My Adventures

It was like a dream come true when we finally set out to visit Oke-Iho (literarily the hollowed mountain), a small town located close to the borders of Nigeria and the republic of Benin. Being a secluded and beautiful mountainous area, it stood as a tourist attraction point for lovers of adventure.

It was late October, and being my first travelling on a long journey as such, I had been overly excited. We packed our bags the previous night ahead of the journey, making sure to include enough food to last us for the two-day adventure time. While we anticipated a time of fun, one thing our informant failed to tell us was that we were gonna be disconnected. No calls, no tweeting, no Facebook updates. If I knew, probably I'd have given my mum a second hug as I bade her goodbye.

Three hours into the journey, I had begun to click away as awesome sights greeted us, captured by the aesthetic gratification of the overlying plains. Colourful in itself, the flowers and shrubs overlapped each other in a competition for dominance and the mountains which overlooked proudly from behind had me thrilled that my hand hurt from excessive clicks on the camera we took along.

After about four hours, we finally found ourselves in the town that had made the map our closest friend some days back. The natives were particularly welcoming, and our guide turned out to be an agile young man in his mid-thirties who obviously knew the town like his palm.

Of the tall mountains which graced the area, we found one particularly fascinating because of the sentimental values it held for the natives. It stood several hundred feet tall, with a smooth dark-coloured surface and a rounded top which had etched on its sides the name of the town. A walk around revealed dried bulrushes which served to conceal a cavern from view. According to our guide, the place served as a place of refuge for locals during intertribal wars from invading enemies and has since been marked a sacred place.

Curiously, we took a peek in to discover what it held and we were taken by surprise. Dry bones and dead twigs littered its insides and sight of stalactites almost made me throw up my lunch.

A day after, we drove back home, but not until my 16gb SD card beeped full. It was a really thrilling experience.