips between Abidjan and Lagos when I lived in Accra.  If you're into this stuff you'll enjoy this video:

[pshome]

whats the diff in petrol between the bottles and the stations

 

how long would you be there if you filled the cruiser from a bottle

I did yesterday. Can't tell you how long it took because i was happily chatting along with the pretty lady that sold the fuel about this and that. Time doesn't matter in this part of the world. What i do know is that i gave her 40000 colonial francs for making my needle fuel gauge move to the top.

 

[Junkman]

55 Quid.

What would petrol cost at a station?

[pshome]

575/L at the station, 325 in the bottle.

[pshome]

... which translates to this lady cheated me by at least 20 L

[Junkman]

And entirely btw, is that a metre gauge railway?

[pshome]

Yes, it's the Cotonou Parakou line. I don't know what the current oprrational state is, I will investigate. The Bi-national (Benin and Niger) rail company OCBN was dissolved a few years ago and replaced by "Benin rail". They started to extend the tracks north towards Niamey

(Which was the plan since the beginnings in the 1920's) which is almost completed. Existing track was to be redone, obviously did not happen. Then there was some sort of scandal about who owns what and it all came to an halt.

[Junkman]

Metre gauge is just so colonial French.

 

Depending on what the neighbouring countries use, wouldn't it have been wise to upgrade to standard gauge?

I mean, in essence they have to rebuild the entire line anyway, but it looks like the entire AfricaRail project is on metre gauge.

[cort1977]

Seeing as there is some interest, here are a couple of pics my mate took in 2001.

 

 

40 series

 

 

Cotonou

 

 

Rue de pecheurs

 

 

Crossing the Niger river to go up to Djenne.

 

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Metre gauge is just so colonial French....

Not really, the British used it in Malaya / Singapore, and Austria, Spain and Switzerland are very big users.

 

….. there was some sort of scandal about who owns what and it all came to an halt.

Haven't the Chinese moved in yet?

[Junkman]

Rue de pecheurs

 

Junkdaughter #2 sez them isn't fish.

[cort1977]

She'll go far that girl.