My journey to Ovu Lake, Enugu State

I finally visited Ovu Lake yesterday, this place have been in my mind for close to a year now but the reason I haven’t been able to go there is because of the location, not the distance though but because it’s not close to any known location… I know it’s in Enugu but don’t know the particular Community it’s located in, so I didn’t know where to start my journey from…

Each time I pin the location on google map the only thing I get is (Close to Amagunze) When I shift it a little and pin it to the same lake I get close to(Amaechi, Idodo, Oruku) because of this I kept procrastinating. What if I get to Amagunze or any of those Communities and there is no road leading to the lake? Anyways, yesterday I made up my mind that I most find that Lake no matter what it takes…

Instead of going through the suggested Communities that google said are closer to the lake I went through Akpugo. Akpugo and Oruku to me seems to be the closest Communities to the lake from what I saw on google map.. Because of the way, Oruku sounds I don’t even know how to start asking people where to get a vehicle going there and I have never seen a vehicle going to the place before so I went through Akpugo.. Entered a vehicle from Gariki at #400, on getting to the community I took a bike, the idea was to take a bike from there going to Oruku and then start my search from there.. But the bike guys said they don’t know the place neither do they know the lake I was talking about.. So i showed one of them the place and he pronounced it differently(Orúkū) instead of (Orúkú) and said he knows the place, and charged me #500. But before we left I decided to tell him where I actually wanted to go but he said he doesn’t know there. I asked him if he is ready to take me there while I use google map to direct me, he said yes but I will pay him #6k I said #1500 but later said #3k last, I told him I was going to pay him #2k but if he insists on the #3k I will still pay him but when we come back inside of me going back to Enugu I will come and live in his house and he knows as a guest in his house, it’s his responsibility to take good care of me, he laughed and said okay… Let go…

First we made a stop at Atavo Akpugo pool side after which we headed to Ovu… It took us 1hour 3 minutes from Atavo bridge to Ovu Lake, Guess what?… Anyway chill for now, the next Community after Akpugo is Akpawfu, but I never saw that Community on google map, we passed their market, it was their market day that yesterday but I never saw any vehicle there but the market was filled up, there were few commercial bike in the community, wasn’t sure I passed up to 4, but most of them have bicycle though, the ones that doesn’t have trek.. We also passed another landmark place in the community, I think their main village square because it has their “Ikolo House”…

We passed Uzomani Isiagu and kept going until we got to Ndibinagu Obodo Uvuru Akpofu, By then google was telling me am 8 minutes away from the lake.. I was a little excited that final I was going to see Ovu Lake not when we got to a place and my google map said you have reached your destination… I was shocked oo, my destination kwa? how does this place look like a lake? I looked front, back, left and right but I didn’t see any lake, it didn’t even feel like I was close to any water at all.. I had to look up and down to make sure the lake isn’t hanging on the air or maybe it’s an underground lake because I pin my destination to the middle of the lake so I was supposed to be in the center of the Lake..

Anyway, where the map stoped was the last motorable part so I told the bike boy to go back and follow one narrow road, by then the network wasn’t strong for me to know where we were and how much far away we were to the lake but my instincts was.. We followed the road, luckily it was bikeable until we got to the lake… Finally wow! Beautiful place… Saw some women and their kids farming.. I asked one of them… What is this lake called? She said Ovu, I said okay… She asked what I came to do, I ask am a tourist and I came to enjoy the beauty of nature, she gave me this strange look.. So I asked her, don’t people come here, she said, people like you, no… She asked again, where didn’t come from, I said Enugu, she gave me that look again.. I ask her, are there canoe here? She said yes but it belongs to fishermen, I told her I want to paddle a canoe she said the owners only come in the morning and evening.. I ask okay, let me just stroll around the lake, I greeted this other women and she doesn’t seem so curious, she was tending to her vegetable, we chatted for a while before I left…

After taking pictures and videos of the lake, a saw this man making his way to the lake, I greeted him and he was happy to see me.. He said, are you here to see our gold mine that is wasting? I smiled and said yes.. He said, this is the biggest lake in Nkanu land and yet people don’t even know of it… I said not just in Nkanu but Enugu State.. This lake is Bigger then, Nike, Iheneke, Ozii, Ugwuomu and others. We chatted for a while and I told him i wish I could paddle a canoe on the lake, he laughed as said, for you to do that you have to go to Anam, we don’t have such canoes here..

My canoe is not good to carry you, when next you are coming let me know so that I will get a good canoe and paddle you round the Lake… I said okay… Before then I asked him about the other close lakes to this one, he said it’s a little bit far but trekkable though, but since we have a bike, we can go back to the last place we saw three roads, when we get there we should follow our left and it will lead us straight to the lake. So we made a stop there before we left… There are about 14 smaller lakes within this place, although they are in different Communities, two is in Oruku, There are some In Amagunze, Idodo, and Amaechi… But Ovu happens to be the biggest one.. Because of time we he had to go back, I needed to take a drone shot of Akpugo before it gets dark but unfortunately it was already dark when we came back.. Came back to Enugu around 9:30pm