Since 2018, I have always embarked on a personal camping expedition at the end of every year, usually from December 29th to January 1st.
In 2018 and 2019, I made these trips alone, but in October 2020, my good friend Toke — popularly known as Alarinka — called me about a trip she was organizing with a group of her friends. Coincidentally, it was around the same time as my usual solo crossover camp, and after a few calls to iron out the details, I decided to join them. We were seven in number, Alarinka being the only female. I had never met any of them in person, not even Alarinka, as our communication and friendship until then had existed entirely online.
It was an amazing experience, meeting her for the first time, and traveling with a group of strangers who later became close friends and eventually even colleagues
This particular trip was to the Owu waterfall in kwara state, Nigeria. The plan was to reach the top of owu waterfall, and to set up camp at the edge of the falls.
this trip was fraught with challenges, part of the challenge was that we were all strangers who hadn’t yet learnt properly how to communicate with each other. We had several arguments, and disputes about the route. Then we didn’t start out early enough on the day of our trip, so we arrived owa-onire at sunset, and began the two-hour hike to the camp site when the sun had already set. This hike is already a hard one in the day time, and to embark on it at night just made the difficulty exponentially higher. We weren’t sure of the route, and because it was in November, at the peak of the harmattan when all the grasses were dry, and bush burning was a hunting practice, we encountered wild fires on our hike that we had walk through. It was really scary. But we persevered. All eight of us. eventually, we got to a point where we couldn’t tell where we were anymore. It was too dark and we were in the middle of nowhere at that point. Although we had not reached the river where we were to set up camp, we decided to camp at that spot for the night. We set up our tents, made a fire, and everybody—totally exhausted—went to sleep.
That night, we were visited by hunters who noticed strange activity and approached us. We introduced ourselves to them, and enjoyed a friendly chat before they left to continue on their business, and we went back to sleep.
By morning, we finally got a sense of where we were, we had been lost. We discovered just how far we had strayed from the trail, but instead of frustration, the moment became one of bonding. Over tea and laughter, we grew closer as a team, took silly pictures in the trees, and built the kind of trust that only shared hardship can create. Then we packed up and continued on our hike to the Owu river.
We reached it at around midday, set up camp again, and headed out to spend the afternoon playing at the waterfall. Sadly, on our way there. I fell down and dislocated my ankle. Although the other guys were able to pop it right back in, that injury raised concerns within the camp. And the other campers feared that my injury would worsen overnight or maybe swell so badly that I couldn’t walk unassisted. So the decision was made to pack up and abandon camp. I protested this decision, pleaded for us to stay and promised that I was not going to be a problem, but the campers had all made up their minds, we packed up, and left. I felt so bad. Like I ruined the experience for everybody.
Although this camping trip didn’t go to plan, the experience was different, it was special. The few pictures we took that morning became my favorite, and the arguments we had, became my fondest memories. We hadn’t met our target, didn’t have the experiences we hoped to have, but the ones we did have become special, we walked through fire, enjoyed breath-taking views and had lots of fun, although it didn’t seem like it at the time.
