A Trip to OLUMO ROCK

Sometime in the month of July, i visited Olumo rock with my friends and wonderful NACC Family Agbara, Ogun state. it was an exciting trip to mark the End(POP) of 2018 NYSC Batch B (NACC) corps members in Agbara. On our way going through the rough dangerous Lagos - Abeokuta express way, we branched at ShopRite Otta to buy drinks, disposable and other stuffs we will be needing for the tour. After about 45minutes in the mall we headed for our destination but were stuck in Traffic for about 4 hours because, the wife of the Vice president was to ply the same road to attend a friends birthday party, so security apparatus were deployed to the road on instruction to block the two lanes to enable the vice first lady enjoy a smooth ride to her event. We will finally continue when she crossed, then we journeyed till we arrived at the Olumo Rock, which already had numerous tourists climbing up and down the high rock.
We paid a total of #23,250 as gate fee because we were 31 in number, 750 for each person and #1000 to allow our Media person Pachunky Media capture the climbing adventure with his Camera, before the excitement began.

first, we were taken to the magnificent Arts gallery where we encountered a great artist and marketer, so bold and full of humour, we admired him same way we admired his Arts. He sold beautifully made artistic paintings and crafts with Historical stories and appealing words that made us wish the corpers allowee had been increased to #30,000 as promised by the FG, but then it was an Audio promise and the monthly #19,800 couldn't purchase those beautiful paintings, except for the bangles and native necklaces to match. The Artist told us a story about the popular "OSHODI" in lagos state, while illustrating on a painting of the old rowdy and crowded OSHODI he made from scrabs of bottle tops of our favorite apple drink Lacasera. we would later patronize him for his artistry and sound method of marketing, buying mostly bangles and necklaces that had our individual names branded on it. The Art gallery is really a beautiful section to tour in Olumo Rock, make sure you visit there whenever you find yourself in Olumo.

We finally began the journey to the top, climbing through the ancient route as advised by the great humourous artist in the gallery, to be able to experience the original ancient aura and feel the fatigue associated with climbing the most popular rock in Nigeria, which is about 137m above Sea level. it was a hard scary, journey to the top but we all made it finally, even though Amanda tried to give up on the way but with determination we all made it to the top through the tough, ancient routs.

We learnt that Olumo Rock is the God that protected the people of Egba from their enemies during wars or any other difficulty. The people will always come to the rock to pray for strength to defeat their enemies, riches for their children and to hide from predators who never wished them well.
up-till date the rock still houses some witches who live there praying 24/7 for the progress of Egba land and its visitors, a shrine which is only entered by the Egbaa of Egba land, the only Authority recognized by the Gods to enter its sanctuary and offer sacrifices, a Crocodile and the doctor who takes care of it. All these we saw on our way to the top through the tough ancient routes.

After spending sometime on-top of the rock, looking at the entire city of Abeokuta and sporting some iconic structures including the first church in Nigeria, the family house of late MKO Abiola, etc. we climbed down through the modern route (staircase) constructed by the Ogun State Government. The modern route was quite easier and not risky as it involved just walking down the stairs, pitifully, the elevator had stopped working, and as usual, its no concern for the government which is the normalcy for government owned properties in our dear country.
towards the end of the walk down, our legs were all shivering due to the fatigue of climbing through the ancient route, if we had tried to go down through the same route, lots of causalities could have been recorded. Kudos to the government for constructing the modern route though..

Down at the foot of the Rock, we enjoyed ourselves with lots of edible items that we brought, fried rice, chicken, wine, beer, spirits etc. Lots of other tourists were there from different parts of the world, especially, the young Croatian family that were so marveled at the rock and the happy Nigerian people. Some female tourists were also all eyes in our section, admiring the numerous cute guys in our group, especially, the fair guy with cat eyes, they made sure they followed us where ever we went, laughing out loud from our dry jokes and trying to join in our photo shots but we sure resisted them and their antics.

Finally, we called it a day and all went back to our Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Nigeria bus and embarked on another journey back home to our 5 star (NACC) family house, Area 4 Opic Estate, Agbara. through the, rough, shabby Lagos - Abeokuta express way to Otta and Aton - Lusada/Igbesa - Agbara road, which is the worstestest road in Nigeria, But with enough pictures and memories to remember for the rest of our dear lives.

Thank you NACC batch B 2018 corps members for organizing this tour.
Long live NYSC.
God bless NACC Agbara family and the entire NACC family Nationwide.

Warm regards dear Nairalanders.

Pinshure

More pictures from the event