A walk on the wild side.

July 11, 2011

A walk on the wild side.

On Lekki Peninsula, across the Lekki-Epe Expressway from the huge Chevron compound (it's the size of an Army base), is an unassuming dirt track that leads to the Lekki Conservation Centre. Its primary benefactor is Chevron, and it has become a must-see attraction for ex-pats and school children alike in the Lagos area, as it is one of the few places left in the city where you can see the natural environment. Upon entering the gates and negotiating the entry fee with the guards on duty (everything here is a negotiation), there is a tidy parking lot in front of a large round building. Peacocks and their chicks strolled the grounds nonchalantly. Cool? Yes, but in the next moment, we spotted this from the car windows ... a huge tortoise! ... and forgot all about the peacocks. Seriously, I was so excited, I nearly stepped on the children trying to get out of the car.

A park guide told us this guy was 110 years old. Another tortoise nearby was 55 years old. They were grazing on the grass and not intimidated by us at all. And they move faster than you think! I mean, not monkey-fast, but I wouldn't sit down in this guy's path either. Those jaws look strong.

I love the look on Dane's face in this picture.

Hello, tortoise!

Speaking of monkey-fast, there was a canteen (snack bar) in one of the outlying buildings where we spotted this little gal sneaking in for a snack...

In the next moment, she had swung herself up high enough to snatch a meat roll (for background on meat rolls, see this post by a fellow blogger) off the table and scrambled up a gate, where she tore open her stolen prize and devoured it.

Little thief.

After that spectacle, we headed for the nature trail, which leads along a boardwalk over the mangrove swamps. Built in 1992, and rebuilt in 2006 (again with the support of Chevron), the boardwalk is roughly a 1.5-mile roundtrip hike into the jungle and back out again. With five years of wear and tear and weather under its belt, it is a lawsuit waiting to happen (or at least it would be in the U.S.). Nevertheless, we set out, keeping the children away from the softer looking boards and holding their hands past the spots where the handrails had fallen down (there were only a few).

Setting off along the boardwalk.

All flora and no fauna leads to bored little children.

"Can we go?!"

Swinging from vines ... I always knew they were monkeys.

We saw lots of flora, but not fauna, which meant the children got bored very quickly. From time to time, we did hear monkeys swinging through the trees or spot some walking on the boardwalk just around the next bend, but then the children would clamor so loudly that they would disappear before we got close. At one point, my friend Kim took the children ahead so I might get a chance to photograph a very camera-shy family of monkeys we had spotted. After a few patient moments, three members of the family dropped down to the boardwalk about 20 feet away from me and began walking away from me along the handrail. Every time I took a step closer, they took a step away, so I never did get a close shot (if only I'd brought my zoom lens!). I snapped what photos I could and then started after the kiddos.

As close as I could get.

See the monkey?

At about the same time, I heard Elizabeth softly calling my name: "Mom? ... Mom?" I turned the bend and there were the children with Kim, coming back to find me, because all the time I had been trying to get close to one elusive family of monkeys, they had run smack dab into a pack of monkeys that showed no signs of shyness. So off we trooped to see if we could find them again.

We did.

By the end of the encounter, I decided that these monkeys (mona monkeys, as I later learned) must be related to the monkey that gave Ben Stiller so much trouble in Night at the Museum, because they were little stinkers! The funny thing is that at first, we approached them so carefully and cautiously, fearful of startling them or scaring them away. Before long, though, I was stomping my foot on the boardwalk trying to get them to scatter, while hiding Nathan behind my back. They were used to seeing people and, I think, used to getting fed by said people, which may explain why one little guy kept trying to eat my camera.

Elizabeth decides to be brave.

"I'm brave! I'm a brave girl!"

"What was that?"

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

Phew! Safe again in Miss Kim's arms.

Did he think we were going to scratch his belly?

After we'd had our fill of photographing the little rascals, we sidled past them as quickly as we could and gladly returned to our wise, old tortoises who calmly allowed the children to stroke their shells. And thus ended our little walk on the wild side.