I wondered what was happening when I stepped out of the hotel on Saturday morning and saw armed forces in the hotel compound. I quickly found out that the Governor had detached some of his personal escorts to accompany us on our journey out of Calabar! I sat on the bus right behind their leader and his AK-47 with double magazines taped to one another in a colourful yellow and green, the colours of Nigeria.
The IBM team left at 7.30am for a long drive to the Obudu Cattle Ranch (OCR) north east of Calabar. The road is paved pretty much all the way with the exception of a couple of sections, but it must have been sprinkled with asteroid dust because it is just a succession of potholes of varying sizes. Our driver must have practiced his driving skills over many years as he was zigzagging between holes and oncoming traffic at around 120km/h!
We stopped on the way at the Agbokim waterfalls to take a few pictures and have a nature break, always in the company of our faithful protectors. The next stop was a refuelling one at Ikom where we were quickly surrounded by local kids selling cashew nuts, roasted plantain, bananas and other snacks. It is just incredible to see the way they balance their load on their head as they walk about doing their business. I even saw a few ladies coming back from work in the fields carrying their machete on their head. Now my ignorant mind tells me it would also make sense to hold the machete though this would come across as a lot more threatening … I guess they just keep their hands available for other things, such as shaking hands five hundred times a day like we do in the office!
We arrived at the Obudu Cattle Ranch about mid-afternoon and hopped on the Austrian-made cable car to go up to the hotel resort. Now this place is out of this world, or at least it feels like it is out of Nigeria! It is actually only a few kilometres away from Cameroon. What a haven of fresh air, peace and quiet. I didn’t quite know what to expect and the Ranch was a very pleasant surprise. Our accommodation was in prefabricated chalets designed in Finland, surrounded by mist and a temperature below 20C. Very serene.
After a tour of the facilities, including the presidential suite and the governor’s lodge we made our way to the canopy walk, cattle ranch and yogurt factory, restaurant and quickly found the path to the bar. Actually we were chauffeured all the way, how sad.
Question: how do you light a fire at the OCR lodge ? Answer: what else but diesel fuel?! We heard a big whoosh, the hotel staff almost managed to get rid of all of his facial hair.
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