Throwback to STEMng Meetup at Lekki Conservation Center, Lagos

It was July 2018 and the Nigerian authors in the STEM subjects on the steem hive blockchain decided to meet physically, beyond the various virtual chats and on-chain interactions. Thanks to the @stemsocial community managers who supported the formation of the @stemng sub-community, me and @greenrun coordinated the community and were able to accrue a decent number of writers from Nigeria, although many of them have now become dormant.

After months of planning and with the bear eating deep and motivation to write waning, we decided the place of the meet-up would be the Lekki Conservation Center in Lekki, Lagos, SOuthwestern Nigeria. Due to time constraints, @greenrun informed us beforehand that he will not be attending (although I suspect he just loves his anonymity), so I was left as the only coordinator of the meetup. Of course, I got helping hands from other members of the community.

My base was about 300 Kilometers away from the meetup venue, so I had to leave home quite early with the usual Lagos traffic still to be considered. I picked up @emperorhassy along the way and after about 4 hours of driving, we got to the venue.

The Arrival

We got to the venue around 1 pm. Some members were already on the ground because many of them were Lagos-based, they only needed to make a short trip down to the venue.

^{The car park area}

^{A few of the community members we met on groung}

^{Members already having fun. @sogless @rharphelle @eurogee @dandy @temitayo-pelumi}

We waited a bit for others that were still on the road to arrive before heading into the reception area to make our booking as tourists. Some members used the opportunity to take some shots.

^{@emperorhass and @sogless}

^{A Groupfie}

Into the Conservation Center

We decided to swing into action after a while so as to be able to beat traffic when going back. Those that were yet to arrive were called and told to meet us in the forest once they arrive. We proceeded into the reception, made our booking after some negotiations, and a tour guide was assigned to us immediately. We headed into the forest.

^{Just before we get into the forest, here is a message for tourists}

^{Into the forest. @agbona, @rharphelle, and @realjosh. I was the one in blue at the background :)}

^{The wooden walkway into the forest.}

The wooden walkway was built as a bridge on the floor of the mangrove forest. To the left and right of us were different species of the mangrove tree. Our first stop was supposed to be a birdwatching station. It was built overlooking the crocodile pond but the mere mention of crocodiles made some people freak out. Hence, decided not to pay it a visit.

^{Mangroves growing in the brackish water}

The suspended bridge

A metal bridge was built suspended over the forest up to a height of about 300 meters. We got to the base of the bridge and had to decide whether to continue our journey via the wooden pathway or climb the bridge in order to see a good view of the forest and at the same, continue our journey into the inner part of the forest.

^{At the base of the bridge}

^{A panoramic view of the bridge. This is just the first layer. There were 3 layers before getting to the top of the forest.}

We all decided to have some fun by going through the suspended bridge, even though I am acrophobic. Since the bridge could not take more than 4 average-weighing humans at once, we had to go in batches and I was among the last 4 :).

^{Climbing up the bridge}

^{Descent posing}

We got to the other side of the forest where there were games, a picnic house, and a swimming pool. We converged at the picnic house for a proper introduction of members and some discussion about the community.

After the discussion. People went for games and some paparazzi. I was still feeling dizzy from the effects of the bridge that I climbed (the height, actually), hence, I just decided to stay put while others while having all the fun.

Just before we started the discussion, members that came late to the venue joined us and the fun just doubled up. After all the games and the pictures, it was time to head back to the reception. Need I say that the suspended bridge is a one-way thing, so there is no way we could utilize it for our journey back. We had to locate the wooden walkway and make use of it.

We could not see many animals in the forest because it was deep into the rainy season. On our way back, we got to a treehouse and some people decided it was time for another fun. I was tired at this point, probably due to the effects of the driving. I was just waiting for everything to be over so that I can begin the journey back home.

^{The tree house}

We all got back to the reception, got cleared, and headed back to the parking lot. Then we took a group picture.

^{That's me in glasses, blue shirt, at the center}

^{@agbona (the cameraman, @mrbreeziewrites (squating), (from left)@amazonaesh @samest, @herbayomi, @djoi, @dandymee, @real2josh, @thurllanie, @sogless @funmiakinpelu, @emperorhass, @unknown}

The overall experience was fun and it was really amazing to see a Nigerian stem community building up back then until the bear run chased everyone away. The crop of writers we currently have in STEMng came after then and may not know how fun it used to be writing and engaging on steem hive back then.

When people ask me why I happen to know virtually all the STEM writers that are from Nigeria on this chain, I love to go back to those days. The days when we run weekly quizzes in the [STEMng Discord Server] with gisting and music request session following them. The days when tens of Nigerians hook up to science workshop voice on promo-mentor, a server dedicated to promoting the blockchain (now defunct, it seems).

Hopefully, the STEMng community will gradually go back to those old days.

Thank you all for visiting my blog.