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Weekend in Akwanga

Written by kevin

This weekend a group of us headed off to visit Jenny, Karin and Sue in Akwanga. They’re all working at the college of education there, trying to improve the standard of teacher training.

The main activity was a trip to the waterfalls at Farin Ruwa:
The waterfall at Farin Ruwa, near Akwanga

Six of us left Abuja early on Saturday, squeezed into a car at Kabo motor park. Although we had to pay for two empty seats this actually just meant that there were only two people in the back row and nobody had to sit on the gearstick!

At Akwanga we chartered a minibus (picture below) and managed to fit all twelve of us into it. Farin Ruwa isn’t very far from Akwanga but the road is terrible, unsurfaced and badly rutted. At several points we had to get out and occasionally push the minibus on especially slippery slopes.

Loading everyone into the minibus (as well as the people in the picture the driver and I still had to get in)

After a couple of hours we reached the car park and walked up the path to the waterfall itself. The path featured inspirational signs and lots of benches (picture below left) and led down to the foot of the falls (below right).

Path to the waterfall, with signs and benches Farin Ruwa waterfall, from the foot of the falls

Jenny, Karin and Sue had made a lovely picnic, including some things that are tricky to get in Nigeria such as proper bread (Nigerian bread is very sweet) and cheese. After the picnic we paddled and wandered around the rocks. We were surprised at how much water there was, given that it’s still dry season. The waterfall must be really impressive in the rainy season.

The caretaker for the site appeared and took the more energetic members of the group on a walk up to a pool slightly higher up the falls. He also insisted that we all sign the visitors’ book. It seems Nasarawa state government is trying to promote the waterfalls as a tourist attraction.

On the way back down to the bus we spotted the enormous cricket (or whatever it is) in the picture below, it was about as thick as an adult’s thumb.

Giant grasshopper-like insect

In the evening we had curry and beers and watched a DVD. We were all glad that the electricity stayed on all night, without the fans it would have been pretty unbearable in the house!

The trip back yesterday was fairly uneventful, apart from a massive argument between our taxi’s driver and two of the passengers over whether Nyanya motor park actually counts as Abuja.

So overall a fun weekend, it’s nice to get out of the city and see some other parts of Nigeria.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2005 at 10:30 and is filed under General.

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