"But, what about armed robbers?"

I asked this question in a futile attempt to reassure myself that, despite being heavily delayed, our journey to Lagos would still be safe. Warnings of the dangers of traveling at night, after dark, especially at Xmas, were resounding around my head. "Oh, we're not expecting to see anything like that" was the reply. Not exactly inspired in confidence it was time to weigh up the alternatives.

A) Try again tomorrow, Xmas Eve, taking a bush-taxi, arriving after dark and having to negotiate ourselves around Lagos and our way to the beach.
B) Xmas for 2 in Abuja, knowing our friends are either on the beach or climbing mountains in Cameroon.

er, no.

Okay, so nowt for it than to board the bus leaving Abuja at 4pm instead of 11am. Expecting a journey from hell, I tried to distract myself with a Times Crossword. Did rather well actually, maybe fear focuses the mind. It gets properly dark here by 7pm. In my mind any journey after 7pm brought with it impending doom, when everyone on the road would be out to get us. My first time check with Chris our friendly driver informed me that we would arrive shortly after 9pm. During a comfort break at 7.30pm he dutifully told me we had about 3.5hours to go. Thank God for the most comfy chairs I have ever sat on in a bus, lolling me into a fitful doze, for we finally rolled into Lagos at 2am. But WE ARRIVED! And in two fully functioning pieces! Hurrah!

At our friends house a Chief's party was in full swing. Unfortunately the guest King (seriously) had already gone to bed, but there was hot food and a shower waiting to revive our travel weary heads. After greeting the Chief, pretending to dance, and a few 'I'M ALIVE' texts later, we were ready for bed. Phewf...