Afi Drill ranch in X-mas break

As sudden as I could ask my friends to go out dancing, as sudden Mike asked me to come to Obudu. It was probably the strangest situation I was in this month. Before X-mas break somebody, Paulinos from scholarship board, told me that the ministry of education was open during the week between X-mas and New Year. So Monday I showed up at the office. All alone and lonesome except for the caretaker nobody was there.

On my way home I dropped by a cyber café to do a little work but after that I decided I hadn’t to do any work anymore that day. ICame home disappointed about me going home from Kagoro for nothing and sitting in my house all by myself. Them mike texted me that I should come to Obudu if work was slow. Obudu? That’s far too expensive! I took my Bradt guide and started to read. The Afi Drill Ranch was financially more in our range. So the texting began; Mike convincing me just to come for 2 days, me telling him about my promises to Kim in Kagoro. That night I didn’t sleep very well. Making a list of pro’s and con’s in my head.

Next day I went to the office again to see if something was going on. Nothing! That was the moment I decided to go to Afi. Texted Mike I would leave Lafia around 11 am. Took some clothes (warm clothes) and bought some food (Indo mie and water). At the car park was a car to Markurdi almost filled up so I didn’t have to wait too long. Nice! In the back of the bus, packed with 18 people, squished between two men; one of them annoying sitting with his arms over the back leaning. Later, that annoying man seemed to go the same direction as I did, which came in handy in the end. His name is Austin, he was on his way to visit family in a village nearby Afi. His nephew took us on his okada to that village, and after that me from to the drill ranch. Three people on a okada. Interesting to be the 1 at the back. I can still feel my tailbone!

I was the first to arrive at Afi drill ranch, Mike had had a lot of car trouble. His introduced me as his wife to the people at the ranch, weird when people say ms Micheal. It was especially weird when Mike arrived and we didn’t act like man and wife. First evening in cold Afi was nice. We played ‘regenwormen’ (a Dutch game), with other guests and Majeed, the veterinarian (also known as doc). Lot of laughs!

Next day was our day of really visiting the park. We started with a guided tour, saw drill and chimps. Never seen drills before! Strange animals with weird faces and colorful bottoms. One of them tried to escape when we were visiting the first group. Just climbed over the fence, after checking if there was electricity on it. Doc chased him back into the fenced area. Doc told us that these animals were about to be put back in to the wild. It’s part of a breeding program. There are still some drills in the forest around Calabar and Obudu, but not as much as they would like to see. It’s not the same story for the chimps. They should be living in this area but their natural environment is reduced to almost nothing so they cannot be put out in to the wild again. The chimps in Afi are there to stay and to remember people what effect foresting has on their living space.

The chimps were a treat to watch. One of them was trying real hard to stand out of the crowd, throwing sticks and stuff. Grandma chimp was also something special. She was really aware of her presence, almost like an over aged photo model.  I could have spent louds of time watching the chimps.

In the afternoon we made time to walk the canopy path. A nice walking path through the tree tops of the middle high trees, the canopy. Two guys were waiting to walk us and guide us through the path. They knew quite a lot about the path, trees and animals. I was surprised because often Nigerians don’t know anything about wildlife. They were very proud of the whole project and especially when Mike told them that he was from Canada, the builders of the canopy path came from Canada to.

On our way back to the camp we stopped at a small waterfall. Mike had to show his childhood interests and started to walk op the stream. I stayed at the little pool, relaxing, taking photos of a playing Mike and eating Pringles. How good was that!!! It was so nice to be out and about for a few days!!!! This is just what I needed, doing not much, don’t worry about anything, although it was only for 1 day.

That evening we went to the village where Afi buys food for the animals. We wanted to come and see how the people in the reservation were living, to get some food and to arrange transport for the next day. Okada’s enough so transport was no problem. Food was a different story, the only thing I could find were tomato paste, onions and eggs. So we had to look at our best when we came back to camp and ask the others for ingredients to spice up our Indo mie. Luckily we could use carrots and potatoes and our own onion of course. I had brought an Indian sauce so it would be a normal Indo mie dinner as usual. After dinner, Mike went to bed early; little bit sick, headache. Rest of us started an camp fire and eat popcorn. Mmmmm, so nice!