Travel Destination: Oyorokoto

Referred to by most as the largest fishing port in West Africa, Oyorokoto is located on Nigeria’s coast by the Atlantic Ocean. Although the indigenous people in the area are Andonis, like most fishing ports, you will find people from different riverine ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and also from other West African countries. There are other smaller fishing ports in the area, one of which is called Ajogunle because most of the fishermen found there are Yorubas.

Most of Oyorokoto was gutted by fire in 2016 in clashes between rival gangs. You can still find traces of the destruction caused by the fire in the area today. Of course, for a settlement of its size, there is a primary school (well, if you can call a dilapidated building a school), hospital, police station and several churches. There is a rundown building that used to be a bank. It’s no surprise that power is provided by small personal generators. You should be able to make phone calls, problem is I can’t remember which networks work in the area.

After the insta story on Instagram on this trip, many asked what the purpose of the trip was. There were two goals. The first was to get to Oyorokoto. The second goal was to cover the 13 miles on the beach between Ikuru Town and Oyorokoto just because it’s a really long beach you can drive on.

The only way to get to Oyorokoto over land is to get to Ikuru Town and then make use of the beach along the coast all the way to the fishing port. The problem is you can’t make use of this route when the tide is high. There are rivers that spill into the Atlantic and it would be impossible to cross them when the tide is high; that’s if you can even find space on the beach to drive on. This route is longer but more convenient. We were unable to use this route on our way to the island because we realized the tide was still high when we arrived at Asarama (the last stop for most buses to Andoni from PH/Bori), so we used the second route which is shorter but has more stops. We took a speedboat to Ngo, then a motorcycle ride across the island at N400 each (that’s how long the journey was). On the other side of the island, we got into a canoe and rowed all the way to Oyorokoto.

Although it looked like it was raining in Ikuru Town, I still wanted the ride on the beach. It was difficult to find a motorcycle willing to make the trip. We finally found one just as we were about to leave the same way we came. So, against my better judgement, we headed into the storm towards Ikuru Town and it was awesome.

I don’t think I have been beaten by rain in years. I wasn’t even sure our driver could see. At some point, he had one hand covering his eyes and the other steering the motorcycle. Bear in mind we were four on this motorcycle that had seen better days. I had only two prayers: that water shouldn’t get into my camera and phone, and that I shouldn’t fall off this motorcycle. The motorcycle stopped several times but luckily for us, it purred back to life and got us to our destination safely. We got back to Asarama and took a bus back to PH.

There were many photographs I missed out on on the beach. Even in the rain, the views were gorgeous and totally worth it. There was the photo of about ten men dragging a big boat into the water in the rain while the ocean raged in the background. I missed out on that one and several more. My next camera will definitely be weather sealed. I mean, it’s okay to sometimes just take in the scenery, not every time taking pictures instead of living in the moment.

Security on the island has been iffy so I had to be careful with my camera. Man’s cannot come and lose his camera over yeye waka. Most people in the settlement didn’t want their pictures taken and told us so even before we asked; even children, which was a first for me. The second time will be different.

You can find more photos and videos on my insta stories @enefa_a

Trivia

When Jaja of Opobo was pushed out of Bonny he approached the people of Andoni for help and was offered the area that is today Opobo. You can see the LNG gas flare in Bonny from Oyorokoto. There is also a road from one of the islands in the area that goes all the way to Bonny. You can also get to Opobo from Andoni by road on a motorcycle. You might be able to do it with a car. You probably shouldn’t try.

This is also the same shoreline with Ibeno so you can technically take a boat from Oyorokoto to Ibeno if you are feeling adventurous.