|
IITA Ibadan
July 1st - 2nd, 2006
After my first trip with NFS to Ilorin (thanks again Bob for the organization) I was so enthusiastic that I convinced my boyfriend to join the next trip to IITA in Ibadan.
We had to come later on Saturday so we missed the nice Pizza Night on Friday. In the early dawn we were looking for the house no. 10 in O. Road but finally found two ‘Oibos’ and one Jeep in front of a gate. Because we didn’t expect Oibos to be awake at this time on a Saturday morning only for fun we stopped and were introduced to Phil and John with his family.
Due to the fully packed car of John we had the pleasure to be joined by Phil and John’s daughter Laura. Never had people in our car which appreciated our German chocolate biscuits that much!!
When we arrived at the IITA in less than 2h we found a treasure nearby Lagos. From the entrance on, everything was green, clean, calm and you could immediately feel the relaxing atmosphere.
We started with breakfast at IITA and found out that we had come together with the two important persons guiding the next activity: bird watching. So we could take our time over breakfast with Phil and John and all the others had to wait for us J.
Not much after 9am we drove to the view site and our nature walk around the lake began. Unfortunately I had no binoculars with me but Phil was so nice to lend me his professional and valuable ones and so I was able to have a closer look at the birds in all their resplendence. I couldn’t say exactly which one my favourite bird was because we were shown so many interesting and colourful birds. John and Phil answered every questions with patience and were able to enthuse everybody with or without knowledge about birds for bird watching.
After lunch and a short break we participated in the long forest walk guided by Chris Legg. It was very interesting to learn so much about the diversity of the vegetation in the rainforest, in which giant circles bamboo grows and how everything depends on each other in the circle of growing and blossoming and dying and so on. And last but not least we could also learn how Robert prepared his traps for the butterflies, with rotten meat and mashed fruit. Yummy!
Because of the Football World Cup (England – Portugal) the group split into people hurrying up for the tingler/starting whistle and people who just wanted to stay longer in the peace and tranquility of the forest. When the second group arrived at the hotel we had to recognize that we had not really missed a lot from the game and that the British High Commissioner had joined the football group. Before the penalty shoot-out, most members of our group went down to the lake again to enjoy the marvelous, organized sundowner with delicious snacks and drinks. Only a little group of hardboiled British football fans stayed at the hotel and arrived later crestfallen (it’s still just a game Phil ;-) for the romantic dusk, and bats in front of the full moon.
The day ended with a nice buffet at the hotel and everybody was really tired after all this walking and all this nature we are not used to living in Lagos. So we dozed off very quickly and slept deeply and peacefully.
The early bird watching was scheduled for 6.30 am but even the passionated bird watchers voted for a postponement. So we started later in the morning but could have still a unique impression of the bird fauna in IITA. I still don’t know how many species of birds you can find in IITA but Phil and John have been able to name all we saw without the binoculars. I was deeply impressed. Suddenly in the peace of nature we heard automobile noise coming nearer and nearer and there he was, a big Jeep on our trail and sitting inside: Robert, checking his butterfly traps. We felt all like Greenpeace activists and were blocking the trial to protest. Finally we could convince Robert to send the car away and stay with us. Greenpeace would have been proud of us …….
After the morning activity Lorraine Legg showed us the campus and all the interesting trees and explained their use. Accolades to Shiba who explained excellently the use of the banana plant and others in India.
Finally we sat together and chilled out at the barbecue lunch.
Fortunately we didn’t have to enjoy the massive go-slow for which the way to Ibadan is famous for and needed only 1.5h to go back to Lagos.
We enjoyed the peace of the IITA to the full. It was a wonderful serenity during the weekend and within the nice group. The reserve is absolutely recommended for a short rest from Lagos. All in all we can say that this trip whet our appetite for the next trip with NFS!
Many thanks for the organisation and the professional guiding!
Beate Scholz (Germany)
|
Lagos Branch
