Life's a beach!

Beaches

Looking at the map, there must be hundred of kilometres of Nigeria coast between Benin and Cameroon overlooking the Atlantic ocean. 854kilometres in total

Atlantic Ocean...Sea of Atlas. The titan who held up the globe..I think that's why we called our geometry set, the Atlas set..I think. I remembered my dad called it Atlas set. 

Atlas set (google)

Anyway, its the second largest ocean after the Pacific and subdivided between North and South Atlantic. 

So far, we've been to a few of the beaches in Lagos State. The first one was the Madam's company beach hut. The location is still hazy for me. Suffice to say..if you look on the google map of Nigeria, you would see a long island with Tarkwa Bay at the entrance into the Lagos Harbour..yup, the long one. 

Note the Tarkwa Bay.... that looooong piece of real estate

on Google earth...very long beach

There are a lot of places in Lagos where you can get to the beaches here by boat. There's the marina right beside the Falomo bridge, but we took the boat at the Lagos Motor Boat Club at Awolowo Road. 

the name says it all..LMBC

The terrace overlooking the jetty..note the black luxury yacht across the LMBC. Two of them!

Fay at the jetty

"The Peak" motor boat, twin outboard engine

Trips like these usually organised by Jelle (pronounced Yella) and Marijke (Maraika). We usually have evening gathering (after maghrib) at their place in Banana Island...and they enjoy the beach. Good swimmers too, this Dutch family. Jelle gives swimming lessons every Saturday at a nearby apartment. Their children too are taking lessons to teach young swimmers. 

Patros (a Greek born in Nigeria, by a German mother and married to a French lady!) is Madam's favourite punching bag. He loves to argue with everyone. Must be the Nigerian in him! Ramon, the children's bodyguard were around too. So, it will be a safe trip. Trying not to give any heart attack to our mothers back in Malaysia. The trip took us about 45minutes from the club. 

L-R: Jelle, Marc, Ramon, Fay and Anki (Jelle's daughter)

Julius, the boat skipper. See, Madam beside Patros. 

After 45 minutes on the boat, speeding at about 70-80km/h...

terra firma!!!...solid earth, aheh?

Now, begins the 10 minutes trek from the jetty across the island to the beach hut. The sand here is pretty soft. Carrying a full size cooler box fully laden with drinks and bbq stuffs, it was tiring!

few hundred meters more!!!

At last!!! Peak Paradise

It was a simple beach hut and it was perfect! Well the beach is quite a way away, but to be here...after so much stories about it...we are thankful for Madam to be assigned to Nigeria and also to the great company (please take note, Mr Tarang... Madam's boss)

The pool and covered dining area. The ocean and a lone derelict Jeep in the distance

The bbq pit...also covered... noiiiceeeee. A resort (i think) beside the beach hut

The pool,  beach hut with deck and separate dining area

Nice to meet you, Mr Atlantic!

Ramon and the children

 The first time we saw the Atlantic was quite intimidating. Huge wave, it was deep and the rip current was pulling us to sea. It was quite worrying but since there were lots of us at the same time, it was ok. It was a struggle to stay put every time the wave crashes, so we keep ourselves really at the edge. The pros were swimming freely and doing some body surfing just like at Bondi Beach, Australia.

the relentless huge wave

It just go on and on and on...

Anyway, it was just a short swim but memorable one too. Especially when you were too used to the small waves in Port Dickson in Malaysia. As it is located at the Strait of Malacca, you don't get huge waves...ocassionally, but not always. So, this is just wayyyyy scary. Well, been there done that.

Ben giving a hand to Madam's promo activity

Lunch was BBQ, all of us brought our own stuffs. Except for the vege which we shared among us. Quite enjoyed the relishes they bought for the hot dogs. Oh ya, it was Jelle..again, at the BBQ grill. 

Huge compound! Loved it!

We continued swimming until about 4 plus. Julius were waiting for us at the jetty. This time, we have porters (the children from the nearby village) to carry most of the stuffs. At the jetty, each received Peak milk and some cash.. that's how it's done here. Another 45 minutes ride back to club...and another 15 minutes, we were at home. Not bad for our first outing to the beach

The swing was not a hit for the children..it was the small pool that made the day

Eleko Beach

It was the day after we arrived from Amsterdam and we got a new driver assigned to us by the company. 

As usual, spark of the moment...Madam wants to show us the beach she went during the team building activity in March. Off we went, hour and half...I guess must be due to miscommunication  between Madam and our driver..we ended up in Eleko beach, on the way to Epe (Eastern most town in Lagos State)

There was a beach in Lagos City, called the Bar Beach. But a huge reclamation project to build the Eko Atlantic City is going on there at the moment and suddenly, we Lagosian had no place to partay... There were lots actually, but the rest are either accessible by boat or too far away. Eleko was far... 

To enter, per person was 2000Naira (about RM 18). To park, another 500N maybe... and it was a short walk to the beach. 

At the beach...now this is quite normal here..the owner of the nearby hut will persuade you to use their plastic chair..for another 2000Naira!!! They consider, the piece of land directly in front of their beach hut are theirs. And so, the beach, the ocean and pretty much all the oil and gas that is abundant in Nigeria. But we refused nicely and our chauffeur all 6ft ++ tell them to bugger off...but in a very nice way. Ohh..he loves to laugh.. so he could diffuse tense situation quite easily.

Anyway, same drill. Huge wave, long beach.. horses here and there.. many pedlars etc... Some men along the beach wander around with sticks warning the children especially to be extra careful. Well, we came to visit and not to swim...so no wory there. 

That water is deep...trust me

Still snapping photos

Steep, no?

Ok, the wave was crazy towards the evening. We could see the wave crashing few metres away from the huts along the beach. No wonder, no one was swimming. This was mental! At least to me. 

an attempt at panoramic picture

before the wave

after the wave crashes...very foamy!

suddenly, here comes the wave!

We left around 6pm and traffic was bad. Especially approaching Ajah market (?). It's an open market, all day long. Dawn to dusk, and at night too. 

Tarkwa Bay

As usual, the usual suspects organising out beach trip would be Jelle and Marijke. They had good reason to do so. They have a pair of border terrier (Ando and Yippa) and beach offers endless space for them to run around. 

How we decided to go to Tarkwa Bay was, one of the engine needs servicing. So travelling to the company's beach hut was out of the question. Tarkwa Bay it is. 

Funny faces Fay

It was a short ride to Tarkwa Bay. But Julius was careful. The wave was huge due to the huge ships in and out of the Lagos Harbour. It was a busy day, on a Sunday! 

man from Atlantis

So shweet!!!

Now, Tarkwa Bay does remind me of Port Dickson. It wasn't steep. In fact it wasn't deep until you get pretty far. So the children really enjoyed it. Me too. 

You rent the chairs and the makeshift hut. 2000Naira per chair, they throw in a BBQ grill, charcoal and kerosene too. Ok, it was standard. Only some argument broke out between the local operators. Someone owed money to someone and wants it now. It was loud and it scared the children. But trouble has this funny way of attracting Jelle. Marijke noted it was just like his (Jelle) father. Always checking out, what's happening. That's how we know about the money issue.

But I do hope, the Naijas (Nigerians) would argue in very civil maner..and turn down the volume. It would only chase the tourist away. Anyway, taking advantage of the visitors local and foreign alike..the pedlars were everywhere. Selling table cloth, chairs out of wood which is nicely done (Jelle being a DIY man himself were inspecting it rather carefully),  beach wears, goggles etc etc etc... Dropping by every few minutes. And saying no is painful. Very persistent these people...

Very unusual from the rest...he brought with him a huge python

fresh coconut by the beach anyone

Ever so often, you would see big tankers, car ferries, container ships and what not entering and leaving the vicinity. Tarkwa Bay is the entrance to the Lagos Harbour. Actually, there were about 30 or so vessels waiting their turn to enter. But the most memorable one was a vessel with the name Grimaldi on it. I can only recall one such name and it belongs to a royal family in Europe. Anyway, it might be a common name...who knows.

By 4.30, we were very much ready to go home. The weather was nice, but the children got school tomorrow. Better they get ample rest before going. Julius arrived early to fetch us...as usual. 

Ahoy there, matey!

sharing nautical tales.. I do hope none are trying to BS  each other with stories like 30 feet wave on a small dinghy.. or Nigeria to Amsterdam on the company motor boat.. etc etc

Tarkwa Bay in the distance

Fay had too much fun... asleep as soon as we boarded

I rate Tarkwa Beach as the most children friendly beach. So far the best in Lagos (from the point of view of a very control freak father). Hope to visit other beaches too! Can't wait for the next trip. Will ask the rest in our WA group...a trip back to the beach hut would be great too.

This is just Lagos. I wonder how is it in other states? Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers....? 36 states in total..If I spend a month exploring each, would take me 3 yrs to finish....well, that's a nice thought. Have to ask Madam.