Omo forest elephant reserve Ondo state

It was an early start on Saturday morning up at 5.30 when a few of my friends collected me from my hotel A Toyota single cab lots of meat and the odd bottle of brandy in the back of the cab. There was a local braai tied with wire to the roof and huge cooler boxes with plenty of refreshments.

We were off to omo forest elephant reserve a remote part of the country just outside of Lagos on the Ibadan expressway, four big Afrikaans guys squashed into a single can and Joshua our driver. The early morning hamatan was making the sky very overcast and the mist was rolling in as we hit the road.at that time of the morning Lagos was already busy and the Ibadan express is the link that connects Lagos to ondo state so many cars were on the road we needed to refuel as there was no fuel in the forest but as usual every filling station had long lines of vehicles waiting for fuel

We pulled off the road and finally found a filling station that was not too bad everyone pilled out of the vehicle for a smoke break and to hunt for ice blocks the filling station is a social hub of people chatting repairing vehicles and selling water food and anything else that the locals will buy when you stop you have to walk a long way away from the filling station before you can have a cigarette as everyone is worried about the fuel station exploding. So as we all stand around chatting and the locals all shouting at us chatting and laughing I noticed that my one friend has an infection all over his legs a  fungal growth from sitting on a chair this environment can be fairly toxic one so anything can happen out here.

The heat is already picking up close to 38 degrees and there is no shade dusty noisy and busy finally it is our turn to fill the vehicle so we all wonder over to monitor the process there’s is a big group around the vehicle everyone chatting and staring at the four white guys trying to get fuel. There is a bit of bargaining and getting change lots of laughing fuel all over the floor and pouring out the back of the cab as nobody is watching the fuel pump but all of us climb back in and off we go.

We get to the sekouto turnoff and now we are about an hour out of the forest the landscape has turned to jungle with small stalls on the side of the road the sand is red dessert sand and the dust is everywhere we go through small villages one after the next and some very large truck stops where trucks are being repaired the drivers are stopping for food and supplies this area of Nigeria has some active lumber yards with everyone making doors and door frames from receiving a log of wood to a fantastic elaborate door the Nigerians produce doors with little or no equipment there is lumber everywhere and small production areas no factories equipment just shelters with people working on wood.

After a two hour journey on roads that are well interesting to say the least potholes broken trucks vehicles on the wrong side of the road collapsed bridges and speeding everyone has one speed fast and furious we arrive at the turnoff to the forest another village on the side of the road. Everyone tumbles out of the vehicle by now you are pretty well shaken up on the bumpy and dusty roads we find ice blocks nobody understands you if you ask for ice but ice blocks everyone know what you are talking about a small group forms around the vehicle everyone shouting and laughing waiting for the ice blocks to arrive. Hers is a lot of discussion around the final price but eventually it is settled and we are on our way the braai at this stage looks like it is going to fall part all the bumping has not been a good thing

We go into the first village on a sand road and there is the normal African boom which has to be lifted before we can pass the village knows we are coming through so no issues with bribes we just go through these are small villages which survive off logging cutting down the forest and loading the huge tress onto Bedford trucks that look as though they were used in the first world war how these trucks keep going is beyond me as there are pieces missing and no part of the vehicle that is not bashed scratched or dented. We go through the second village which I more basic if that is possible and then we are in the forest with only sand roads mud and jungle all around us .as we wind our way through with very bad roads there are footpaths and other roads branching off all around us we are following a piece of red tape that has been tied to trees along the route no signage no directions just guesswork

There is no cellphone reception or gps reception but we are all fairly confident that we won’t get lost. Another hour or so and we find the last turnoff down a narrow path in the forest the vehicle can barely get through once we are on the other side we come into a clearing with a house and about thirty people waiting for us in the clearing.

This will be our home for the weekend the plan is to have a mountain bike race through the forest with us being the support tem following the cyclists on their 45 klm route through the forest. We unload the bakkie and prepare ourselves for the trip socks and sensible shoes slops are not going to work out here

The heat is crazy and being in the forest intensifies the heat it is boiling pot the cyclists are being briefed and everyone looks positive about 16 cyclists mostly expats with four Nigerians the organizers are saying that they must not expect too much support as the roads are so bad the vehicles will not get through they expect we will only get about three klm s into the forest there are broken down trucks fallen trees and mud lots of mud

The cyclist leave and we prepare two bakkies no towropes axes winches or four by four difflocks just beer and lots of it. The first two klms into the forest was not too bad rough roads with huge pools of mud but at the 3k mark things changed a huge truck stuck in the mud the road washed away and trees across the road we had to make a choice do we go on or turn back if we go on we may not be able to turn around as the roads were becoming more overgrown and worse it took about two beers each before the decision was made you cannot tell somebody from south Africa that they cannot take a bakkie down a forest road.