Some Fascinating Things Honeymoon Vacation Does To Your Romantic Life.

Congrats! You have finally wedded and have completed the tradition. After wedding there should be the honeymoon. But you may say it is not necessary. Yes, it may not be necessary, but it is very important for your new relationship. This is because the wedding you just did is for your parents and your friends, and you did it to meet the norms of your society. The honeymoon is about you and your spouse; so it is a chance for you two to strengthen your relationship after the hectic wedding schedule.

Your honeymoon is an experience that you will always remember even after long you have wedded. You will love to tell the story about the fascinating things you did and the amazing experiences you had for years to come. That is why choosing a honeymoon destination should reflect on what you want in your new life.

You should know that honeymoon vacation enhances your chances of marital bliss. Happiness is what every newly wedded wants to experience in their marriage; and your honeymoon is perhaps the most important holiday of your life to start your marital happiness. So make it a special moment, and strive to spend it in a beautiful and romantic setting. You can decide to have it in a rustic lodge that doesn’t skimp on luxuries, just as it can be found in safari camps. Spending some time together in your honeymoon can make you keep a nice view of your spouse for years to come, and this breezes in happiness to your soul as you show appreciation for the gift of love you found in your spouse. What do you think could be more blissful than spending some time with your spouse in a romantic sunset, with red roses littering the ground?

Honeymoon escape is also useful for you to be bonded together as husband and wife; to mutually understand each other. With a new place and environment, it makes you two come closer. What could be more bonding than having a dinner with your spouse at the beach? How lovely such experience could be sitting oppositely to your spouse in an encircled hurricane lamp as you wine and dine, chatting humorously together! During your honeymoon, you are invariably making your relationship stronger and you develop sensitivity to each other. You re-solidify your love and establish a glued intimacy with each other. So, go spend a vacation with nature where there is nobody but you and your spouse!

Hence, African countries offer the most popular destination for holidays and promise an unforgettable honeymoon. Whatever your budget allows Africa has the perfect answer. From fine dining splendor, heavenly forest hideaways and spectacular safaris, this astonishing continent offers something for each and every discerning couple.

Do you plan to go on a safari honeymoon? Africa also runs to overflowing with natural beauty and wildlife. Think of places like Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya, and Kruger National Park in South Africa with bountiful wildlife viewing. Spending some days viewing wildlife will certainly be a honeymoon to remember, with memories to last you a life time. You can engage in action packed activities like moving round in an open four-wheel jeep searching for the big five, or you walk through the bush clinching your spouse’s hand. You see and smell, touch and hear things you would never encounter in your original home. Your senses go into overdrive, connecting you with nature in the most beautiful way.

You can as well enjoy your honeymoon sleeping under a starry African sky in a forest cottage where you can experience a thrilling romantic stay or a wonderful landscape viewing. The cottages are equipped with modern luxuries and a swimming pool, and they are a type of accommodation that have great beauty with roof beams, timber floors, solar powered and an open fire place.

What about an escape to beaches for your honeymoon? Africa also provides you with exotic places to ensure you and your spouse have a blissful honeymoon vacation. For example, Zanzibar is one of the finest beach destinations located in Tanzania, East Africa, and of course, the world’s most romantic honeymoon destinations, and it has excellent accommodation facilities that ranges from luxury beachfront cottages to exclusive boutique hotels and  tasteful spa resorts.

Know it today that honeymoon escape to romantic and beautiful settings is the ingredient for creating lasting and unforgettable memories that enhances marital bliss. So, treat your spouse to an amazing honeymoon experience today, and you will be excited you did!

WHY TANZANIA REMAINS AFRICA’S BEST SAFARI DESTINATION

Africa is richly blessed with so many touristic features from cultures that are as diverse as the attractions- islands and beaches, rainforests and caves, museums and monuments, theme parks and historic sites, to amazing wildlife viewing experience.

In the aspect of game-viewing experience, Tanzania tends to offer one of the best safaris in the continent of Africa. Although there are many exciting safari destinations in Africa, Tanzania happens to offer unparallel wildlife viewing and other complementary attractions that could appeal every tourist.

Tanzania, a great wildlife destination, offers excellent animals viewing throughout the year; and you can find the big five in any of the three safari circuits of the country. The big five are refers to the five most dangerous animals to hunt like buffalo, leopard, lion, elephant, and rhino. Other high profile animals you can find in their great numbers are giraffe, hippopotamus, zebra, wildebeest, hyena, and wild dog.

Tanzania has more wildlife than most African countries and the percentage of land set aside for game reserves and parks exceeds most countries of the world. At the northern circuit, the country offers about seven national parks including a conservation area. At the southern circuit, the country has about four national parks and a game reserve while it has one and two national parks both at the eastern and western circuit respectively. In the northern circuit, the places to visit for a delightful game-viewing are the Ngorongoro, the Serengeti and the Tarangire National Parks.

The Ngorongoro is a conservation area and is a very magical place to witness. The area has about 80,000 Maasai people; and has an open grassland, swamps and lakes. Ngorongoro is said to have been created out from Kenya, and it has about 30,000 animals. You can see the big five there, and everywhere you look you can see animals in their thousands-zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, impalas, etc. Ngorongoro is just an incredible scene of animals and should be a must visit if you want an amazing game-viewing experience.

Another interesting area to visit in Tanzania for a wholistic safari experience is the Serengeti National Park. Serengeti is a famous national park in the world and has about 30,000km square land mass. You can see millions wildebeest migrating, and about hundred thousand zebras. The Serengeti National Park was created in 1951 and happens to be the oldest national park in the country. If you desire to see large number of baboons, hippopotamuses, monkeys, and giraffes then make Serengeti your priority.

One more important place to have a beautiful wildlife experience is the Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is about 160km from the Kilimanjaro airport, and it is the sixth largest park in the country and fifth to be opened after independence. It was established in 1970. The park has so many huge trees scattered the entire park, and also has a major river that provides the wild animals water to drink during the dry season. But during the dry season, it can be difficult to find any of the big five because they might have moved away due to insufficient water to drink.

Aside being a perfect safari destination, Tanzania is also a home of idyllic beaches and warm tropical waters. The Zanzibar is a place in Tanzania known for clear warm waters making it a perfect destination for beach lovers.

What of the desire to learn the early civilization of man? Then a visit to Olduvai Gorge which is located between the Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti National Park is a perfect place to find out how man evolves.

So, for a taste of intriguing safari experience and exciting adventures, Tanzania offers wonderful surprises.

EXPERIENCE AN AMAZING ATMOSPHERE AT THE BANANA ISLAND CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Hearing the name “Banana Island”, one could imagine the area being set aside for banana plantation. But it is not so. The name is derived from the banana- shape of the island as portrayed by the aerial photograph.

Banana Island is an area of Ikoyi-Lagos, Nigeria, 8.6km east of Tafawa Balewa Square. The area is part of the Lagos Local Government Area of Eti-Osa in Central Lagos, and it is known for its wealthy, multi-cultural community and has some of the most expensive real estate in Nigeria. The Island also has one of the highest densities of millionaires within the country.

The Banana Island is known for being a community in Nigeria with the presence of people from virtually all the continents of the world. You would think it should be difficult for residents of the place to mingle freely or even know each other due to the quietude and the untainted environment of the area. But the Banana Island residents, through their annual cultural festival, which is a celebration of different nationalities living within the island, get to know themselves and the nationalities feel at home though they are hundred miles far away from their original homes.

The festival which was first celebrated in 2015 has become a yearly celebration showcasing what countries, irrespective of colours and race, can do when they unite together. The level of conviviality among the residents, though multi-cultural, is demonstrated in the festival.

At the festival, which is annually staged at the Oval Garden in the Banana Island, allows residents to display their various culture, foods, drinks, etc. At each stand, there is a placard bearing the nationals, Poland, France, South Africa, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Rwanda, Italy, Cameroon, Jamaica, Philippine, India, Japan, Indonesia, etc. Their flags are shown and their national anthem being sang.

There is so much to eat and drink. As part of the fun, you can just get into any of the stand of the countries represented there and get a taste of the foods and drinks. You can also get to interact with them to know their countries and their tribes.

The festival is just about bringing the different countries together and making them feel at home, and lots of music accompanies with dancing take the stage. Each country representatives are allowed to take the stage to entertain the audience in their respective local music and dances. It is just all about having fun, as you get to know each of the country representatives without traveling in the air to visit their countries.

This year festival which is themed “Looking Back, Giving Back” is a huge networking /bonding activity that the community looks forward to annually.

EXPLORE YANKARI NATIONAL PARK

Make a point to visit the Yankari National Park; one of the largest national parks in Africa with natural eco-system and unique features. It is Nigeria’s first and best managed forest wildlife conservation product with an area of 2,244 square kilometers where tropical animals can be found in their natural habitat.

Yankari National Park is an area of rich biodiversity; it shelters teeming species of large mammals like elephant, buffalo, hippopotamus, lions, water buck, bush buck, monkeys, and about 153 known species of birds and reptiles. It is also fascinating to know that Yankari National Park has the largest concentration of elephants in the West Africa region. You can observe these mammals as you walk through the passageway.

You would not also like to miss the opportunity of getting enmeshed into the ethno-historical and archaeological attractions such as the catacomb and Dukkey wells of about four meters deep the park is equally enrich with.

You could also indulge in warm and relaxing sensations as you soak in the free flowing warm spring’s pools. The Wikki Spring, Tunga-Maliki Spring, Gwana Spring, Dimil Spring and the Mawulgo Spring are the five spring’s water that oozes out from cretaceous deposits of shale and sandstones.

Yankari National Park also provides amenities for more than 100 visitors a night, which includes accommodation, restaurant, and conference hall, indoor and outdoor games.

The park can be reached from Bauchi town through Bauchi-Gombe paved road for a distance of 37km to Dindima on the east bank of the Gongola River. From Dindima, following the park’s signpost, one has to make a right turn after Gongola Bridge on a laterite road which leads to Mainamaji, the base camp of the park.

The physical environment, water resources, the climate and weather, the geological, vegetation and the floral species found in the park make it an ideal destination to explore.

MY UNFORGETTABLE TRIP TO BADAGRY SLAVE ROUTE

A visit to Badagry Slave Route is just a reminiscence account of the era of slavery on the coast of West Africa. Badagry happened to be one of the numerous transport hubs in West Africa where over 600,000 slaves were sold to slave traders and shipped to Western World. It was even more painful to learn that the local chiefs and their warriors perpetrated slavery in the land when they captured their own people and sold to the slave merchants in exchange for small valuables.

We left for the trip on the 9^th of July, 2018, both me and my amicable friend, Kenneth Stephen. Mr Kenneth is a robust and well fed guy with a medium-size pot-belly. I love him for the fact that he is a fun-loving and adventurous guy; features we both shared.

The visit was worth the travel as it is 2hours plus from Lagos; and Badagry itself is a coastal town in Lagos State, and it is between the City of Lagos and the border within Benin Republic at Seme.

The tales behind the Badagry Slave Route might move you to tears, as it did to me. Yes, you might have heard about the story in your History class; but seeing the paraphernalia used for slavery and the spots it happened, with a demo on how they were used on the slaves is definitely something to cause you to quiver. It is quite an emotional experience!

Our first point of call was at the Mobee Family Slave Relics Museum which is located along the Mobee Street of Badagry, and it houses many of the tools used to capture and hold captives. A cold sensation ran down my spine when I saw the chains used to shackle the slaves; and more especially when the guides illustrated how the chains were used on the slaves:

                           

  “These chains were used to bind the slaves like this,” John and his fellow guide demonstrated, “both hands and feet, and clung the other at their necks, while they move on a single line,” They illustrated.

From  the Mobee Family Slave Relics Museum, we moved to the Baracoon; that is, the slave cell, where we’re made to believe that about 40 slaves were sheltered in a small room probably measuring about 3mx4m, until they were traded.

                  “Here’s the room the slaves were kept”, John said, ushering us into the room.

                   “About 40 slaves were celled here until they’re sold”, he said.

                  “You mean forty persons were kept in this thin room? Damn it!” My friend Kenneth                 exclaimed; “I am only imagining how compressed they would have felt staying in this small room”.

                “That one didn’t bother the slave traders,” John added.

            

  “Here are the objects that were traded in exchange for human slave,” our guide pointed at some moulded objects on the wall. “One ceramic bowl goes for 10 slaves; one umbrella goes for 40 slaves, but it strictly depends on their bargaining powers.”

And from the Baracoon, we headed for a 2-3mins boat ride to Gbeferu Island; the path to the point of no return. Gbeferu is a geographical area of Badagry leading to the Atlantic Ocean. In those days, slaves were made to walk along this Island on a single line bound with chains. Today, the Island has become a sandy beach domain.

The walk from the Gbeferu Island to the point of no return was a longish one. It takes 25-30mins walk to the Atlantic, and along the coast of Gbeferu is the spirit attenuation well. We were shown a well squarely borded with small wall erected with block and also having a locally thatched roof shading it.

                      “In this well,” our guide said, showing us a well, “all the chiefs in Badagry dealing on Slave business came together and cast a spell in this well; a kind of black magic (Juju) which brings memory lost. The slaves were forced to drink from the well and within three months, they lost their memory.”

 And for over 600 years now nobody has ever drank from the well, according to John, our guide. But I still could not believe that drinking the charmed water from the well caused the slaves to lose their memory; otherwise, they would not have replicated their culture in the white men’s land. I thought they might have been given something that caused them to hallucinate rather than to lose the memory.

And finally from the longish trek on the Gbeferu Island, the slaves were led on the path to the ocean, where a waiting vessel had been docked to ship them away. It is said that when a slave made it to this point, which is termed, “Point Of No Return”, there is no chance of returning home, as the slave would be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, to an unknown destination.

It is hard to see what Africans had to pass through during those dark days of slavery, and the museum, especially the paintings there, clearly shown how the slaves were badly treated.