SOLO TRAVELLING: HOW TO GET TO IJOKO WATERFALLS IN KWARA STATE . NIGERIA

Any where you are coming from you need to get to Ilorin ,except you are coming from the northern part of Nigeria. If you are coming from lagos read my post on how to get to Owu falls it will make both our lives easier . 

From ilorin take a taxi going to omu aran and alight at Oke onigbin, walk to the park as the case of Owu falls and take a bike to Ijoko in isalu isin, you may have to speak to 3 or more people before you see someone that knows where you are going to , it's not as popular as Owu falls but you can reach out to give you the contact of the bike man that took me there . 

It is wise to always negotiate a return trip price ,especially when you are in a town you haven't been to before. The return trip was #2000 for two people which makes it #500 per person and that was after all our negotiating. 

So we head out , plying the same isara isin road , only that this time we turned right instead of left heading to ijoko falls .

Proposed polytechnic site.

After what seems like 15mins on the bike , I saw this sign post , it was the building that caught my attention , you know i will not pass through one without noticing , the bike man said it is a proposed site for the above named higher institutions, so we continued on our journey .
Need I tell you isalu-isin is the home of cashew so you will see a lot of it on your way.
A lot of thing may be the reason for my death in this life but food is definitely not one of them, so despite the over flowing of the cashew I neither pluck none nor attempted to, my travel buddy however who was a born foodie , and as such pluck as many as her bags could take even though she end up throwing some away when the hiking enter the body .
So , if you are looking to start a cashew business , I think you've just found your plug in the area.
When we arrived at a T junction and we saw a signboard that stated Owu falls , ahhh haa abi we are lost ni , how did we get to Owu again only that this time it didn't have Owu isin on it but owa Kajola  , so the bike man explained to us that there is a road that leads to Owu falls from where we are standing and that seems to be the old road people go through, so if you will be visiting both waterfalls the same day and your bike man seems to know his way ,it is o ly wise to go through that route on your way back , that way it will be cost effective .

After About 15mins we came to a halt , this road wasn't as bad as the Owu falls road but the hike ? It was deadly . And when I said deadly I meant it in that meaning .since the bike man said he knew the falls trail we didn't bother with a tour guide , so he serves as our tour guide .

After he parked his bike and we started what seems like the hike , it was a stream that welcomed us to the waterfall area , since there were neither sign boards nor sign post , not even a waterfall house that's when I should have known but No we kept on ,if not that I had warned my travel buddy against any pessimistic utterances she could have communicated her fear of whether or not we are being kidnapped, but if she had that thought she never say it aloud because and trust me , you will have the thought too .

Oh boy ! There were neither trail, nor waterfall house , neither are there any steps here , after what seems like 15mins of whether or not we are on the right track, there ! We heard the sound of the waterfall, but how do we get there ? That seems like another war entirely, our tour guide created a path and said we should come , omo!!!! Come to where ? That was Abiola my travel buddy asking almost angrily ,🤣🤣 to this place you can see the waterfall from here "said the tour guide ", he seems to be talking from space since we can only hear his voice but not see his face .

This is not a time to give up I said to myself , not minding the tree mark's on my face from the vigorously creating a path that got us to where we were, I was on my hiking booth so it seems a lot more enduring since the steps were slippery down to the falls . 

My travel buddy sat down there not ready to move because going forward seems like you will have to kill her but she has go home doesn't she ?

The one that cannot kill herself 

It seems like I'm the only one that will go and see this waterfall , so I journeyed on , after what seems like few minutes of climb here and there , there it was the waterfall, Never in the history of hiking have I hike with my butt before , I often wonder why anyone will trust their butt more than their legs especially when they have their hiking boots on but when i got to the foot of the fall the only solution seem like gently going with my butt .pictures? That was the last thing on my mind but I took few just for the sake of it and of course to add to my memory archive 

My back to the waterfall 

After 10 mins of resting , I stood up and didn't wait for the tour guide , ascending is always easier when hiking so I was just tracing my steps back , Aunty your legs is fast oo , that was the tour guide calling after me . Ehhh ehhh sheybi I was suppose to sleep here 🙄, I didn't say that out loud though ,While Abiola was still sitted at her final stop , I wasn't about to start motivating anyone to let's go home , 🤷‍♀️ so you either motivate yourself or continue living in the middle of nowhere , she chose the former and I can hear the conversation between her and the bike man , bring your hand , don't pass through that place , hold me , e duro de mi , e.t.c.

Since I was the one at the front , that automatically makes me the tour guide so my trail was followed and we got back to that stream , had I know that that stream will serves as our bathroom on our way back , i would have pay my homage while going , we washed up there and while washing up , the bike man think that was the perfect time to make a joke about his key , I cant find my keys he said😏 , what keys ? You already know who , that was Abiola asking , the bike key, he answered. 

Uncle I think you already know that if you cant find that key you are backing us back to town , I said to him with a straight face and I meant it because I wasn't ready to walk an inch back 🙄.

Fast forward to the hotel room Food seems like the only consolation as at that time so we eat and lect the discu6of how our day went till the next morning  .