Skip to main content

Tarkwa Bay


coconut treats for sale
coconut treats for sale
Tarkwa Bay is a stretch of divinely fine sand at the exit of the lagoon into the ocean, it is shielded from the high sea by a seawall of huge stone blocks which provides to the beach goers a bit intimacy from the tankers entering the harbour of Lagos.

a beach with a view
a beach with a view
Opposite the lagoon entrance is a vast construction work for the birth of a new city, Eko Atlantic: 250,000 people will live there on 9 million square meters. This will be a new center for finance and energy sectors, built on reclaimed land. It will be powered by its own power grid, independent of the rest of the country which produces about 20% of what Nigeria needs everyday. So far three towers have come up the ground.

Eko Atlantic: one, two, three
Eko Atlantic: one, two, three
Well, back to the plastic strewn beach. it is a quiet getaway from the city center, a 15 minutes boat ride from Falomo bridge in Victoria Island. The sand stretch is lined up with reclining chairs of wood and cloth. A cloth roof is providing life-saving shade. One can enjoy the quiet of the beach, music is amazingly discreet compared to the other beaches along the Lekki peninsula. Food and drinks are available, fairly affordable for the drinks. Grilled chicken or grilled fish with French fries constitute the menu options.

once upon a boat
once upon a boat
One can walk up to the nearby lighthouse and its ocean facing beach which is much wilder than the one of Tarkwa. Bodies of stranded vessels are lying on the shore, some very corrugated. There are just a few shade spots under roofs made of palm leaves. An interesting no man's land.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Ogiamien family in Benin City: about wood and history

Roland Ogiamien in his wood-carving workshop Wood Roland Ogiamien is a renown wood carver. He is now retired in his home town of Benin City and is now in his 80s. We met him in his simple workshop, a barn opened on the surrounding greenery. A part of the studio is used to store wood pieces and make sure they are well dried. He is using a collection of german ustensils to carve and polish the wood. He spent most of his career working out of Lagos before relocating to Benin. Roland was explaining that the wood he uses today is different that the one he worked on in his early days. Ebony has become rare and wood carvers have had to switch to other types of wood. Traditional heritage is a large part of his inspiration which he translates on wood with his own particular style, exploring various techniques for the finish of his pieces. Roland Ogiamien and two of his favourite masks History Ogiamien is the name of an important royal family in Benin Kingdom. Towards the end of the

tanker for sale

tanker for sale As in Singapore, many ships are crowding the horizon on the sea along the Atlantic coast of Lagos. These are patiently waiting for  their turn to come to unload or load their containers in the harbour of Apapa or Tincan Island. Most of them come and go after have completed their duty. But unlike Singapore some are just staying longer than expected, by design or by accident. Hence the coast is littered by ship wrecks which are rusting away and sinking in the sand progressively so that, in the end, they are no longer visible. once a great ship Stories point out human error as a reason for the ship's beaching. The captain went to see his girlfriends and the ship drifted ashore... seriously? More probable is that these ships are either beyond repair or the company owning her in financial trouble and therefore the ship is abandoned. from raw material to recycling One of them was a complete tanker standing ominously on the sand at the edge of the

The mysterious stones images of Esie

turned into Stones Chief J. Agbo Ooye had been waiting in the shade of a large tree, in front of the National Museum of Esie, dressed in ceremonial costume with a velvet hat incrusted with crystal beads sown in the shape of his title and his name. He was sitting next to his wife on a bench, expecting our arrival. His wife, he would tell us later, was his best friend and she was actually demonstrating it by guiding his frail body from one place to another and guiding his hand when it came to sign autographs of his books. Chief Agbo Ooye is the author of two booklets on the Esie Stones. The first one, called A Personal Account of the Esie Stones is giving an overview of the differences between the scientific and the traditional interpretation of the Esie Stones. The second one is called the History of Esie and gives a brief account of Esie's history from the early settlement of Yorubas in various groups (Esie, Oro, Eku Apa, Igbonla, Edidi, Igbesi, etc...) to the present day. Thos