Getting There
I travelled to Akure in January 2021. A good friend from London called me and said he was there with his family and I should come down. I had been dying to go for as long as I could remember (my family are from Ondo State), so being the spontaneous mad person that I am, I booked a flight with Air Peace that day and was there within a few days. Going to Ondo State was the best decision of my life.
Not only did I find out that this friend which I randomly met on a night out in London 3 years prior is my Second cousin (our grandfathers are full-blood brothers), I got to see where 95% of my ancestry was from, I got to meet family in my hometown – it was just the best! So, after two days of eating and clubbing, I was pushing to go sightseeing, so his friend said we could go and see the mountains at Idanre Hills. So, we drove about 90 mins from Alagbaka, Akure, to one of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen! The roads were not too bad. They were much better than the road from Akure to Owo.
I think the entry was around ₦1000 each, but I can’t remember (because my friend paid). Now, I had slippers on, and my friend forced me to take their trainers – this should have been the first red flag. The tour guide also insisted we purchase water, this is normal, I guess – but take my advice – and carry a backpack with at least three bottles for each person if you can handle the weight! Finally, we reached the point of the sign, and honestly, I am just excited. Then he said we were about to climb over 600 steps with around five breakpoints.
This was when my brain started putting two-and-two together – this was going to be the most strenuous workout that I had done in YEARS. Here is the point where we reached 285 steps – I apologise for my breathing sounds! This was the 2nd breakpoint, and at this point, I was reciting Bible verses and praying my heart did not give up on me!
Now we get to 373 steps covered. Again, sorry for my breathing. The city was stunning from this view. You can see the palace, hear music playing in the city, and our guide said the white rock in the distance talks!
Later, we reached the 5th and final resting point at 580 steps, with 102 steps left. I thought that the attraction was to climb the steps and that’s it, no! At this point, the man tells me after those 102 steps that we have to go into the jungle with no more staircases. So we walked for 3 hours in that mountain before climbing down these 660 steps again later!
So please do not be a mumu like me! The problem with giving birth to your children in the Western cities is they are sometimes devoid of the basic knowledge of nature. The lovely guide picked a cashew fruit for me. Firstly, I didn’t even know cashews came from a fruit, despite my cashew nut addiction! This addiction somehow led me to try out the fruit’s flesh, which was nasty. Then I tried to crack open the shell with my teeth, desperate to taste the creamy nut inside, but 90 seconds later, the taste of bitterness took over my mouth, and my lips started burning, they even cracked open on the side, and I had a scar for two weeks!
It turns out that the seed is surrounded by a double shell containing an allergenic phenolic resin and anacardic acid. These are potent skin irritants chemically related to the more well known allergenic oil urushiol, a toxin found in the related poison ivy. So, please don’t even try it.
Then we saw the court: the prison yard, the king’s house, and many other things in the mountains.
All in all, if you find yourself in Ondo State, please find time out of your schedule to climb these mountains. There is a lot more content that I could have shared, but I don’t want to spoil it. It was a magical experience to put myself in the shoes of ancient civilisation and imagine what life was like living in these mountains. After this, I went home, refreshed, had a nap and hit the club after!
