ktravula – a travelogue!

Visiting Inagbe

IMG_1343IMG_1353 IMG_1354 IMG_1355 IMG_1356 IMG_1357 IMG_1362 IMG_1365 IMG_1368 IMG_1369 IMG_1380 IMG_1383IMG_1392 IMG_1393 IMG_1396 IMG_1398 IMG_1400 IMG_1402 IMG_1407 IMG_1409 IMG_1422 IMG_1433 - Copy (5) IMG_1461 IMG_1485 IMG_1542IMG_1537 IMG_1561 IMG_1573There is a place in Lagos, surprisingly, where all the typical worries of the busy, bustling city immediately disappears. It is located across from Snake Island, occupying over 3 million square metre land area within a 100 kilometre stretch along the Atlantic Ocean halfway from Badagry. It is called the Inagbe Grand Resorts and Leisure. I was there on Sunday.

On Google Maps (and other maps of the area) the name of the location is spelt “Inogbe”, an Ijebu-sounding name whose meaning I haven’t yet figured out. According to the Managing Director of the company behind the resorts however, his spelling derives from the Yoruba word “Inu Igbe”, meaning “Inside the bush/jungle”, a reference to the remote location of the beautiful resort.

To get there on this day of my visit, we boarded a speedboat from Addax Jetty at Victoria Island (beside Oriental Hotel) and headed westwards through a path of water that went behind the Civic Centre (VI), behind Protea Hotel (Ikoyi) under the Falomo Bridge at Law School, under the Ikoyi Bridge at Bonny Camp, behind the US embassy, and through other waterways that pass by Tin Can, Snake Island, and Apapa, meeting along the way a number of other seafaring people and vehicles.

On the way there are a number of views, notable of which are ships and vessels of various sizes. There is an abandoned oil rig about ten minutes into the lagoon, noted, as my guide specified, by the fight to buy and make it viable by a popular bank in Nigeria. The water is clean, and dirty, and clean again at different times, forcing the driver of the speedboat to stop at least once in the middle of the water in order to “flush” out the engine of debris that the boat may have ingested. (Pure water sachets, other plastic bags, combs, toothbrushes, paper, scrap clothings, rags and other flotsam do not belong in the jet engine, one realizes, or in the lagoon, for that matter. But this is the Nigerian Waterways Administration we’re talking about. They haven’t been exactly busy keeping our lagoons clean.)

We arrive at the resort eventually, a handiwork of Grand Imperio Resorts, a real estate company based in Lagos and headed by Mr. Adeyeye Ogunwusi (present also on this trip). We met again in Lagos a couple of months ago and he invited me to come take a look at the resort. According to him, the land area was acquired on lease from the Esinmikan Royal Family, who are joint partners in the resort project, many years ago. The ground breaking ceremony to kick off construction was done in August 2013 since when the centre has continued to be developed at such an impressive speed that a visitor would hardly believe that it is still a work in progress.

The proposed 18-hole golf course now has 5 holes. Many of the proposed guest chalets have already been developed and open to guests already. And even if the resort isn’t yet officially open to the public, Mr. Ogunwusi says that it is already playing host to a number of prominent and ordinary middle-class Nigerians willing to take a little break out of the busy city for some R&R. One could, he says, register to be a member of the resort (a privilege that costs some money, for those able to afford it) or just come for a one-time or weekend visit. The cost of staying over at the resort is about 35,000 ($200) with complementary breakfast.

On this visit, we were treated to good food, music, and a trip around the island on a couple of beach buggies (all terrain vehicles which, we were told, will be available for occasional leisure races). Aside from the golf courses, the resort has sites for beach soccer, football pitches, race tracks, lawn tennis pitches, and a lagoon and an ocean view that is rare but impressive. One can already think of many uses for this kind of a place: a destination wedding with only invited guests, an elite birthday get-together, a couples’ retreat (as we found out with a group of young Lagos couples who had come to scout the place out for a retreat they had planned for November with other members of their church group), a writer’s retreat in one of the single-room guest chalets, a conference, an excursion with a group of students, a television reality show, a movie set, a personal pilgrimage away from the city, or just a weekend out with the family.

Having been away from Edwardsville for a couple of years, with the luxury of impulsive traveling that usually leads me to great discoveries around the American midwest, I have been pleasantly surprised by what Lagos can offer if one looks hard enough. Here are pictures from Inagbe which, still incomplete as a project, still dazzles with beauty, grace, and a scenery that is rare around the city. I hope to return sometime.

Highly recommended.

Visiting Inagbe was published on June 13th, 2014, with the tags , , , , , under the adventures, Art, Fun category. There are currently 13 comments on this article so far.

Lagos by Speedboat

IMG_1269IMG_1274IMG_1275IMG_1277IMG_1281IMG_1291IMG_1319IMG_1324IMG_1300IMG_1305IMG_1587IMG_1602IMG_1615IMG_1619IMG_1311IMG_1581IMG_1591IMG_1316IMG_1304IMG_1302IMG_1603IMG_1608IMG_1613Most IMG_1612of those who have bothered with the matter have concluded, faced daily with incontrovertible evidence of that certitude, that the Lagos of commuters is one of unavoidable stress, distressing heat, grating noise, and rowdiness. Workers spend almost half of their commuting time at a standstill in traffic, most times with sweat and grime of fellow passengers rubbing them at all ends.

In this post, surrounded by the flourish of that attempted grand locution of mine in the first paragraph, I present photographic evidence of another side of Lagos, a city marked both by its name derived from the Lagoon, and its dynamic ability to constantly remake itself in the eyes of its denizens. This trip, undertaken on Sunday, begins at Sandfill (former Maroko), by speedboat, proceeds through Falomo, to Bonny Camp – all on water – towards Tin Can Island, Apapa, Ajegunle, and Snake Island, before arriving at our destination: a place of sublime beauty called Inagbe Grand Resorts.

(Reports about the resort itself will take a blog post of its own.)

It turns out that regular view isn’t the only side of Lagos that exists, as commuters by boat and other water vessels will testify, whether one rides on an open canoe propelled by paddles of fishermen, or on open speedboats with a private driver; whether one transits, as do many commuters from Ikorodu to Victoria Island everyday, in a large ferry run by businessmen hoping to turn a profit with as many passengers as possible, or whether one sits in comfort – like Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola whose private speedboats lay beside each other across from the United States embassy at Victoria Island.

There is a view that traces the path of the waters all around the islands and peninsulas that make up Lagos. There, there are no traffic hold-ups, no bodily heat exchange except desired, little noise apart from that made by the engine of the speedboats, and sparse pollution except for whatever ships and those other large vessels emit. In short, to enjoy the city is to experience as many means of transporting oneself as are publicly available – and traveling by boat seems to be a nearest affordable alternative to the fumes and stress of driving.

On the way to this resort are splendid views of the city, including a brief but captivating skyline of Marina and much of Lagos Island, as well as a few dozen ships many of which seemed – by their appearance – to have outlived their time and usefulness. On another boat, a far smaller, far inferior vessel in which about seven travelers with flotation devices sat carefully as if afraid that they might fall into the water, one person waves from afar, signalling a type of camaraderie like one between two strangers who suddenly find themselves sharing a mental fellowship of some kind in which the sharing of each other’s fears and exhilaration can be exchanged without ever uttering a word.

Bridges, more ships and vessels, canoes, speedboats, and an abandoned oil rig; more water frothing behind like the wide liquid smile of the goddess; less and less number of buildings, and a horizon ahead, pregnant with promise. Then we arrive. A destination away from all the troubles of the world… Of that oil rig, my tour guide remarks: “There is a story about that, and how First Bank almost got bankrupt because of a deal that would have made it a stakeholder in the oil and gas business. Powerful interests prevailed and the deal was called off. The rig now lay abandoned in the waters…”

After a few minutes, we pass by what I guess could be Ajegunle, defined from afar by a type of resilient squalor, one that we’ve heard so much about. One that produced great artists like Daddy Showkey and (to a lesser extent) African China, and many more. Brown boats, brown waters, brown coconut trees that sway quietly as if bereft of will, and brown little children by the shoreline running around without any regard for the stranger’s distant gaze. Blue and brown smoke tell of some roasting, and the promise of a nice evening in cheerful company if one would dare such an unscheduled visit.

On return, the views are the same, enhanced this time by the setting sun, slightly tired limbs and a refreshed spirit from having visited one of the finest resorts in the city, many miles into the waters. The city welcomes its children back with concrete and paint, a skyline of Marina in the distance.

It has been a pleasant ride.

Lagos by Speedboat was published on June 10th, 2014, with the tags , , , , , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.