Apapa - the container port of Lagos

Apapa room service

Apapa is hosting the container port of Lagos. Actually there is now a second one on Tincan Island. Many people fear the area. This is where thousands of trucks are coming to load or unload goods in the container port. Some say it is infested with robbers and criminals especially in the areas where trucks are lining up, motionless in the wait to proceed to the port. Thankfully the queue of trucks, which is several kilometers long is limited to a single lane of the two that the road has. This means that other vehicles can pass on the other lane.
Police is enforcing the separation but sometimes the weather decides to change the course of things. The area of the port entrance is potholed "very well" and when the potholes are full of rain water navigation becomes much slower. Everyone painfully horns its way through the single free lane. One can stay for hours thus becoming an easy prey for robbers who can simply break a window and steal whatever they can from the vehicle that is stuck between the one in front and the one behind especially on the bridges leading to Apapa.
We did not face that risk, the sun was just surfacing after a heavy rain.

sweet container

Coming to Apapa on a bridge offers a view on the surrounding roofs of corrugated iron like a sea patchwork of colors eaten away by roast and mixed with numerous warehouses. The port generates a lot of activity and trade. Apapa used to be the business district before the 70s when Lagos Island became the financial district. It used to be inhabited by a lot of foreigners, Lebanese, Indians etc... all trade businesses were established there and the place was very pleasant say those who lived there.

skyway to the port

Today though, the area has sunken down into disaffection and is regarded pretty much as hell in Lagos because of unpredictable traffic, bad roads and a rough section of the population.

beware, muddy feet

of houses and tanks

home delivery

fishy roundabout

We, then, proceeded on the road towards Mile 2, embarking on an empty bridge, one guy told us, don't go, the road is closed, another one, gauging our car, said you can pass. Both could have been right. As we ventured further we landed on a muddy road with amazing potholes, one the size of our car, the other filled with large stone blocks. The driver who used to live here when he was younger reckoned the road was as smooth as honey back then but now it is rather like a war zone. There are occasionally stories of containers falling on cars from the back of trucks. "the area is overpopulated with trucks" since the train is no longer used as much as before. The place is full of fumes from the engines of ancient trucks, rugged by a tough environment.

this place used to be as smooth as honey

life next to the port

the container port