I discovered since my childhood that I love traveling. My family had a culture of traveling from Ekiti to Kogi State, a journey of one hour, to celebrate the yuletide season each year.
Once the day approached, I would be overly excited and be doing every house chores that I could lay my hands on. A visit to our house around that period would tell you that this boy is in a festive mood. On the day of traveling, I would wake up around 3 am and start counting hours, minutes and seconds to the time of kick-starting the journey. My most fascinating moment while traveling as a child is the 'movement' of trees along the expressway. Just an illusion right? I always wanted to have such an experience.
The first time that I was to travel with my uncle to the North, I was very happy. My uncle and his family used to come home from Kano. He had a son that was my age mate. The way we played together and bonded like siblings made my uncle consider taking me to Kano to stay with him so that both of us could grow together. When my opinion was sorted, I agreed without hesitation. I began to prepare for relocating with my uncle to Kano. I couldn't hide my excitement. I was eagerly waiting for the day.
The night before the day of departure, my mother helped me to arrange my clothes into a bag. I almost did not sleep that night.
As early as 5 am, my uncle had parked his Peugeot 504 car in front of the house. His wife, kids and I quickly arranged our load in the car boot. We hopped into the car and got set to start the journey. My mum and dad were standing by the car to bid me farewell. When my uncle put on the ignition of the vehicle, I looked beside me and saw my mum waving me. Within the matter of seconds, I had a build up of tears and as the car moved towards the culvert, I busted into crying. My uncle paused the movement in order to pacify me to stop crying. Right there, I changed my mind.
The bond between my mum and I was very strong. I couldn't imagine staying without my mum. When they realized that I wasn't interested in the journey again despite their talks, I was dropped. Everyone agreed that I shouldn't be taken against my wish. That was how I missed the first opportunity to travel to Kano.
Many years later, I embarked on my first major journey alone. I had written a UME examination conducted by JAMB and I was to go and write post-UME in A.B.U Zaria. The journey was fascinating. It was my first time traveling to the North. From the thick forest in the southwest to the guinea savannah in the North Central, I loved everything about the journey.
Something happened that taught me a lesson. Our vehicle had a stopover in Abuja. While we alighted to eat or to visit the restroom, I saw different categories of hawkers. From rings, wristwatches, necklaces, belts and many other things, the hawkers were coming in drive to market their products to me. As a first time traveler, I was interested in buying virtually everything that came my way. Before I realized the effects of my actions, I had nearly used the whole money with me to buy things that were unnecessary. .
After I returned to Ekiti, I regretted buying most of the items as they were mostly fake. That was when I trained myself never to buy anything in the park again irrespective of how good or important they appear to be.
That was the beginning of my long-distance journey.
I love traveling a lot. I later started my university education in Jos. When the economy and security situation were friendly, I used to travel to a town just to know the town and visit any tourism or historical sites.
I visited mambilla Plateau in Taraba, the Yankari game reserve in Bauchi, the University of Maiduguri in Borno and many more.
I have been in the North for the past fifteen years and I have been able to visit 15 out of the 19 states in the North. I have put a pause on such travelings because of the bedeviling insecurity in Nigeria particularly in the North presently.
Each time that I am traveling, I pack more than I would need where I am going. I learned to do this the hard way. There was a time when I was traveling to Kano from Abuja. Our vehicle developed a fault a few kilometers from Zaria. We spent a night there. The following morning, I couldn't brush my teeth at the usual time because I didn't travel with toiletries. My plan was to purchase them on arrival. I lived with the inconveniences till I arrived at my destination. Since that experience, I started going with everything that I would need when going for a journey. From my clothes, shoes, toiletries to even a small mug, plate and spoon, I move around with everything. One good thing is that at one point or the other, I have had the course to appreciate traveling with such materials.
I can't wait for the current insecurity to come to an end so that I can resume my traveling habit. I love it.