ROAD TRIP TO ENUGU.

Enugu has always been one of my favorite cities in Nigeria, not because I have been there before or because of her beautiful hills and landscape but because it has Nsukka in it. 

The University of Nigeria Nsukka(Situated in Enugu state) has been my dream school since I can remember. The major reason for this is because of my love for Chimamamda Ngozi Adichie (My favorite writer), she partly schooled there and wrote a lot about the place in her books. 

The news of traveling to Enugu because of my brother's wedding got me excited. The thought that I'd be breathing the same air Chimamanda breathed was exhilarating. I couldn't wait for the supposed day of the trip to arrive.

My family hardly travels together, even if we were attending the same event we might just end up coming separately. This trip had us all traveling together, making it more fun. 

And so came Thursday, October 26. As early as 6 am we arrived at the bus park, then sat to wait for like 30 minutes before the vehicle was ready and then we boarded. 

From ughelli, the first eye-catching structure I came across was the "DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OZORO". We (my family and I) gossiped about how the school was looking, "Na only the name dem change for this school", my sister added. 

I wanted to sit by the window so badly. Sadly, my brother had already occupied it, regardless I enjoyed the trip. It was a feast of the eyes as I took in every detail along the road. 

Something peculiar to the road was the palm trees and thick bushes. The palm trees had this impressive arrangement format. It was in a straight line, neatly arranged in order, going whichever way the wind blows. The bushes, it was as thick as the so-called, "Evil Forest" in Nigerian movies. 

I didn't quite understand why there were a lot of police check points on the road, It was so annoying being stopped every 1 hour by police for no good reason. 

Utaogba Technical College was the next eye-catching infrastructure. Meeting this we could tell we were already at Kwale, having spent a little fraction of my childhood in Kwale and not being there for over 10 years I was so happy, next I came across the sign post of Novena University. Kwale had really developed since I last visited it. 

Moving on, we came across this sloppy road. The road was going up and down, at some times it was as though we were climbing up an inclined planes and other times it was as though we were going down. I didn't get the name of the place though, but I do remember it had red soil. 

A little further from this place had this beautiful landscape, it was so pretty my eyes almost brought water. There was hills and caked clay uniquely deposited in nature, this scenery got me mesmerized, unfortunately, the vehicle was moving too fast that couldn't take in all the beauty. 

It was later after passing I was told the place is called, "Ughuashi". Next was Ibusa, this place was so much as Ughuashi. 

We soon entered Asaba, it was pretty and had this hustle and bustle setting. It was at Asaba we had a short break to eat and rest a little before continuing our trip. 

Another fascinating thing was the Onitsha bridge(I heard it is the river Niger). For the first time in my life I saw real boats, the water was large, thanks to an hold-up in the bridge I was able to have a good view of the water and all. Just above the road at the left hand side was written, "Enjoy life responsibly", this got me thinking. 

Soon we were out of the bridge and was passing through the main Onitsha town. One noticeable characteristics of Onitsha was their multiple storey building and busy road. 

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep resting on my brother's shoulder only to wake up fee minutes later and realized we were in Awka. Still in Awka I saw this beautiful place, "International convention center Akwa", and next was the famous Nnamdi Azikwe University Akwa, it wasn't looking bad but I expected more. 

From Akwa to Enugu was the longest part of the journey but not because it was so far apart but because we came across too many police on our way and when they aren't given what they want they intentionally wasted our time. 

After a particular police stop that made us wait for closely an hour I was already tired, the initial euphoria of visiting Enugu had ran thin, the beautiful scenery and landscape weren't as exciting. 

And then finally we arrived. Like I always say when I visit a new place, "The air here was different", perhaps because Chimamanda had been here. Headed to the motor park my already dead enthusiasm partly came back alive.

I loved the city, down from the red clay soil to the yellow keke( tricycle) to the huge buildings to flowers to the sculptures. 

Indeed it was a stress-fun day. 

I hope you enjoyed my rumbling. 

@favvy_Okwans🖤.