One of my best hobbies is traveling or better put it, camping. I just love leaving home to spend time somewhere distant from my usual surroundings. When I was a young boy, I used to get afraid easily whenever I heard bad news. I remember when I heard the news of how a suicide bomber took the lives of many in church service, as a child I was afraid of gathering and crowds. The same was true for traveling, I remember when I used to listen to the radio with Dad when he was still in this world. Sometimes when the news told about accident incidents and the death of victims, I used to get afraid of getting into vehicles and even bicycles.
This began to affect my love for traveling to places because I couldn't fly. I had to transport myself either by bus or taxi, but I was scared of accidents.
But as time went on, the childhood mentality began to fade off. When I was young, I used to hear and read stories about the Niger Bridge. From birth to about age seven, I never visited my hometown. My parents gave birth to me in a strange land. My dad used to tell me that when traveling back to our hometown, he used to pass the Niger Bridge. When I heard this, I was very excited knowing that one day, I would travel to my hometown and by that, I would have an opportunity to see the Niger Bridge and also have many true and false sweet stories to fantasize about my friends with, lol.
Just after my promotion to Grade Four(Primary 4) and the term was over, Dad surprised me with the good news that we would be traveling to my hometown that week. I thought that the surprise was indirectly the reward for my academic excellent performance in the last school term but it was not. One of my uncles (paternal) found a life partner and was ready to marry her.
I was more happy than I was before because that was a celebration. I love celebrations because there will always be food and drinks, lol.
Days ran like a flowing stream and it was already Wednesday, the day we fixed to set on our journey to our hometown.
The journey down to my hometown was filled with the sweetest travel experiences ever but the journey back to town was the worst, a kind no one would ever pray for.
Since we didn't have a private car, we had to board a bus at the park. When we got to the park, we had to join the queue to get our tickets. When we got our tickets, I noticed the paper size of my ticket was smaller compared to that of my parents. I wanted to complain about the act of partiality but I had to observe public orderliness and self-respect. That wasn't the only case that got me annoyed at the park. After getting our tickets, we had to sit in the waiting room for the bus heading to our destination.
After waiting for some minutes, I saw two buses drive and park by, one looked
old and the other brand new. Within me, I said, “We must board the new one”. When it was time for us to get on the bus, I walked into the new bus with confidence and sat by the window side.
“Hey, boy!! Where are you heading? The driver asked.
I mentioned my hometown and he said I should get into the other bus, the old bus.
Immediately my mood and facial expression changed but I had no choice.
While my parents were bringing our bags, I went off the bus and updated them on the right bus.
We later boarded the old bus. I later forgot about the size of the tickets and the age of the bus when I remembered I was going to see the Niger Bridge. I made sure I sat by the window so I could have a view of everything we passed by. As we embarked on the journey, my eyes were filled with beautiful sights of mountains, valleys and ravines, forests, grasslands, rivers, tall coconut trees and many other beautiful works of nature. As a child, despite those sweet and amazing sights, I still slept off due to the breeze coming in from the window gaps.
When we got to the Niger Bridge, the driver had to stop for a break as the journey was a long one. Dad woke me up to see a cool site of the Niger Bridge. To me, it seemed I had visited the biggest mall or park in the world.
The Niger Bridge is very long and at the end are shops, eateries and relaxation centers. Hawkers had turned the environment noisy by the vocal advertisement of their products. I was overwhelmed with the sight of crowds and many children's toys. To me, I had my best travel experience that day. We visited the eatery and I had enough fish pepper soup and rice. I had enough time to picture everywhere on the Niger Bridge before we left.
When we finally arrived at my hometown and made our way down “home”, I was the happiest person on earth that night. The next day was the marriage proper and was full of fun. Saturday was the white gown wedding which was held in the church.
After the wedding ceremony, the reception took place at one of the most beautiful and expensive event centers there in my hometown.
Sunday was another happy day, celebration after celebration. That Sunday after my uncle's wedding ceremony, my parents and relatives organized a family get-together. This get-together party was for reunion and recognition of people like me who haven't seen their grandparents and other relatives since birth. The family get-together party ended late evening and we had to leave my hometown for the city.
My parents took a leave for three days from work (Wednesday to Friday), so they had to go to work on Monday.
That Sunday, we had to board a bus in the evening. Any bus leaving my hometown for the city must have to drive at night. My grandparents and relatives asked my parents to get permission from my workplace just to avoid night travel but my parents insisted. After the bus filled with passengers, we drove off. From a little view of the evening brightness to the thickness of the dark, we drove till I slept off.
I was asleep, so I couldn't measure if we had driven far from the park or just a short distance and we were attacked by robbers.
“All of you get your heads down!!! Bullets are flying!!” The driver shouted with a loud voice like that would save us from the scene.
From what I heard after we escaped, the driver narrated that the robbers had blocked the road with nailed wood and drums but he had to swerve into the bush to avoid them. He maneuvered the vehicle through the bush and was able to get back on track but when the robbers knew what he was trying to do, they began to shoot tirelessly at us. Almost all the car glasses were broken.
That was my worst travel experience. An experience where I was woken up from my sweet sleep by the sound of heavy gunshots and light flashes.
Traveling back to my hometown was awesome, I had the best and most unforgettable travel experiences but the journey back to the city was risky and the worst travel experience ever.
Thanks for reading!
This is my entry for the #cleanplanet biweekly prompt/contest round 8. Here's the link to learn more about the contest: @nwothini335/clean-planet-biweekly-contest-round-7-results-round-8-my-goos-and-bad-travel-experience-kqu
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Since this is #cleanplanet community and I'm an active member, I can't participate in the prompt without sharing my cleaning activity.
Here are my cleaning activity photos:
I concluded my activity by making sure I properly disposed of the waste I gathered.
Thanks, friends for your time. Enjoy the rest of your day.
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All the images are MINE.