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Benin City and Okomu Forest Trip October 12th - 14th, 2007 We left Lagos in the morning from the new Local Airport. We were impressed: the airport is built in a modern way and looks like any European one. We left on Aero Contractors after a one-hour delay, and landed in Benin City after waiting just a few minutes for our luggage. A small bus carried us to the Saidi Hotel for our check-in. The roads are in similar bad condition as Lagos: there are countless shops on the roadside and fruits bring colour to the scenery. The Saidi Hotel was the first surprise: a nice hotel consisting of various buildings, colourfully painted and decorated with lots of arts. A big blue swimming pool is in the centre. We had a tough program, so we left immediately to visit the bronze caster. To avoid heavy traffic we took side roads, driving through deep water. After a while we arrived and Philip Omodamwen, the artist, welcomed us into his workshop. He showed and explained in detail the bronze casting manufacturing process. It’s incredibly expensive and they still produce the same way they did hundreds of years ago. We were all impressed and now understand the high prices for bronze figures. Nearly all of us bought or ordered some of Philip’s works.
The next place we visited was the historical First Palace, the house of Chief Odiamen. It was built in the 14th century out of red soil. In each room there is an opening in the roof that allows some light from the stars, the moon or the sun to light the room. Some shrines are still in use: we found feathers, skulls and other indescribable things.
Before we enjoyed a Chinese dinner at the Saidi Hotel we went to Igun Street, the place where bronzes are sold in Benin City. We expected a kind of Lekki-market for Bronze, but there were just a few shops. Nevertheless we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Saidi.
The next day we visited the High Priest of Benin (Osemwegie Ebohon), who has an amazing collection of Benin’s art. He welcomed us very kindly and showed us around. His garden is full of statues, pots, masks… We were also allowed to visit the different shrines, which are still in use. In one of the shrines we found some skulls, bloodied clothes and a pot full of worms. They were preparing a festival, so we met some musicians and dancers. Women prepared mountains of moi- moi to feed the guests.
Our next step was the Benin Museum. Although it was noon we saw hundreds of flying bats in the blue sky, an amazing sight. In the museum we saw pictures, masks, bronze figures, musical instruments such as drums and flutes, costumes and lots more. Our guide gave us the shortest tour I have ever had.
After lunch at Saidi we left for Okomu National Forest. We had heavy rain the night before, so we had to change the bus to 4WDs. We split up our group into the 3 cars, one sat on the back of a pick-up on top of our luggage, some on benches on the back of the second pick up, some in the boot of the third one. We became thankful for the change, because the roads were in terrible condition. After a few hours we reached Okomu Forest. First we passed some amazing big rubber plantations. It was beautiful to watch the big rubber trees in endless rows. Later we came into deep forest. In the middle of nothing the Okomu Forest Lodge appeared. Several bungalows, built on stilts, surrounded the main house with kitchen and restaurant. There was also a swimming pool. The lodge was built in the beginning of 2007 and the rooms are quite comfortable with ACs and bathrooms. We did not expect so much convenience in the middle of a jungle! After having a snack we made our first walk through the forest. The night came earlier than expected so we returned in the dark, surrounded by thousands of different sounds and voices. The next day we hiked nearly 1 ½ hours to a tree house. It is 145 feet high. The long ladder we had to climb was a real challenge. But the view from the top of the tree over the forest was worth it. On our way back to the lodge we saw the footprint of an elephant (unfortunately not the animal itself) and some tortoises next to our path. Plenty of different birds were singing, but were hard to discover in the deep forest. The way back to the airport was hardly worth mentioning: again destroyed roads, rubber plantations, traffic in Benin. It would have been a perfect day. But the plane was delayed by more than 3 hours. Nevertheless, we finally reached home in Lagos. It was a wonderful trip that we all enjoyed, including our children (7 and 10 years old). We hope the NFS will offer this trip many more times!
Birgit Henrich (Germany)
For more information on staying at Okomu, visit http://www.okomuecoresort.com/index.html
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Lagos Branch
