Enter, Benue River

For whatever reason, I thought it's usually cooler in the northern parts of Nigeria. That was so not my experience when I was traveling between Abuja, Nasarawa, and Benue in the north-central region. But the most interesting thing was my time on the Benue River.

Benue River happened to be the shortest route to my destination in Nasarawa State, but it was also my first time on a long boat ride. To my surprise, there's a whole life there—a completely different world, in fact. But getting there took way longer than I imagined. From Abuja airport, it's at least a four-hour drive to Benue River. As I don't really enjoy traveling long distances, I found this to be very tiring, perhaps because it was just too hot for most of the journey.

And that was my first shock. When I thought the extremely busy life in Lagos would make it the hottest state, Abuja was on a different level.

Speaking of different, I only knew Ondo State to have a lot of big rocks everywhere—what Yoruba people call àpáta. Abuja and Makurdi, Benue, also have a lot of big rocks. In some rural areas in Makurdi, there are many houses built on them. The rocks are always a pleasant sight to me. There's hardly any in Lagos.

I have been on canoes before. I don't like them. My BP is always so high. Speedboats, though, never. Knowing that it has more stability than canoes, I was cool riding one. Considering the large expanse of the Benue River and the fact that I am not yet great at swimming, I was already praying to my father as I wore the life jacket. The riverine people there were happy to see us, my colleagues and me, though. Surely, they were laughing at the way we were entering the boats.

For the twenty-five minutes we were on the river, it was like I was in Africa for the first time. I mean, I just couldn't fathom how these people were living, fishing on their canoes and sleeping in huts in the middle of literally nowhere. What's the first thing they do every morning? Definitely not watching YouTube shorts.

Anyway, we were on the river, and it was really wide and long. Benue River is the longest tributary of the Niger River, the third-longest river in Africa. It was about 6 PM, so one would expect it to be getting cold. Nope! It was damn hot. I thought it was just me and my exhaustion from the day's journey until someone else mentioned that they were feeling hot.

It was cooler on our way back, and maybe it was because it was in the morning this time. And to no surprise, the network there was poor. Hardly could I make calls, let alone use the internet. But I must say, the feeling on the waters was soothing. The smell was refreshing, and the calmness and peace are something I'd like to experience soon again.