NIGERIA: Lagos: Conversation on Conservation in Lekki?

If you ask me about Africa, top of my list would be Safari. 

And speaking of Safari, I bet some of us must've watched a TV series about a vet clinic in Africa. It was Daktari! Remember that? Babies of the 70's and early 80's? Need to jog you memory? Just click here for the opening theme. Ahhhhh the 'good ole days'. 

I did browsed for safari in Nigeria but to no avail. It was when my friend, Yunus and family came to visit us last month, he mentioned a name which I've totally forgot about it. It was Lekki Conservation Centre. So off we went with Khairy from MATRADE on a balmy Saturday morning.

toll gate at Lekki bridge

signboard to the conservation

NIGERIA: Lagos: Harmattan is back

I love the lagoon. On a clear weather, you could see the 3rd Mainland Bridge and as far as Ikorodu at the other end of the lagoon.  

Lagos Lagoon in sunny September

In late October, I witnessed a huge number of water hyacinth on the lagoon. It impeded the movement of boats and the local fishermen of the lagoon. The hyacinth come and go but at the moment, the number had decreased tremendously. 

Little I realised that, there were sign of Harmattan on the pictures taken below...

lagoon with water hyacinth in October

Harmattan. Harmattan who?

In these part of the Western Africa, dusty wind blown from the Sahara region into the Gulf of Guinea. It causes the sky to have some reddish tint. It will be like this till early March next year.  

Temperature wise? I would say it's between 28-32 deg Celsius in Lagos state. But in Jos, Plateu state...at night it would go down to a bone chilling 14 deg Celsius! It's dusty and could irritate the eyes, nose and throat. Asthmatic patients, just beware.

picture taken this morning (24th Nov. 2016)

Anyway, it's here....maybe in a different format (black and white?) the picture above would be better looking. Maybe...  

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town: Day 4 (Simon's Town)

What I like to do when I travel is to try the metro or train. It's a convenient way to get to your destination and it could be cheaper too. Since there was no train or tram within the city, we decided to go to any of the attraction by train, if there's any. One place DID cropped up in my search..... Simon's Town.

OK...I was so excited when I first looked at google map about the train trip to Simon's Town. A part of the trip will meander along the coastline of False Bay. Also, Simon's Town has it's own attraction too, the penguins.

Route from Cape Town to Simon's Town

We walked from the apartment to the main terminal in Cape Town. There are lots of train from here to all over South Africa for this station, We bought our tickets and head for the correct platform and chances are, your train would be there waiting to depart. If you're unsure about the train platform, fare, train time, the officers at the info counter would be delighted to assist you.

Cape Town train station

The train and platform info, ours was the 0149

the platform

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town: Day 3 (Robben Island)

The visit to Robben Island, permit me to say....was THE highlight of the trip. Three men who were 'institutionalised' on Robben Island came out and became the President of South Africa! A funny  fact but at great cost. The late Nelson Mandela was an inmate there for 18 years out of his 27 years in prison. 

Swing Bridge (right), Red Clock tower and
The Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island (left) 

For the online ticket, you can get them at http://www.robben-island.org.za . There are 4 trips per day (weather permitting) and online tickets usually sold quite fast. The trip to the island is about half hour to an hour, a three hour tour and another half hour to an hour return leg. All in all, we're looking at 4-5 hours total time. 

We took the last trip at 3pm and by 2.30pm, the waiting hall at the jetty was packed! 3 boats per trip to ferry visitors to and fro the island and each are good size vessel. Still, due to unfavourable weather conditions...they would cancel the trip. So they will ask you a contactable phone number when buying ticket. Just in case.

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town: Day 3 (Springboks Museum)

Third day!

Took an Uber to the V&A waterfront. Springboks and Robben Island today. The boat ride to Robben Island departs from a nearby jetty. 

The Cape Wheel

I like the V&A waterfront. There's so much to see (historical ones) and they have decent food courts serves halal meals. The children love the Hamley's and Toy Kingdom with the adjacent LEGO store. There are map all over the place so you won't get lost. 

Ben wanted to visit The Springbok Experience Museum just walking distance from the waterfront. Just look for the rugby goal post by a tall wall, across the road and you'll find the museum there.

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town Day 2 (Two Oceans Aquarium)

We alighted at the HOHO bus stop not far from the aquarium which is at V&A Waterfront. I was told by my friends who gave me specific list of places to visit with the children, this is a must visit attraction. voila! The Two Oceans Aquarium

We bought the ticket online as there's a 10% discount on each ticket. The ticket for adult is about RM41 or USD10 per person and children 4-13 ticket is 50% less than the adult. 

Two Oceans Aquarium, where two oceans meet, the Atlantic and Indian ocean. I recommend that you arrive either at around 11.30am or 2.30pm, during the feeding time. 

presentation by the centre's personnel

the I&J Ocean exhibit feeding

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town: Day 2 (Table Mountain National Park)

Day 2!!! 

After the HOHO bus trip, we had some idea where are most of the attractions are and which ones we would like to visit. But any visit would not complete if without the visit to the most visible feature of the town....Table Mountain.

View from the apartment

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town: Day 1

SOUTH AFRICA!!! Cape Town!!! 

Hello! Hallo!

Sawubona! (actually that's the name of the SAA inflight magazine - Hello in Zulu, I think)

Land of Spur, Ocean Basket, Debonairs Pizza, Shoprite, Game, MTN, Standard Bank/Stanbic Bank, South African Airways, DSTV, Trevor Noah and Mandela (the last two being aired almost on monthly basis). With Mandela most notably the 3 movies :

1) Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

2) Goodbye Bafana

3) Invictus 

(Will talk more on the movie much later..or just IMDB it...I mean not 1MDB, but Internet Movie DataBase...phew, that could be quite a....ahem topic. Steering away from it right now)

Cape Town during our visit was in the low to mid 20's ºCelsius and the sweater from Sarcasteek serves the purpose. At the airport, Jean-Luc came to send us to the apartment at Adderley Street in Cape Town's Central Business District. 

A few minutes after we left the airport, Jean-Luc began the usual 'tour guide' enquiry. How many days? Places to visit. Infos on the best time to visit the many places of attractions etc etc. It was during this time he mentioned about the settlements along the freeway.

SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town: Autumn Break ramblings...

Autumn break came and went, but we opted for spring time so we went down south to Cape Town, South Africa. Madam and the children had visited Johannesburg a year earlier and decided that I should do the same, albeit to a different city. 

We left Lagos on the last school day and naturally at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA), it was like a reunion of sorts. A dear friend of mine, Shatish once told me..."I tell you, the moment school ends it will be a 'white-out' day at the airport". What he actually meant was, almost all the oyinbo (white, foreigner) will be away for holiday or back to hometown, especially the ones with the children. 

We took the South African Airlines and the flight will transit at Joburg's O.R Tambo International Airport for about 2hrs before continuing our journey to Cape Town International Airport. Two thing I would like to remind any prospective travellers to SA....

1) Check with the airline if you're continuing your flight to other destination from O.R Tambo, do you have to get your luggage at the carousel and check in (again) at the domestic counter at the airport?

2) If you're travelling with children, and I mean your children apart from the passport, please bring along the original Birth Certificate or a copy with stamp and sign by authority (lawyer or officer at embassy/high commission) to certify the genuineness of the document (adopted children, bring the adoption document)  failing which, I don't think you can enter SA. 

Madam had difficulty last year when I was not around. I had to email her a letter giving consent to bring the children into SA because I am still around...if I am not (dead, extinct, late, lost, departed), then my death certificate would suffice.

Please check if you're travelling with someone else's children (I mean travelling with niece, nephew etc). Please check this leaflet provided by the Home Affairs Dept of SA (leaflet)

There's a reason for all these and best to just follow. It's you going to their country and not the other way around. For all you know, they're doing their bit to deter child trafficking in and out of SA. 

I always say to my friends, if you don't fancy going there...there's another 53 countries in Africa continent alone and a short flight out of Nigeria, will get you to Europe and even the Middle East! All in all about 120 countries between 40deg East and 15deg West of the world map (all from GMT line).

By the way...looking at the cloud over the Lagos Lagoon on the day we left Lagos, spring must be looking good in Cape Town, no?

storm brewing over Lagos Lagoon on Friday, 14th October 2016

NIGERIA: Lagos: Banana Island Cultural Festival 2016

Counting how many times you've been to a certain festival is a sure way of knowing how long have you been around or in my case, in Nigeria. We didn't miss the Small World earlier this year and last year in October, there was the Banana Island Festival. This year too we celebrated our Eid al Kabir twice in a row (2015) & (2016).

We arrived very much later. We missed most of the performance, even the 'Poco-poco' dance by the Indonesian group. I think we were late for everything! Missed the nice food too!