Lekki Conservation Centre (LCC) is one of Nigerian Conservation Foundation’s (NCF) foremost conservation project site Located in Lekki, Lagos. As the name implies, LCC is a conservation initiative to protect wildlife and vegetation found around this part of Nigeria in the face of sprawling urban development. LCC has been in existence for 21 years. I actually remember visiting here as a child with family friends, LCC however recently got a new look which I would talk about shortly.
Source: www.dasiko.com
Francis and I were looking for an ideal romantic and Green place to go to and after weeks of planning, we finally made it here, LCC is an ideal tourist attraction as on the day we visited, lots of foreigners were present and needed no tour guide as they were already familiar with the environment. LCC is great for educational and resource information on environmental protection and conservation makes an awesome romantic get-away, picnic with friends and for pure, natural relaxation. Below I have discussed my entire experience.
The Walkway
According to the LCC website, the trail boardwalk was constructed in 1992 to enhance the view of the vast resources of the nature reserve while walking through the mangrove terrain. The trail stretches a length of 2 Km. Some of the side attractions along the trail were the swamp outlook, bird hide, rest stops and some annoying little monkeys!
Because of how long we the walk takes, we were advised to get some drinks as we were soon to get really exhausted.
The Canopy Walk
Arguably one of the scariest things to do in Lagos if I do say so myself, notice how I was smiling before we started the walk?
That was before I was told that the canopy walk was the longest of its kind in Africa is 401M long, 0.6M wide and 22.5ft at the highest point where we were to be on the same level with some of Africa’s highest trees. I actually just bailed out because of my acrophobia – Fear of heights, Francis did not think I needed to go through all that trouble (plus he was a little bit scared). My eyes also clearly read the warning sign for people with acrophobia so I needed to respect myself. I was very happy to see waste bins situated at strategic areas of the walkway and entire environment, keeping the environment clean is a major key to success.
Walking away from the Canopy walk, one of the guards decided to boost my morale and give me the right information to get going. He told me the Canopy walk was the main attraction of the centre as I later got to find out. The Canopy Walkway was donated by the Lagos State Government to build tourism in the state on the 5th of May 2015, making it the longest in Africa. Awesome and scary right? The walkway was built with metal pillars by a German construction company; it has being maintained and checked every single day since its construction, boasted one of the tour guides. Another tour guide said to us, “The walkway is our parent and our baby, we care for it in ways people do not understand.” Of course, we could not understand, but we moved.
Pictures for the road
Higher!!!
There were about 6 levels to walk through to get to the other side of the canopy walk way, the scariest part for me and I guess everyone else walking through the canopy was at the highest point and level, at 22.5 ft where the wind had the audacity to push me from the right and centre. I had considered just jumping down to hug a tree for a minute but earlier prep talk and occasional “You can do this” from Francis helped me make it through.
We made it!!
And we did make it to the other side and promise land. It was just too exciting for both Francis and I. I guess what we learnt on this trip was simple – “Face your fears, you can do anything”.
I would love to visit the other sites that the NCF has across Nigeria, get involved in some of their projects although I will not be doing the canopy walk again, thank you very much. J
For more info, please visit: http://www.ncfnigeria.org/