Suspended in Air Surrounded by Monkeys- Lekki Conservation Center

Our trip to go see some beautiful wildlife creatures was almost tampered with; the devil had some plans, but ours were stronger!

My teammates and I had been planning this outing for weeks; we picked the Lekki Conservation Centre out of three suggested options. It’s safe to say we were very excited.

The trip was so fun; a lot of different things happened. At the end of the day, it felt like a whole week had passed. Stick around long enough, and you might get to hear about how the monkeys almost stole our food and fruit. We went band for band with them monkeys. 😅

Let me start with a little intro to the venue.

The Lekki Conservation Center comprises a 78-hectare urban nature reserve and was established in 1990 by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation in partnership with Chevron. Its goal is to preserve the vast mangrove forests and their wildlife inhabitants. This is to protect the area from urban development.

LCC consists of a lot of tourist attractions, such as

The Famous Canopy Walkway: The canopy stretches to approximately 401 meters. It is the longest suspended bridge in the whole of Africa and comes second in the world to the Senda di Dragun, located in Switzerland.

A Long Nature Trail: From this wooden trail, people can very easily see and interact with the variety of wildlife creatures, which include Mona monkeys, peacocks, crocodiles, monitor lizards, and over 600 plant and animal species.

A Family Park & Facilities: The family park consists of a playground with a variety of children’s swings and slides. It also has several sit-out areas, giant outdoor games, volleyball courts, and koi fish ponds. It’s available for relaxation for individuals of all ages, so it is family-friendly.

The trip was planned among all 14 of us nurse interns. It was supposed to be a fun way to end our one year of internship at the hospital. Like I said, we had been planning it for weeks, and we had notified all important authority figures back at work.

We communicated the date to them and asked that we be given a day off, to which they agreed. And so all was seemingly fine and going according to plan until the morning of the day rolled around. We, of course, were all on our way to the center when we started getting calls from our heads, asking why we weren’t at work.

Imagine the surprise on our faces. We immediately reminded them of all the previous calls and plans we had had. Our head nurse and deputy both said we should show up at work “in the next ten minutes or else we would be sanctioned.” Mind you, the next day was going to be our last day at work.

After some very disgruntled reactions and a conversation among ourselves, we all decided it would be smart to go forward with it. I mean, the food items we planned to share were being transported already. Multiple people were on their way, and none of us left our homes with work clothes.

So we rebelled and went forward with our plan. Honestly, it only made the trip more exciting. 😅😅.

When we finally arrived at the venue, it was so good to see one another. The compound was serene and tranquil. As I passed through the gate, I was greeted with a peacock whose feathers had lost most of their beauty. I proceeded to the waiting area to wait for the rest of us.

That’s when I noticed the monkeys. These creatures were hopping from one ledge to the other with reckless abandon. And at the slightest whiff of food and snacks, they would appear from thin air.

We were told by the tour guides later on that the monkeys became aggressive around food and we should be careful.

When the rest of the gang pulled up, we all took pictures and then went to pay for the experience. We were given paper wristbands and directed to the conference room, where they educated us on what to expect while on the tour.

Some minutes later we started and walked through the nature trail. While on there, we came across an alligator down in the swamp, and then we saw even more monkeys. This time, there were monkeys of all ages, from the little babies to the old graying ones.

After a long trek, we finally made it to the canopies and the suspended bridges. We had to be divided into groups of six each in order to cross the bridge. When I set foot on the first bridge, it felt like I was about to fall down into the nothingness way below. It was terrifying. My breath ceased at some point, and then came 😂.

I remember asking myself why I did it in the first place. But we eventually got to the second canopy. We had seven bridges to cross, each one being higher than the last. But we crossed it. As time went on, I felt more confident on the bridge. We even made some TikTok videos while on the canopy.

It was exhilarating. We finally made it down the seventh bridge and into the family park. We were all settled to have some well-deserved food. We were gathered around a table, gisting with one another. I didn’t realize there was so much to talk about after sharing the one-year internship experience.

We cracked jokes, laughed till our ribs hurt, prayed, and talked about our future moving forward. It was honestly so refreshing for my soul. The problem showed when we started serving the food. Out of nowhere, the monkeys started showing up.

Those monkeys have noses sharper than dogs. We literally had to close our plates after each bite and hold them dearly to our chests.

We kept swatting them away like flies, but they were relentless. One of them actually succeeded in swiping my friend’s plate. 😅 Thankfully, she was almost done with her food.

We wrapped up the evening with more photos and videos and finally left. We went back through the nature trail, where a monkey chased one of us carrying a nylon bag. Apparently they have come to associate nylon bags with food.

The day came to an end, we hugged one another, and we found our ways home.

_{All Images used are mine...}