It’s that time of the year when we celebrate Jesus dying and resurrecting to save us from our sins. Even though the calculation no vibe for my ear sha cause if he died on Friday and was raised on Sunday, three days never complete🤔 .
But the purpose is to remind us that Christ died to save us, and he also gave me two days of rest. Friday and Monday, isn’t that divine? Lol!
I love public holidays, like those things are the best. They are like soothing balms to aching joints. Cold refreshing water to parched 👅 tongues 🤣. You get the idea.
Public holidays are precious gifts, and I am grateful for them.
This Easter, I decided to celebrate my Lord and Master Jesu Christi Oluwa wa by visiting the Ado Awaye Suspended Lake in Oyo State.
Before the holiday, I had googled, done my research and was pumped to go. Easter was the perfect opportunity. I would be able to take the 5-hour trip from my city to Ibadan, in Oyo State, on Friday. Then, I would see the Lake on Saturday and return to the ancient city on Sunday.
I had asked a few friends to come along as I didn’t want to go alone, but the logistics we needed to make the trip weren’t jiving as we were in different locations. Then boom, I asked Ik who was in Ibadan, and not only was he willing to follow me, he would accommodate me in his mansion🤑.
I call it a mansion cause the young man is chopping the life of his head. I told him I would take breaks to just come chill in Ibadan so I can be pampered. He took care of accommodation so I didn’t need to spend money on hotel bills and arranged a ride. The ride picked us up from the house, took us to the foot of the mountain, waited for us and dropped us back home. It was VIP something – AC car, tinted 😋, na only champagne no dey the motor. Well, we paid VIP price too sha😁, but it made the trip more comfortable as it took us over an hour to get to Ado Awoye from Ibadan.
Another friend of mine, whose name is also Ik, happened to be in Ibadan at the time, so I asked him to join us. The more, the merrier.
I left my city on Friday morning 🌄 feeling pumped for the adventure ahead. My swim buddy, Jude, was gracious enough to drop me off at the park.
The Sienna I entered packed up barely 20 minutes into the trip. I thank God the vehicle didn’t do that in the middle of nowhere. Better in town than inside the bush. We switched vehicles.
This new vehicle had one passenger already, so guess who was squeezed😔? Me. Well, not just me, rather than three passengers on a seat, we had to be four on the seat.
No wahala, na small thing, we go soon reach Ibadan, or so I thought.
Immediately after Ore, something pierced the tyre which, became flat almost immediately. The driver did not have a spare, so he had to take out the bad tyre and hitch a ride to find a vulcaniser. Having waited for an hour, the driver was nowhere in sight and none of us had his number😆. Wahala be like bicycle!
I stepped out of the vehicle to stand along the road. In hindsight, maybe I should have stayed in the vehicle. but I thought since we weren’t moving, the vehicle would be hot and it would be better to be out in the open. I was wrong. The 🌞 sun beat me mercilessly and I kept sweating profusely. When I was tired of staying on my feet, I retired to the vehicle but the damage from the heat had already been done. My stomach wasn’t having it. I was like oh God! This can’t be happening to me. We just left Ore where there were toilets, I hadn’t eaten all day and I didn’t eat anything that upsets me the day before.
I spoke to the stomach but it wasn’t listening to me. When I realised I was in trouble, I went to my bag, thank God I had tissue, took it and walked off into the sunset🤣, more like into the sunshine. Mo wo Igbo lo o. I entered the bush. I didn’t even tell any of the passengers where I was headed, I just walked away. There was the fear of getting kidnapped in the bush, or being spotted😱.
After moments of trying to pick a good spot and still forming, nature said my dear it is now or now and I obeyed. I felt much better when I was done but felt bad for desecrating the poor bush. The bush understands. I couldn’t believe I had just gone in the bush. A whole fine girl like me😝. At this point, I couldn’t wait to get to Ibadan.
My stomach rumbled throughout the trip each bump was torture.
When I got to Ibadan, Bisola(my NYSC gist partner) picked me up from the motor park. My stomach stopped heaving after a cold shower, and I didn’t need to use the restroom. So na heat do me this strong thing! We went to the market where I bought a basket of mangoes, then we ate amala at Amala Skye (Ose Olorun Food Canteen) and she dropped me off at Ik’s place.
D-Day
The next day before we set out to Ado Awaye Suspended Lake, I took two pills of Loperamide. I no wan desecrate mountain🤣 and I wanted to have fun biko, didn’t want to worry about my stomach.
We arrived at Ado Awaye safely. Got to the base of the mountain, paid a gate fee of 1k per person and the tour guide(Ridwan) cost 3k. Don’t know if it was because we were three.
The climb up the mountain ⛰ took my breath away – literally. I had barely gone up 30 flights of stairs and needed to stop twice.
It felt like my chest was about to explode. Ik said this was due to the rapid change in altitude as the mountain climb was steep.
Our guide allowed us to stop as many times as we needed to. He gave us sticks which helped as something to lean on and kinda like a third leg.
I felt better as we climbed higher, guess my body got used to it. The instructor was kind and told us all the stories associated with the mountain, how their forefathers met it there, and how people come up to pray to their gods.
There were also these holes on the mountaintop that looked liked like footprints. Ridwan called it Ese awon Agba(footprints of the gods).
Ridwan said he didn’t know the depth of the lake when we asked. He said they had connected 12 bamboo sticks once to try to get to the bottom of the lake but the sticks just went in and never hit bottom. The only woman to have gone in, drowned herself because she couldn’t have kids. So it is called Iyake Lake (crying woman) cause the woman cried cause of her barrenness and went into the lake, never to return.
The lake doesn’t dry up but during the rainy season it is blue. I visited during the dry season so it was green.
The view was breathtaking, although the climb is not for the fainthearted. Dress comfortably, take a bottle of water and have fun.
My tour guide speaks English so just in case you don’t wanna go because you feel we would shove Yoruba down your throat.
Here you go – Ridwan 09162247624
You are welcome
The trip back down was not as stressful as the trip up but I felt it was more dangerous. Or maybe I was just tired and my knees and ankles weren’t having it no more. I slipped and almost sprained my ankle but thanks to my 3rd leg – Mr stick, I was as good as new.
In all, it was an exciting trip. We got down from the mountain happy yet exhausted.
I bought palm wine on my out of town but didn’t enjoy it. Either it wasn’t fresh or had been diluted.
The town is quiet and peaceful. Ridwan said there are monkeys on the mountaintop, but we didn’t see any. We saw goats🐐 .
The next day I felt like I had been run over by a bus🙁. Mountain climbing is not your mate, but I had to say goodbye to the quiet Ibadan.
The trip back to my ancient city was uneventful and peaceful✌.
Voila ici 
Leave a comment