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Nigeria is a beautiful place and Taraba State particularly Sardauna LGA is indeed natures gift to Nigeria. This post is about my trip to the most beautiful place in Nigeria.
Emeka, Kaye and I left for Jalingo from Abuja on a rainy Wednesday morning. The trip was uneventful with many checkpoints on the way. It finally stopped raining somewhere around Wukari. Overall, it was a smooth journey.
We arrived Jalingo a litle past 6pm. Trip lasted about 11hrs. My friend Jerry picked us from the motor park to Sanaf Suites where we had dinner and settled down in preparation for our trip the next day. The next day, Jerry took us to the park where we were to get a vehicle to Gembu. We met our driver, Mal Yahaya who was going to Gembu with his son Idris. We paid 10k for 4 spaces and sat comfortably behind with Idris in front. Mal Yahaya turned out to be the perfect guide. He was quite familiar wit the route and gave us a brief history of most of the towns we passed which include Sunkani, Pamanga, Garba Chede, Pangri, Nahuta, Bali and Serti.
At Serti, we picked up 2 more of Mal. Yahaya’s Kids; Rahina&Amina. I withdrew some money from a first bank money agent, we had lunch at Ezinne Resturant (I was amazed to see Igbos this far up north) and then we continued on our way, The sights on the way were beautiful; green plains and mountain ranges with their peaks kissing the clouds. We kept taking pictures to Mal. Yahaya’s amusement. He advised us to reserve our phone batteries and memory for better locations.
At some point, Mal. Yahaya pointed to a mountain up in the sky above the clouds and said that was where we were going. We looked at him in disbelief. How could we ever possibly get that high, True to his words, we started climbing up the mountain. Our disbelief quickly turned to euphoria. We were super excited. Every turn revealed a road more beautiful than the previous one. We were awed, the kids were laughing at us.
Mal. Yahaya indulged us by stopping at several points along the way so we could enjoy the views. Picturesque landscapes, mountain peaks, waterfalls, blue tinged hills in the distance, trees, clouds and wildlife.
We finally got to the top after about an hour. I was overwhelmed, the views were breathtaking beautiful. We passed through cattle ranches, green topped hills, a town in the clouds and a market where we bought bananas at N200/bunch.
We arrived Gembu Town after about 10hrs on the road. Got to Fast Track hotel. Sarah and Gupsy helped us settle down in our rooms and prepared rice and stew. I gave them some of my cookies they were genuinely pleased.
The next day, Mal. Yahaya who had agreed to be our tour guide picked us from.the hotel and took us to a few places of interest in Gembu. SEGN Dam, Nverr Hills, Tea Estate and Jur Waterfalls.
The trip to Jur Waterfalls was the most eventful. We were on a bike for close to 2hrs passing through winding mountain trails and rivers. A tough journey but totally worth it. The waterfall was beautiful.
Along the way, we met several people from both the mambilla and fulani tribes who inhabit the mountains. They were generally pleasant and warm and agreed to take pictures with us.
One aunty was particularly nice to us. She brought a basket of roasted groundnuts and insisted we ate some. We all filled our pockets and said our “Miyettis” and left. It was a positively exhausting day.
The next morning, we set out for Yelwa wherever were to meet with the guide who would take us to Chappal Waddi, the highest point in Nigeria. We stopped for pictures at Nguroje, the town nested in the clouds.
Unfortunately, due to the bad weather we were advised against going to Chappal Waddi because the trip was most risky in August. We finally settled for a tour of Ngel Nyaki, Nigerian Montane Forest Project. The staff were very welcoming and showed us around. It was interesting to see the work they do on land reclamation, forest restoration and conservation. Sadly the weather did not allow for some forest exploration.
We made a few more stops at several locations. We met Isah washing his bike at a spring. He helped us fetch some clean water in our water bottles.
We finally left for Jalingo and the next day, we took off to Abuja. The driver took an interesting route where we had to cross the Buruku river in Benue State.
Also Read: A Road Trip From Anambra To Enugu
Overall it was an interesting trip and we were so happy we went. If you’re planning a trip to Gembu, please do it, it will be worth your time and money.
Look at us
Kaye
Emeka
and Mal Yahaya our guide.