The tide was rising and a cloak of frigid air enfolded the Degema area. It was close to mid-night and the moon soared high into a nude sky. Standing on the veranda of the lower deck of our houseboat which had been carefully moored on the banks of Sambreiro River, somewhere between Nkpor and Ilelema [...]
Filed under: Conservation, Travel, Travelogue | 8 Comments »
Still stood the skies above Yenagoa, Not in fear of heights, But in awe of a pristine wonder. Here I stand at ease, Above me soars a bow-shaped moon, Beneath me sprawls a bean-shaped mere. To my left and right spread an animated glass whose distant shores form a bow, and its mystifying beauty forms [...]
Filed under: Travel, Travelogue | 4 Comments »
A bell-less belfry juts into the clear blue skies, spanked on all sides by the merciless rays of the soaring sun. The mud-brick stones of the aged church beneath fortifies the ostentatious poise of the belfry, while its dexterously crafted fascias splash rows of spectacular shadows on its asbestos walls. This is the oldest church [...]
Filed under: Conservation, Travel, Travelogue | No Comments »
The kids thought the task was an easy one since fishing is an every-day activity in their community. So they grabbed their drawing papers and pencils with great zeal…. and after much drawing, erasing, ruffling of papers, peeking at each other’s drawings and some starting all over again, they finally submitted their drawings and waited [...]
Filed under: NaijaTrek Foundation, Naijatreks Young Writers Contest | 14 Comments »
Coals of fire, dancing on Sambriero River, Bubbles of lightening, sitting on plush sofas of gently bouncing waters. It is sunrise, the sun has begun to soar like a kite in the skies, And shadowy pockets of mangrove thickets are bathed with its rising light. The world beneath, rivers and creeks, are still [...]
Filed under: Poetry, Travel, Travelogue | 1 Comment »
“Still, laid the lifeless carcass of a beautiful turtle upon the cold floors of a wooden batcher in Elem-Sangama village, Soku, in the Niger Delta. It was in the harsh claws of a fisherman’s net that it was caught, conquered and dragged ashore by a rustic dug-out boat hewn from the sempervirent mangrove forests cloaking [...]
Filed under: Conservation, Travel, Travelogue | 9 Comments »
Two young boys stand at the edge of a gentle creek in the Soku community of southern Rivers State, Niger Delta. It’s about 7am in the morning, and the oil workers had just begun to disperse into the creeks to continue their daily operations in the area. The boys had spotted a calm [...]
Filed under: Culture, Travel, Travelogue | No Comments »
…even the two kids weren’t afraid to hold the croc as their mum sliced its neck. “Na only 4 Niger Delta dis kind thing fit happen oh. Gbam!” The picture above had been widely circulated across Nigerian social networks for some days now; and it obviously describes one of the dangers confronting Nigeria’s ecological biodiversity. [...]
Filed under: Conservation, Inspiration, Travel | 4 Comments »
My abode is the Delta. I was carved from its timber, old, strong and un-withered. Until a creek has to be crossed, or islands to be hopped, I stay quiet, moored and tied in ropes of jute to my master’s private jetty- a jetty of rough planks hewn from the delta’s mangroves. Both night [...]
Filed under: Culture, Poetry, Travel | 4 Comments »
A poultry of multicoloured avians laced the banks of a waning narrow creek. Although it was mid-day, the waters appeared to have fallen asleep, wrapped in a blanket of verdant colours, as a poultry of 7 birds gently suck from its muddy edge. These birds I have never seen before, and these I beheld and [...]
Filed under: Conservation, Travel | 2 Comments »
