Mountain Climbing in Nigeria? Read All About Onyinye’s Awesome Experience

By Nnedolisa Onyinye

 

 

It’s not every time I get to go on adventures, especially when you consider how hard it is to step away from the madness that is Lagos. But I finally took a break and went to see Idanre hills in Ondo state, and you have to forgive me cos I’m super-hyped about the experience, which is why I’m sharing it obviously.

So here goes… I woke up that morning feeling happy, thrilled, annoyed (grudge from previous night), excited, exhilarated, pumped etc I was going to climb a mountain for the first time so, why not? I was up at 5am although we weren’t going to set out till 12noon. I showered, brushed, wore my hiking boots, leggings, polo, shades, took my selfie stick cause what’s an adventure without proper self-absorbed documentation ehn?

While my friend drove, we made several stops to buy food and snacks; biscuits, juice, water, kilishi, fruits etc, cos God forbid we get to our destination and there’s no food. The horror!

Once we arrived and paid our gate fee, we were attached to tour guide who took us through the history of Idanre and its people. Once I attached my phone to my tripod, I was ready to soak it all in, and bombard my Instagram timeline with Insta videos. Don’t judge me, I never got a hang of Snapchat anyway.

About 100 steps in, I asked the tour guide “how many steps do we have left?” , he goes “550 steps” and I go but I immediately say to myself “Madam fitness enthusiast, you can do this” . So I pushed on, I needed to prove to myself that I could do it.

 

The air was fresh and the atmosphere was beautiful with a lot of trees , free flowing water , lots of huge mountains and the only animals I saw were goats; But I picked up some interesting facts on the way.

•  Idanre people are mountain dwellers who only came down on special occasions.
• And when they did, the journey took days to plan and accomplish cos there were no steps at that time.
• Several buildings from that era are still standing, classrooms, court house, houses etc. Most  were made out of clay.

• In order to marry a wife, Idanre men were required to lift a stone/rock. So weak or feeble men didn’t stand a chance.

Interesting sturvs yeah?

Anyways, I made it to the top… Yaay! And since I’m scared of heights and I’m not ready to die, I stopped, dropped and did some yoga.

LOL… I can hear you humming Janelle Monae’s ‘Yoga’.

Going down the mountain was a lot easier, took about 20minutes. Very anti-climatic something.

All in all, it was an amazing experience, I finally exposed myself to something different and I got to work out at the same time. Talk about a two-for-one bundle..

I hear they have a tourist attraction event at the end of every year, Will you be my date?