pshome Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 - 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... dougiefourspeed, Conrad D. Conelrad, Tadhg Tiogar and 34 others 37 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 Much second hand imported stuff from UK there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share Posted August 19, 2018 Much second hand imported stuff from UK there?None, people won't buy cars with the steering wheel on the wrong side. Junkman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 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. Skizzer, mercrocker, Lacquer Peel and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davocano Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 I love seeing photos from countries that are nowhere near the tourist trail. chaseracer, Magnificent Rustbucket and pshome 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 Like England? Talbot, DSdriver and pshome 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSdriver Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 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 and Junkman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share Posted August 19, 2018 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. Junkman, DSdriver, Magnificent Rustbucket and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tadhg Tiogar Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 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.... Shep Shepherd, Lacquer Peel, Junkman and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 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 millionSeptics - 3.45 million, but they spent the most moneyKrauts - 3.34 millionBog Trotters - 2.89 million, so each and every one of themManuels - 2.39 millionClogs - 2.06 millionWops - 1.99 millionCar Thieves - 1.92 million and they all stayedWaffle Boys - 1.04 millionConvicts - 0.98 million Okay, back to Peugeots in their natural habitat, please. DSdriver, Magnificent Rustbucket, Scruffy Bodger and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tadhg Tiogar Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 Aside from joking, the Ununited Kingdom ....Untied Kingdom, surely? Junkman, Magnificent Rustbucket and warninglight 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 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 bolognasal spray, Junkman, Cleon-Fonte and 14 others 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 You are driving the wrong hire car! pshome, Magnificent Rustbucket, chaseracer and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 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. catsinthewelder, davocano, Junkman and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairnet Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 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 pshome 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Split_Pin Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Renault G series, excellent spots, extinct in the UK for many years. pshome 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timolloyd Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 This is my new favourite thread pshome 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 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. pshome 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan_Green Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 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: Scruffy Bodger and pshome 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 21, 2018 Author Share Posted August 21, 2018 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 55 Quid.What would petrol cost at a station? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 21, 2018 Author Share Posted August 21, 2018 575/L at the station, 325 in the bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 21, 2018 Author Share Posted August 21, 2018 ... which translates to this lady cheated me by at least 20 L Junkman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 And entirely btw, is that a metre gauge railway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshome Posted August 21, 2018 Author Share Posted August 21, 2018 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 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. pshome 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cort1977 Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 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. Sigmund Fraud, CGSB, Junkman and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tadhg Tiogar Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 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? pshome and Junkman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkman Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 Rue de pecheurs Junkdaughter #2 sez them isn't fish. cort1977 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cort1977 Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 She'll go far that girl. Junkman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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