#C9jaTour: Pine Trees, Soothing Springs and the Natural Delights Enugu has to Offer

The journey to Enugu was by far the glossiest we’d had since we embarked on the #C9jaTour. You can read about our tour of Ibadan here, and Abuja here.

We took a quick stop on our way at Kogi state to get some brunch and take some interesting shots, arriving Enugu some 8 hours after we had left the Capital city, Abuja. At our arrival at the coal city, we rested for a bit, and then set out for a radio interview we had scheduled for that evening. Afterwards, we got a taste of the city at night, and treated ourselves to some nice delicacies from this part of the country.

The next day started with us heading to our first stop, Ngwo Pine Forest; a forest with a beautiful display of pine trees and amazing shades. The forest had a serene and peaceful atmosphere to it, that is if you discounted the assortment of cow dung you try to avoid on your path, and the stench that comes from them. Ahead, way deep into the forest is the Ngwo Cave, and that was our ultimate destination.

The trek to the Ngwo Cave proved to be a tough one for us. It required piloting our way through the enormous constellation of trees at the beautiful Ngwo Pine Forest where we got lost three (3) consecutive times as our tour guide hadn’t been down there in twenty (20) years, and some of us got scared and took flight at the sight of something they described as a snake doppelganger.

Getting through the sharp twists and turns along the stone-paved track, we came upon a gently running conduit of crystalline spring waters overlaying the valley floor. Just ahead is a constricted but tall entrance leading into the crack, and you could hear the loud splashing of the glassy waters. The Ngwo cave was naturally carved in marble rocks and is adorned with a captivating waterfall plummeting down from a small opening at the top of the cave. The water from the fall forms a surface pool at the base of the cave and runs out as a small stream. When we were done exploring, we headed back, but then nothing, absolutely nothing prepared us for the climb back; we had to take frequent stops as we were running out of breath recurrently.

Enugu was an absolute thrill. New in that city, we were left to the mercy of Google Maps after we left the Ngwo Cave. Fortunately, we got led to a small village called Okpu- Oku instead of our intended destination – Ezeagu Tourist Complex. The villagers were quite pleased to receive us and made our time worth it. We met Basil Anieze at Aguogba Ezeagu who is an expert in extracting and processing Palm oil. He took out time to show us his work process. It was a good turn at the end of the day. We created memories with the C9 here.

Traveling round the country, and sometimes wavering through places with little or no network service, we were able to keep everyone updated with the help of data service partner – Etisalat.

You can view more pictures from the trip and go on your own virtual tour of Enugu here.

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