The 19th good thing about Lagos: Going through the jungle to see a shipwreck!

The more distance I have from my trip to Lagos, the harder it is to make time to write more blog entries -- though I haven't run out of ideas. But Brent just got back today from Lagos, and talking to him about what he's doing there has gotten me excited again about going back. It's easy to get into the busy-ness and ease of life here and wonder why I want to go through all the work to move over there -- and there is still so much to do to make it happen! But, I hope it will eventually. I think about the amazement I felt the day we went to the beach house and our hosts asked us if we would like to visit a shipwreck that was just up the peninsula a bit. Of course, I was all for it. We took a short boat ride and tied up the boat to a tree on the banks of a creek that was by a little village. Below are photos of the village where we went ashore.














It was amazing the difference in the plant growth just this short distance away. By the beach hut there was just coconut palms and sand. Here, it was jungle. Our hosts said when they had been there before they saw monkeys in the trees, though we didn't when we were there. A snake did cross the path, and we saw lots of chickens running around the villages, but that was it as far as wildlife goes. Here the peninsula was wider between the creek and the ocean beach and we hiked along a path passing several primitive villages with palm huts.

They all had piles of coconut shells beside the huts. I don't know if they were just garbage piles, or if they kept the shells for fuel.

There wasn't much left of the ship. I think they said it had just ran aground in 1998, and the villagers thought the ship, with its load of furniture and goods, was a gift from the gods. They cleaned it out pretty quickly. But the hull and parts which were left there have really altered the beach and the sands of the whole peninsula as the tides were changed to go around the wreck. Now there has been a lot more sand deposited there and the village is much further from the water than it was before. I thought it was interesting how in just 7-8 years there could be such a big change in the whole land area of the peninsula.

Here's a picture of Brent giving some "dash" to the women in the village for allowing us to walk through their land and take their picture. Then, several of the villagers came down to the creek to help us push off.

It was quite amazing to have a real African jungle adventure!