My First Visit to a Natural Reserve - StemNG Meetup

Finally, all those late night conversations with “The Meet-up Committee Members” of how to pull off a hitch-free meetup, was about to have an acid test. This thought was boggling my mind as I made my way across town to meet up with @real2josh and the others that were stationed at GTbank Ogba waiting for me. During those conversations, we discussed everything, like how the event is going to flow, who will do what and how long they will get to do or say whatever they had to say. The last couple of weeks, we had these conversations in the ‘July Meetup Committee’ channel of the StemNG Discord server between myself, @real2josh @amazonaesh and @funmiakinpelu; and of course under the supervision of our big brothers @gentleshaid and @greenrun.

The buildup to the event has been quite thrilling, first off, all our communication started and ended on the discord server, then we had to take this out of Discord and visit the location where we intended to have the meetup - Lekki Conservation Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, which in hindsight now, was a brilliant idea.

While putting together the draft of the program schedule, what I had in mind for the hangout was an intense conference where there was going to be a plenary session, with Keynote speakers and interviews sessions at various intervals. Such settings will be befitting for the much-anticipated unveiling of the mysterious being @greenrun, who everyone will be delighted to see for the first time. The initial plan was to have a keynote speaker, and then several fire chat sessions, and possibly a skype session with a member of the SteemStem Management team. After which we will heavily engage @gentleshaid, @zest and @greenun across this plenary sessions, I had doubts that the later will be present at the event, and I was right to think so, and he didn't disappoint.

The Venue of the Event - Lekki Conservation Centre

About The LCC

The meetup which held at the Lekki Conservation Centre, Lekki Peninsula, Lagos State Nigeria. The wildlife reserve sits on a 78 hectare of land at it represents Lekki ecosystem and has been preserved for about 30 years. Due to the rapid urbanization of Lagos state, the conservation centre is currently surrounded by an urban environment, tarred roads, modern buildings. The reserve is managed by The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) which is a non-governmental organization on a mission to conserve nature and drive sustainable development in the country.

The ecosystem is populated with monkeys, in fact, monkeys could easily account for 60% of the animals present at the LCC, I spotted a tortoise on my first visit, and also spotted a massive catfish during our tour of the ecosystem. We were informed by the tour guides that a great score of snakes has been spotted at the conservation centre, as well as crocodiles. Some participants claim to have seen a dead croc, and a few birds were spotted as well; lastly, there is a pond that has a school of exotic freshwater fishes.

The First Visit

The initial preparatory visit to the LCC was my first time ever at this nature reserve, in fact it was my first time at any reserve for that matter, although I didn’t go into the park with the others, but I was lucky enough to steal a few shots with some of the residents of the park. The monkeys actually came to me, and the tortoise was just chilling under the shade and I was lucky the fella was in a good mood, he even posed for a picture.

Myself, Josh and Aisha, had to visit the venue of the event ahead of time to make the necessary preparations, we had to know the cost implication of having everyone go through the reserve and also be aware of other things which needed to be anticipated before the day of the meetup. Our findings were satisfactory, with the only concern being that whenever it rains on a given day, the reserve is closed and visitors won’t be allowed to tour the location, and this is due to safety reasons.

We were all set for the 11th July, and on the D-day, we planned on showing up with Nairas, cameras, and an arsenal of prayers in order to manage the rain, should in case it rains.

Meetup Day

Navigating through the congested city of Lagos can be a daunting task, as the commercial hub of Africa filled with about 20 million hustling and bustling souls, congestion is bound to happen, and this usually takes the form of a heavy traffic jam, which is usually intense during rush hours. And this we experienced on our way down to the Lekki Conservation Center on the 11th of July 2018. I joined @real2josh @sogless @thurllarnie and @bookie in a vehicle, and it was the first of meeting the bunch except @real2josh whom we’ve been planning the event together. It was a hearty trip filled with lots of jokes, laughs and plenty Asa music (which I detest btw - don’t ask why)

We arrived at our destination at about 12:10 Pm African Time (which typically is 1 -3 hours late) and the event was slated for 11:00 AM, other members of the community were already seated under the palm shades, it was a windy afternoon, with mild temperatures right for this sort of occasion. I and @real2josh made the necessary arrangements, and not before long everyone was present, and we took pre-meetup pictures, before proceeding to Reserve Park.

I tried to be as creative as I could in taking pictures, I soon got bored of taking pictures of monkeys and wanted something out of the ordinary, snakes, crocodiles, or massive fishes, and probably anything worth pointing my camera at…. It was a bit disappointing. The disappointment didn’t last for long as we had to make the canopy climb, the best part of the day. The 401 m long walk which comprises a total number of 7 bridges with the height of 22.5ft, can easily be the highlight of everyone’s day, acrophobic individuals are advised not to embark on the walk.

The view from the top was stunning, and what is more stunning was to watch scaredy-cats like @djoi cringe as they slowly and carefully make their way across the boards of the canopy walk. It was fun, it really was.

Did Somebody Say meet-up?

Since the emergence of Steemit in Nigeria, the term meetup has been a one-sided affair, where the facilitators just yap and yap about themselves, there is hardly any meaning conversation. And on Wednesday 11th, I was proud to be part of a meetup that had an open and warm conversation with the participant feeling energized knowing they’ve been educative. Meaningful questions were asked, and precise answers were given not only from the facilitator but from the audience as well.

Although I had high hopes of @greenrun and @zest making it for the event, unfortunately, they both couldn’t make it down. @gentleshaid was the star of the day, and we engaged him in an educative Q n A session, where we spoke about the Steem blockchain, the possibility of a StemAfrica tag, cryptocurrency.

Meeting and Interacting with the Community

It turns out my projection of everyone in the StemNG community was accurate except for one person @funmiakinpelu. From our Discord chat, I have always known her to be a silver-tongued witch, but I never expected her to be a little pack of trouble. @Gentleshaid was everything I envisioned him to be, a soft-spoken tall dude, with an oversized brain. @djoi was a typical mum, warm and she laughs at my boring jokes, she has a great sense of humour, same as @amazonaesh. And this bunch (@sogless @thurllarnie @temitayo-pelumi @real2josh @herbayomi @rharphelle @adetola @mrbreeziewrites) are your typical pack of Yoruba demons, that turn to Werewolves at a full moon... lol they made every second of the meetup fun!

And our big daddies of the day were @emperorhazzy @samest @dandyme @synick, @dandyme is an awesome dude, I had a lengthy conversation with him, I hope I’ve found a new friend in you.I am glad @eurogee found his bag in the end, because he showed up looking bright for the event, not sure if it was his complexion or his outfit, my only saving grace was that I came with my photochromic glasses.

References

Wikipedia - Lekki Conservation Centre