Tourmates Visit The SouthWestern Nigerian Plains and Waters of Ikogosi Warm Spring, Erin 'Jesha and Arinta Falls.

Hey friends called steeminas, I trust you enjoyed the appetizer I dropped in my last post anticipating this post. I know you did with the feedback I got from it especially for the beautiful photography.

^{WAKANDA FOREVER}

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Today, i bring you a run down of how this 2 days tour of a southwestern state in Nigeria went. Ekiti state is one of those states blessed with a number of mountains and hills. This in turn resulted in a number of water bodies which exists naturally in the form of water falls since most of these natural features are sourced from hills and rocks.If was a mix of an appreciation of nature and fun at the end as you would see as you read below.

I am a member of a group of friends who are tourists/adventurers (called Tourmates) who joy in touring together with a "tour mistress" who run the tour arrangements. So, on saturday, 27th April, we all embarked on the over 5 hours road trip to Ekiti State, Nigeria.Our first stop is at the Erin 'Jesha fall a.k.a Olumirin located in Osun state (a border town to Ekiti which is about 1 hour apart)

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^{We branched at a filling station to get some gas and ease ourselves and jt all happens it was another time for a photoshoot... lol and @olisaemeka_ was cool to take a shot of us.}

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The over 4 hours drive was interesting as I chose to re watch the movie "Beast of no nation" at a point on the journey, coupled with periodic gists amongst fellow tour mates. This is actually the part I enjoy the most in the whole arrangement and makes everything different from when you are on a solo travel.

Here we are in Ekiti state

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Seeing these plains and then the houses, you're sure you're in Ekiti State already. The area is refreshingly blessed with high plains and as I said, some reasons for the water falls. Consequently, some religious organisations use locations like this as their "Jerusalem". When you hear of "Ori Oke" (The Mountain top where prayers are offered) by a number of religious folks, this is where a number of them are located. One of the most notable is that of the founder of the Christ Apostolic Church movement in Nigeria. (Joseph Ayo Babalola) in which apart from the spiritual attachment to the mountain, there is also a spiritual attachment to the waters.

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Okay, enough of the digression...lol.

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Now, here we are beautiful people.

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You see the tall hill behind us? We're ready for some fun hiking, so, let's go people

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^{Looks like some people are exited to be here already...haha}

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Oh yes, after all the picturial "shenanigans", it was time for us to face our mission...lol. As we moved upand were ready to take the steps, we were delightfully welcomes by men beating the local talking drum, gangan. It was iinterestingas what was being communicated was "you are welcome, hope you had a nice trip". Gangan is a popular drum in the southwestern part of Nigeria and used at any gathering you wish to spice up with some cool local vibes. Catch up with all the fun in the video below.

^{Video:Entrance}

Then, the start of the real journey. We knew we were up for some water, but not knowing to many that we were also going to do some climbing. It ended well at the end however as we were able to enjoahe lot of fun in the moment.

Erin 'Jesha fall is said to have 7 levels of fall that would take preparedness of the adventure seekers to visit all 7 floors. For us, we were time constrained as we were still going to take our journey further to the ikogosi warm spring. This made our expedition limited to 3 floors. Of these 3 floors however, we found out the first floor was being occupied by some individuals who were shooting a music video for one of their songs. You will agree with me that it won't be fair to have an interruption. This then takes us to the second floor which happens to be the most attractive of them all, falling from a great height with continuous high volume. So, the most of the fun was on the second floor and you can feel the fun in the videos and pictures below.

^{Video:Let's explore the plains and the waters}

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^Movement

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Now, the moment everyone(I should say a majority of us...lol) were waiting for.

It's the contact with the waters. Fortunately or unfortunately, my phone decided to punish me by going off and since I didn't go with my power bank for from the bus, I just had to be an onlooker and hope for pictures/footages gathered by friends.

And here was the last video my phone could record before passing out.

The other side of my phone going off was that I wasn't assuming the self acclaimed "videographer" again and i was deep in the waters myself as you can see in the cover image for this post. After posting the pictures on instagram, many couldn't just get over my pose in the picture. In fact, some say I look like a spirit crashing the picture...lol. SMH for them. As you can also see that we were taking the posture of the WAKANDA wave of the moment. Time spent under the water was refreshing and you can relish the moment with us with the images and video below.

^{Video:WAKANDA FOREVER}

Other shots at the fall

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After our exploration and fraternity with the waters at this level, some of us decided to take the leap further and check out what the other levels have got to offer. It happened that what we were just about to do is hiking of a steep slope. Just as coming from the first floor to the second was, climbing to the third has to be with the assistant of the roots. It's a steep slope and one just has to take support in anyway one can but to me, it was just an interesting show, although with the steep slope a little scary at some point I won't lie.

Our sojourn to the top had us meeting up with persons coming from the 7th floor, some full with discouraging talks of how far they had to walk till they got there, while some others were quite encouraging. The only deficiency however i found of this tourist site was the fact that there were no directions leading one to the levels of the falls and therefore, you were liable of missing your way if not going with a guide. This was the case for me. Due to the traffic of those returning to the ground and we coming up, a repeat of what happened to me about 8 years ago when I came visiting was about to happen.

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We lost touch with the guide who was with some others of our team members in front and then, couldn't find our way to the 3rd fall. Move a little distance, and there is a path to your right which you do not know where exactly it leads to. So, after moving and not getting the required "assurance" (maybe because none of us bears the name, Chioma), we decided to find our way back. And then, to our surprise, we met the rest of our team finding their way out of one of those turnings to the right which we had passed. Well, not much time in hand again and so, I just assumed that was saying my trip here is still not completed. I would be coming back some more time to find my way to the top.

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And then, more images of nature

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Moving on

After the much fun we could gather at the water fall, it was time to move on to where we were to rest our heads. It was around 4:30pm and we needed to get on the close to 1 hr trip to Ikogosi resort in Ekiti State.

It happens that here is where this part is going to stop. I thought I could cramp all the experience into one post, but unfortunately, I'm not too good at cutting things short...lol. So, join me soon as I would be sharing the fun at the Ikogosi warm spring and Arinta falls.

*All pictures and videos credited to myself, @olisaemeka_ on instagram, Ije, and a few other tourmates.

Till then, I remain @dorth.

Meanwhile, Do you love what we do? Tourmates by Ada the Explorer is an initiative by a young travel enthusiast. She plans trips for people and helps them have a nice time out; far from the turmoils of the land. Below is a calendar of the planned tours for the rest of the year.

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For more info, contact @adatheexplorer on Instagram.

Aside the main travel callender, there are some pockets of tours in between, one of such is the mini Zanzibar coming up in a week time Hangout with tourmates