Touring Ikogosi Spring

A Survival Guide

1. Entrance To The Warm Spring Source. 2. Arinta Waterfalls

How do you tour the acclaimed Ikogosi Spring and nearby Arinta waterfall?

Short answer, you don’t!

Post-pandemic events are mostly virtual, So take a virtual tour through IG pictures with related tags. Watch some travel vlogs on Youtube. I mean, you were going to spend half the weekend in bed, anyways.

Don’t drive six hours away from civilization and your duvet just to go dip one foot in warm water and the other in cold water.

Don’t escape the hustle and bustle of the big city amidst fuel scarcity and heat only to run deep into the forest, into the comforting arms of unknown animal sounds behind your patched-up window net.

But you won’t listen, will you? Your coconut head and bags are packed. You’ve got the tourist bug and it’s bitten hard. Well, I did try.

Hmmm, okay. Disclaimers are done. Now, let me tell you how to make the best of this utterly insane decision.

1. Rope a group of your loved ones into it. There’s no point suffering alone. Gotta have some company to go with that misery. Please note I didn’t say, partner, I said group. This is not a Bae-cation. Ignore my warning and put your 6-month-old relationship to the test. See whether they wouldn’t break up with you halfway through Osun state. Who knows, maybe it’s that kind of shared trauma that leads you both to matrimony.
2. Plan your trip. Open a google doc, and outline every possible event. Make a checklist and share it with your travel buddies to make adjustments. Yes, you can’t envisage that your flip-flops are going to snap right as you walk down the steps into your room. Truth is, everything will most likely go horribly wrong regardless of your detailed plans, but imagine how much worse it could be if you tried to wing it.
3. Choices, Rooms, and Food. If you’re wise and are you really if you choose to go on this mission despite my desperate warnings? Anyways, if you’re wise, you minimize the damage and plan to stay only one night. My group stayed at the Ikogosi Warm Spring resort, a 10-minute walk from the spring and a 15-minute drive from the Arinta Waterfall. My guess is there are better hotels, albeit farther away from the Spring. Regardless of your choice, call ahead and get a couple of rooms to share with your group. They might ask you to send your prepaid menu. Our caterer had to travel into town to get the ingredients ahead of your arrival. Choose simply, this is a village and all ingredients are locally sourced. Think more “rice and bushmeat stew” and less “waffles and bacon with whipped cream and fresh strawberries”. The portions are very filling. Each person can have something different and then the group shares, buffet style. My personal recommendation for lunch at the resort is pounded yam & Efo. The bright green leaves had a definite delicious crunch and the grasscutter was tender and well spiced. Utter perfection! Stay away from the catfish. It was huge and looked tempting. but the seasoning didn’t cut through. oh and don’t leave before breakfast, your bodies need a full tank for the journey back. My party had shared plates of yam and egg stew, fish sandwiches, and hot cocoa.
4. Fix Car and Fuel up. Needless to say, your travel car needs a full tank too. Both ways. Ensure your vehicle and spares are in prime shape for the road trip. It would be hours before you got any help if your car got stuck on one of those sloped hills. I imagine you would stand and stare at the mountainous beauty for all of 40 seconds before you all broke down in panic. Map out the drive ahead and plan for people to take turns in driving. Except of course someone in your group drives interstate trucks for a living. Our designated driver threw up on the hills of Ado-Ekiti.
5. Cash and Pills. On that note, take along some over-the-counter emergency pills- Something for pain, something for allergies, something for nausea or vomiting, and something to put diarrhea on hold. No names, I’m not qualified to prescribe anything. Also, a special reminder to my folks devoted to the cashless lifestyle, withdraw cash. If you forget before you leave, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to stop before you get into the village.
6. Music. It won’t hurt to download your favorite Spotify playlists. The reception is wanky and the radio stations are iffy. Have a designated DJ. You need a soundtrack for the adventure of a lifetime.
7. Pack a cooler of water, drinks, and lots of ice. The drinks in my cooler were much colder 12 hours after they were packed than what the local bar served. Get some fruits and snacks to munch on. The food you so delicately ordered will likely be late.
8. Party Games. Pack some games. You’re going to need some distraction deep in the forest without the internet, and scheduled generated power (7 pm-7 am). Your group can sit outside in the early evening to take in the natural beauty, and catch up on gossip.
9. Toiletries. Abandon your dreams of a weekend getaway in a 3-star hotel. Mentally prepare yourself for a visit to the village and a stay in a beaten-down hostel. Pack towels, toiletries, and bathroom slippers. Also, beddings if you get icky easily.
10. Take Pictures The actual hotspots are very underwhelming, but the views! Prepare both mentally and with equipment to take amazing pictures. i.e pack a camera if you have one. Put your patience and enthusiasm in your backpack as well. I mean I wouldn’t do it all over again but those gorgeous pictures more than made up for it.

Well, I hope you, and the loved ones you drag along, have an amazing time. Despite my protests, we did have a fun, unique ride of a lifetime. Here’s a recount of my personal experience.

Our group of four set off at some time past 6 on Saturday morning. We made a couple of stops in Lagos to pick up the rest of the crew. Before 9 am we were in Ibadan. For some reason, I had lived all of 5 years in Yoruba land without eating amala. So early on our journey, we stopped at Mama Adija Eatables, Ibadan to correct that mishap. It was a delicious and worthy first experience.

Bushes - forest - tarred road - hill - rock, the scenery was identical for the rest of the drive, up until the sloped roads overlooking magnificent hills in Osun and Ekiti States. Nigerian villages all look alike to me, then again, I haven’t seen them all.

As planned, we arrived at Ikogosi Spring Resort a few minutes before noon. The first thing we noticed after stretching our legs from the long drive, was the air. It was soooo clean. The forest is such a powerful oxygen filter.

The post-arrival plan scheduled unpacking, bathing, changing, and lounging in the rooms for a bit, then going off for our pre-ordered lunch. We parked the car close to our hostel and brought down our bags, for a two-day trip, we sure packed a lot of stuff. Our first shock was the lack of power. The resort is exclusively self-powered. The resort staff explained, Ikogosi town and two neighboring villages had not had distributed electricity for over 8 years, since the Nigerian Power Sector was privatized in 2013.

The sun was high up with no clouds in sight. We would have steamed in those rooms with no fans or cooling system, so lounging there was out of it. The bar around the swimming pool was said to have power during the day, so we took our lounging there. Our lunch wasn’t ready, we got some light food, people-watched the pool crowd for a bit, then headed back to the rooms for a nap. The guys napped and the gals gossiped. We had some snacks leftover from the road trip, so we entertained. Then the gals napped while the guys wandered. By the time we were all awake, we felt too groggy to participate in anything. Someone even suggested turning back.

A bath was what we really needed to change our minds. Pipes laid within woodland brought the refreshing spring water to our shower, or more honestly, a single-flow tap over our heads, (Of course, your room might have a shower nozzle). Sprinkler or not, the cold water brought us back to life and we drove down to the poolside bar for our lunch-turned-dinner.

They might not have power, but the Ikogosi spring feeds the three villages with clean cool running water. It is used for practically everything. Before we dug into the pounded yam and bushmeat Efo, we washed our hands in a bowl of water scooped from a nearby stream. The bottles of water we drank (Gossy) were also sourced from the spring.

Lunch was brilliant and assuaged our early disappointments. With a renewed will to live, we strolled to finally see where the warm water and cold water met. The confluence is narrow enough that you can dip one foot in the warm and another foot in the cold. Each spring maintains its individual thermal properties.

A gallery full of pictures later, we returned to our lodging area and waited for the scheduled power under the starless sky. We had a late dinner in one room with card games and charades entertaining us till very late. The drinks from the ice cooler were still cooler than what was served.

The next morning, we had a hearty breakfast and set out for home. But, not before stopping to see the Arinta Waterfalls. It was Sunday morning and the gatekeeper was still worshipping, so we waited at the gate with the low fence, accompanied by memories of boarding school convincing us we could easily scale the fence. As self-respecting adults, those thoughts remained silent voices.

“5 mins more, you’ll see me now”- the gatekeeper promised. We drove at top speed on an endless slope and there was nothing except trees and hills for about 12 miles. Even if his bike could transform into a jet, it would still take the powers of teleportation to make that 5 minutes. Ik is working on that technology, so who knows…

15 minutes pass, and we call the number on the gate again. We had come all this way, and we weren’t going to go back before touching the water. For all our determination, we weren’t prepared for the hike that awaited us. But it was a hearty workout. We got as close to the water as we could without losing our footing on the slippery algae-covered rocks. The descent was quicker and those that had to change clothes did so behind the car. The energy from our breakfast had been expended and our journey resumed.

There’s one other spot we could have stopped to see but didn’t- Erin-Ijesha Waterfalls, Osun State which was a 30-minute drive from the smaller Arinta. The waterfalls were said to be discovered by one of the (grand)daughters of Oduduwa during the migration of the Ife people to Erin- Ijesa. Just like we saw on the short hike to Arinta waterfall, the natives often offer sacrifices at the site.

On the road home, we stopped by and did a half year’s worth of shopping for produce and traditional staples - yam, dried bush meat, palm oil, honey, plantains, udara, and the like. We even priced a basin of snail, but with those prices, we figured we’d be better off buying from an Instagram vendor.

We got home safe with full and happy hearts, swearing to never repeat this.