Travel: A Trip to Ikogosi Warm Spring

Ikogosi Warm Spring remains one of the top tourist centres in Ado Ekiti. A lot of people found it weird that I had been in Ekiti State for almost 10 months and hadn’t visited any recreational/historical centre (especially Ikogosi Warm Spring), aside one mountain in Iworoko.

Welcome back to the blog today, my darling.

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While in the university, and the couple of months I stayed back at home before NYSC, I kinda found myself on the path of self-discovery, which included enjoying my own company. I guess that’s why I have found myself spending my free times in Ekiti, working on personal projects, reading, sleeping, eating, praying or watching movies. I like to say my life is interestingly-boring. However, I was overjoyed when the idea popped up among my friends and I for us to visit the Ikogosi Warm Spring…finally. Aside from the fun we were hoping to have at the centre, we were very interested in comfort and to make the experience worthwhile, we decided to go on a road trip. This eventually led us to hiring a Sienna Bus for the trip, to and fro.

We live in Ado-Ekiti; the state capital which is just about 30-45 minutes to Ikogosi. It was quite fascinating having to go through paths and villages I never knew existed in Ekiti. At some villages, I had to say a prayer because It seemed like they lived with wild animals while at some, I simply smiled at the fact that they had more regular light than I got in the supposed state capital I was living in. I hadn’t gone on a road trip in like forever so I really didn’t know what to wear. My two best male friends, Bolarinwa and Victory decided to help me pick out my outfit and we settled on a mid-length gown and a pair of white sneakers. I think I should employ them as my professional wardrobe consultants, don’t you think?

On our arrival to Ikogosi, we paid a tour fee of Five Hundred Naira each.

We were assigned to a tour guide to take us around the resort. The tour guide took us through a wooden pathway with thick forestry on the sides.

We also got to the Spring itself and indeed felt the hotness and coldness of both bodies of water.

Did I mention the two different tree species that grow from the same root? God is great o!

He also went added to tell us the story behind the Ikogosi Warm Spring. In case you didn’t know, Ikogosi spring has two bodies of water; cold and hot which meet at a warm point. Our Tour Guide Taiwo explained to us that the two bodies of water used to be human beings. They were both wives of a particular hunter. The two wives were of extremely different temperaments; one very hot-tempered and the other, cool-headed. The wives were known for always fighting and on one of such occasions, the wives became bodies of water to go meet their husband as he came back from work. On sighting them, he became a rock to house and protect both bodies of water. Like my friend Tolu said, the story gets dumber each time I hear it, but since that’s what they believe in, so be it. We paid the tour guide a thousand Naira for his services. We also stopped by the spring to take pictures.

We headed over to the pool which consisted of warm spring water. Victory and Bolarinwa went for deep swims while the rest of us just had the water massage our feet while we all had our ‘therapy session’. Don’t mind me, that’s what my friends and I call any moment we get to discuss and reflect on life issues. We had some juice and snacks by the pool while we watched some young men and women ogle and tug at each other sexually in the people. Forgive my description, I felt disgusted lol.

One thing to note, however, is that things you decide to buy at the resort centre are about double the price you’d typically buy it outside. Aside from that, everything was fine. We spent about 5 hours on the trip; including the journey and the time at the resort itself. We paid the Sienna driver ten thousand Naira for the trip but that;s because we chattered him. If you decide to take public transportation, I doubt you’d have to pay anything more than a thousand Naira. It was really fun and refreshing as I hadn’t had such a timeout in a while. Do I recommend Ikogosi Warm Spring to anyone? Definitely.It’s probably the only major tourist centre in Ekiti, BUT YOU’D ONLY ENJOY IT IF YOU GO WITH REALLY INTERESTING PEOPLE BECAUSE IN ITSELF, THE RESORT ISN’T REALLY SO FUN LOL. By the way, I have seen some fallacies when it comes to some recreational centres in Ado-Ekiti, like calling The Fajuiyi park a ‘fun’ place. That area is under construction right now and except you have a good eye for taking pictures, that place is no good for anything at the moment, except that.

Dress: Random boutique

Sneakers: Peacocks

Anklet and Nails: Primark

Silver Bangle: Hannah Ephraim Jewellery

Beads: IlekebyMunoyedi

WORD FOR THE DAY

Now a river flowed out of Eden

to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four rivers.

The name of the first is Pishon;

it flows around the whole land of Havilah,

where there is gold (Genesis 2:10)

Currently listening to ‘By Myself’ by Dion Kingpin

Thank you for reading the blog today and please let me know what you think about the story of The Ikogosi wives above. I’d love to read your thoughts.

Till my next post, Remember, Always reflect God’s perfection xx.