Yankari

I spent Saturday and Sunday at Yankari Game Reserve, which is basically Nigeria’s version of a safari place and national park. Though its in Africa, Nigeria is not exactly a hotspot of wildlife activity. It’s no Tanzania or Kenya, but I had an amazing time, nonetheless. As I mentioned earlier (I think), Kelly Jo is in the US, trying to get other schools to start sending their study abroad students to Nigeria, at a study abroad conference, but Betsy, who is the VP of AUN invited me to go with her and her visiting son and daughter-in-law to Yankari. Betsy’s driver, Yusuf, and two of his kids, Umar and Fatimadu came with us. I always think it’s a lot of fun to travel with little kids because they always express their joy and happiness so much more openly than adults, which just makes everyone else enjoy the trip even more. Fatimadu and Umar did not disappoint; they were a joy to have on the trip, and Betsy, her son, Graham, and her daughter-in-law, Heather, proved to be excellent company, and I am so grateful that they were willing to include me on their trip!

The whole group picked me up at my dorm at 7am on Saturday morning (thank Heavens I am now a morning person!), and we drive the 5 hours through western Adamawa state, all of Gombe state, and the southeastern part of Bauchi state, which is home to Yankari. At this juncture in my story, I would like to point out that this journey should have taken 2.5 hours, as it was approximately 200-250 kilometers away from Yola, but due to the absolutely deplorable conditions of the roads, especially in Gombe, the journey took twice as long. Just think about how bad those roads must be. I am pretty sure that I will never complain about American potholes every again. At least there is a road around American potholes. The road in Gombe is pretty much potholes with scattered stretches of about 100 meters or so of “good” road. Anyway, we eventually made it, but, apart from the bumpiness, I quite enjoyed the journey. It was great to see what truly rural Nigerian life looks like. Their were villages of about 100 +/- people dotting the countryside. The homes were huts made of mud walls and thatched roof and were circular. People were out farming their large plots of land with hand-held hoes or watching over their cattle herds. The goats, however, are not tended too. They pretty much just rove about and do whatever their please during the day. But, being creatures that are highly motivated by food, they always come home at night where they know their dinner comes from. People stopped what they were doing and stared as our black SUV passed by, and as soon as they saw who was inside, they always waved. The little kids were the best, though. They would look up, and as soon as they processed who was inside the SUV, you could see their faces light up and the beginning of their shout of “BATURE!” forming on their lips as we whizzed by. They sometimes ran along a ways, too. I found it highly entertaining, and the kids were adorable. A note about the Nigerian countryside, too. It’s shockingly varied. Yola and its surrounding area are quite flat, and almost Kansas or Nebraska-like in their completely hill-less landscape. As you drive further out, there were tons on big black rocks that looked sort of volcanic, we decided, and then even further along, you start driving through a small mountain range and things got a lot greener.

But, I digress (a lot). We arrived at Yankari at around 12 or 1pm. Yankari is really big, but there’s a central Welcome Center, restaurant, Clinic (which is also the bar—which I think it almost poetic). This is also where the tour groups and other visitors park. So, naturally, it is where the baboons cluster, trying to get food, and, more interestingly, trying to get into vehicles. A couple baboons, one very large male and mom with her newborn baby clinging on, decided that our car would be an excellent vantage point from which to survey their baboon-dom and look impressive. I have excellent pictures of this, but since the internet simply cannot handle uploading photos (last time I tried, it took 30 minutes to upload half of a photo), I will have to post them at a later date. There were also a fair number of warthogs roving about, and, most adorably, one warthog mama and her 5 hoglets (I am unsure if this is the proper term for a baby warthog, but I am going with it). Most interestingly, upon exiting the vehicle and walking towards the restaurant (about 50 yards away), Graham, Heather, and I were absolutely besieged by a school group of what I would guess were 12-14 year old girls. They wanted to take their pictures with the Bature, which I thought was hilarious and also slightly embarrassing. After about 20 minutes (literally) of making sure everyone got their picture taken with at least one of us, as well as a group shot, we made it indoors, where a group from a boys school mobbed us for the same thing. This has not happened to me anywhere else. Occasionally, I notice people taking a picture of me on their camera or their cell phone as I pass by, but I’ve never actually had so many people beg me for a photo with me. The funny part is that I find them as fascinating as they seem to find me. After about 40 minutes total, we managed to extricate ourselves, and we all had lunch, and I ate more than I think I ever have in one sitting, because the cafeteria doesn’t open until 7:30, so I wasn’t able to get any hot rice krispies (which I still haven’t completely gotten used to) that morning. After lunch, we went on a safari at 3:30. Because it’s the wet season, many of the animals are harder to see because they can spread out further into the park, rather than during the dry season, when they have to stay relatively close to the central source of water (because there isn’t any anywhere else). Anyway, on this safari, we saw a couple different breeds of antelope, water buffalo (at a distance), more warthogs, more baboons, and some of the most brightly colored birds I have ever seen. They were honestly neon blue and electric green; I’m not usually much of a bird person, but these ones were incredible. After this, we were able to check into our rooms, which were actually little huts (with air conditioning—though it didn’t work most of the night because the power was out…). We quickly changed into swimsuits, and then headed down to Wikki Warm Springs, which is basically a naturally occurring hot spring. The water was incredible blue and perfectly clear. You could see straight down to your feet without any problem and you could make out the different grains of sand it was so clear! The water was 31 degrees Celsius, which is about 85 Fahrenheit, I think, so it felt absolutely amazing. The Wikki Warm Springs eventually flow into the marsh-y pond area where the animals congregate during the dry season (and still spend a considerable amount of time during the wet season). There’s a fairly strong current in the swimming area, so you can just lay back and float down stream for a while, then eventually move back up a little ways and splash around. Yusuf’s kids, Fatimadu and Umar, were absolutely delighted by the water, and the looks on their faces when they got in were priceless. It was a lot of fun to watch the little ones just let loose and run around and scream and play in the water. This is exactly why I like to travel with little kids. Also, its worth noting that little kids all over the world like to walk (/balance) on walls, curbs, and any other higher-up walk-able path. After we dragged ourselves out, we ate dinner and went to bed early because we were all super tired.

The next day, we went on a 7:30am safari trip, which was way better than the night before. We saw even more antelope breeds, monitor lizards, a great hornbill, more baboons, more warthogs, crocodiles, and birds. More interestingly, we got out at one point, and we led on a mini-hike to these incredible caves back in the brush. They were actually man-made, and they think the people who made them centuries ago used them to hide out from weather, animals, enemies, etc. Also, some amazing pictures. Now they are inhabited by hundreds of bats, which you can actually smell from a fair ways off. But they were pretty cool looking, and, as it was daytime, they were all sleeping up on the ceiling. After the safari, we had lunch, and then we went to the Wikki Warm Springs one more time, to wash off the sweat and cool down a little (Yankari isn’t quite as hot as Yola, but its still pretty toasty—actually, when we were telling people we stayed in Yola, they all say some variation of “its so hot there.”). After that, we set out for 200 more kilometers of what Betsy calls “Butt Burner” road. Which it totally is. I got back to school at around 6pm, read Mission to Kala for my African lit class (more on that particular experience in another post), and promptly fell asleep. It was an excellent weekend, and, should any of you ever find yourselves in Nigeria, it is well worth a visit.

I hope you’re all well. Let me know how your summer are going; Skype has been failing me as of late, but e mail me (liz.bayer@gmail.com) and let me know how you are and fill me in on your news! I hope you has a lovely Memorial Day!


Baboons on top of the car, while Yusuf, Fatimadu, and Umar wait patiently to go on the safari.


Waterbucks at the central watering hole area.


This is a termite mound. They get gigantic, and this isn't even one of the bigger ones I saw there.


A warthog family enjoying the mud-hole next to our hut.


These strange and brightly-colored lizards are all over Nigeria, and they love to climb the walls inside and outside.


This is the Wikki Warm Spring. It was about 80 degrees all the time, and it was amazing!