Oshogbo to Idanre: beautiful hills

I woke up and it was raining. I went down to the hotel bar and asked for coffee. They had nescafé. N400, at least they gave me two sachets.

I took okada to where transport to Akure was supposed to be. Akure is a capital of Ondo state. For N100 I was dropped on a street, where a bus was standing. I sat in the bus and I found out it wasn’t going to Akure but to a motor park on the outskirts of Oshogbo. And the bus was… free of charge. Now, free things don’t happen easily on this trip and in Nigeria of all places even less often so but even here from time to time I’m taken by surprise. The chief of the bus told me they want to “encourage more passengers” this way. Okay. To me, they could have charged easily N50-100 and people would still go, the ride was a good 15 minutes on bad roads.

In the the motor park we waited a bit to fill the car. I managed to eat good rice and beans with egg for N200, a woman was selling the food from big plastic pots.The trip to Akure was around 2 hours, the road wasn’t too bad, checkpoints not very many. I was sitting in front row, a young woman between me and a driver, she was also going to Idanre, I followed her and it was a bit complicated way.

Idanre lies among the rocky hills. I once saw them on someone’s post on Google+ and they looked beautiful and I always wanted to visit. Moreover, no guidebook mentions them so it makes it even more exciting this way.

In Akure we took a shared taxi, N50, to a junction, where we took okada, N100, to Idanre motor park, the woman was bargaining for me. Then we sat into another shared taxi, N300 and 40mins later we arrived in Idanre. On our way we passed a hotel, Rock Valley, which was in a bit of middle of nowhere and the people in the car even asked me if that’s where I wanted to lodge but I didn’t.

The rocks are mighty and they are all around the town. I was sitting in front seat, there were 3 of us there with the driver. A man next to me said he’d take me to a hotel. But when we stepped out of the car and we got surrounded by okada drivers he started saying something about me first having to visit the owa – the king of Idanre – to pay my respects so that I can move around freely. With all my bags? Then the question of the hotel, I did ask where they wanted to take me and how much all that would be, an okada driver said he’d take me somewhere not too expensive, the man from the car said he’d follow but in the end he didn’t follow us.

For N200 the okada dumped me in the middle of town, in market area at a disused petrol station, a building behind was supposed to have rooms, there was no sign. I entered a dark staircase, on first floor there was a bar, full of people and beers. Yes they do have rooms, I was taken to the second floor and shown to a dark room, there was no light. The room had a fan only. The price N5000.

On Jumia Travel I saw one hotel in Idanre, Hilltop Hotel, that had a N5000 room with AC. So I told the people showing me the room I could pay N4000 for this. They said no. So I left the building and sat down and tried to locate the Hilltop Hotel but they followed me and agreed to my price. The gen would be on in the evening. Fine.

Across the street a woman had food. I had surprisingly good eba – a dough made of powdered cassava, I normally don’t eat it much, it has not much taste but there was no pounded yam – and egusi and two pieces of beef meat (they pieces are normally small) for N300.

I asked around for where I can find someone to take me up in the hills, I knew there was somewhere. A few weeks ago I saw someone’s post on IG from Idanre. Noone knew.

I walked around a bit, everyone of course staring at me, but in a friendly way, it was more of a surprise to see an oyinbo walking around, alone. People greeted me, I greeted people.

I stopped an okada and asked for where I can take an “excursion”. For N100 he took me to the place. There there were men sitting around. Entry price was N1000, guide was free but expected to be tipped according to my satisfaction with his job. The okada driver asked for a photo with me, I bought a bottle of water 0.75l for N100 and me and my guide – Christian name Paul, Yoruba name Bamigbaye meaning “let’s carry the world” – left. Just at the bottom of the 660-step stairway leading up a local tourist was going down. He asked for a photo with me.

I started my GPS tracker to see how far and high we were going. We were at 300m above sea level, Paul said we were going until 3,5000feet. That’s an altitude of over 1000 meters. I did ask how long the trip is the men said it all depends on how fast I moved and I did ask if we were going to be back before dark, it was 3pm and they said yes we’d be back at 5pm. And now 700m climb?

Soon we met the first resting point, first our of five. Paul said that after the 660 steps we will enter “jungle”. The stairway was steep, I was losing my breath a bit but the resting points soon were over, all 5 and we barely reached 400 meters altitude.

I think Paul, and he was a very good guide, talking well and very informatively, talked about the highest point of the rocks, as we barely touched 450m and that was it. The top.

Very green and pretty, the view was beautiful. On top of the rock we climbed on was a chalet, used sometimes by church vigils and I think by local boys to drink in it.

But we walked on to see the remnants of a village. People lived among the rocks until about 100 years ago. We saw a school.

There are two rivers beginning in the hills, the first one we saw was Thunder River. Said to heal health problems, we drank from it, it tasted slightly mineral. Paul said that we must say we are satisfied after drinking water from it. In the past warriors who drank but did not say so, would not return from war.

We walked on between rocks and green vegetation to where the court, a place to bury the kings and a marketplace stand. Paul pointed to a piece of ground, flat and unremarkable where apparently until today kings are buried. When I asked him how they are buried, were they cremated or put under in coffins he only answered “those people they have their ways but the one chosen to be the new kings is seen eating flesh of the deceased king.” Okay. How is the new king chosen? An oracle points to the new king. And I even saw an advert for an “oracle reader” on the road to Idanre. The new king takes care of the wives of the deceased, the current one has 6 wives.

There was a green patch of grass, on which noone is allowed to stand except the king who once a year comes and dances on it. The king’s golden crown, initially very small.on his head, then grows and until it reaches his shoulders (not sure how) the king is dancing and then the crown gets back to its former size.

We walked on to the second river. We passed houses of different chiefs. The river Arun was supposed to heal life problems. Paul said I should not leave before I pour it on my body. So I did pour it over my head. Life problems, go away!

We saw a man, apparently a priest, getting ready for a festival that takes place in August. Paul said the priest would pray for me if we go to meet him and Paul said “I will not say you should not give the priest money” but that I should remember I have to give “substantial” tip to Paul.

Paul said he was not employed by anyone and that he was only living off what tourists gave to him. He lives in Akure and says he goes up with a tourist once a day.

So we met the priest. In fact there were two and Paul also called then chiefs. Chiefs also have their titles, these two were chief Lorin and chief Odofi. They stayed in a hut in which no clothes are allowed and they even invited me in. One of them said a 5 second prayer, I gave him N200 when the other priest started asking for his own. Well, I was not ready for two priests and I also thought they could share. I also did not technically gave them the money, I had to put the bill on the rock they were standing on and they would pick it up from there. They also brought out a dead alligator which was going to be their meal.

We went on to the ancient palace. Inside there were some sculpted columns representing warriors and farmers and plenty of cow skulls. Traditionally every year a cow skull was placed in a corner of the palace to count the number of years a current king is ruling. Now, as Paul said, “we have computers” so we no longer count the skulls but they still place them in that place.

After the palace Paul said we will “do hiking.” The hiking was climbing huge boulders without much of a support. Paul did it barefoot, I relied on my sandals. I managed. But at the end of the trip when we were down, as I was standing on the stairway, my thighs were trembling. Three days later I still feel the “hiking” in my thighs.

Going down we met three local men going up the staircase for some drinking – they had a bag full of small bottles of liqueurs. They shared a can with me and they didn’t ask for a photo, just took it when they saw me.

I gave Paul N3500, it was very nice 2 hours.

Back on the streets of Idanre I bought a bottle of water and another charging cable, for N300. It was USB on both sides and I have an extension from USB to USB-C but it doesn’t work that way.

I walked around for a bit then sat in a bar. I ordered a bottle of 33 but I didn’t drink much of it, a fly managed to land in the bottle. I ordered another one, some people next to me chatted with me. A man asked a woman working in the bar to go and withdraw money from ATM for him, his pin was 1234. The ATM didn’t work but there are men on the street with card machines, where you can pay them with card and in return they give you cash. To get N4000 out you pay them N200.

It got dark and also crowded. People arrived, everyone was greeting me. One man, named Konko, who apparently worked in Egypt but wanted to come to Poland, bought me a beer to “welcome me”. Then a woman asked me if I want snail. Of course I do! But I said maybe a bit later. But it turned out it was Konko who was buying the snail for me. Can’t refuse that. Snail is one of my favourite foods in Nigeria. And this one was delicious, with onions, peppers and tomatoes. It was so nice that I wanted to order one more for myself. It was N700. Delicious again.

I walked back towards hotel, it was pitch dark but along the streets there were many drinking joints. I sat in one where the woman was serving fresh fish pepper soup. I love pepper soup, it’s fiery, I love fresh fish, it is catfish possibly boiled, soft and tender. N300.

I took a Guinness in one more drinking joint and across from the hotel I finished it all with eba and egusi, this time for N200.The hotel was dark and empty, I think they only started the generator when I came in.