It was another pleasant morning show at breakfast today at La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.
As usual, the unusual took place. Guests found out that breakfast would be served in the forest! A notification had gone out the previous night to all lodgers.
A great excitement, as we all headed in the direction of the forest, where an array of African and intercontinental foods were already said to be heating up, and on display at 7am.
Let me share with you a little knowledge about the location and natural endowments of this nature’s paradise.
La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort is blessed with a 65 acres land space which embodies the Atlantic Ocean shoreline, the Lagos lagoon directly opposite it, a huge mangrove forest where monkeys jump over trees and use trees as playground, and birds chime hymns as if at Sunday morning worship service in church. And on the land area, are luxury holiday homes, deliberately built to enhance the natural ecosystem habitat of man, plants and animals.
To get to the heart of the forest, meant a little leg walk of between 5, 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the holiday home you were lodged in. And that, in another way, was to help drive away the little harmattan chills in the body through exercise.
Guests needed to pass through a cleared path, the monkey trail, that is the usual part where monkeys use when they are going out to other parts of the resort trees to play and where they also pass through when returning at evening.
Walking through the forest path was like going on an expedition. A feeling of deep adventure especially for city folks, who are used to cemented roads, tarred roads and skyscrapers!
Historically, this particular area in the forest, is known as the Founder’s Camp. The story goes that, 40 years ago, the Founder of La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, Otunba Wanle Akinboboye, landed in this vast mangrove forest by the lagoon, and decided to settle here.
It was a huge forest then, thicker than what it is now. And it was in the dark. He pitched his army green coloured tent right in the middle of the forest, meditated and slept off. By the next day, La Campagne Tropicana Beach Resort, started taking form. And over the years, it has gradually metamorphosed into what it is today.
This area, offers a mini museum as some of the relics of what the founder used then, are there for guests to see. So also is the first tent he pitched at the site, when he first arrived the forest.
So, here we were at the Breakfast Show with Atunda Entertainment already well positioned in the forest, to shake away the harmattan chills, as the drums were already loud in the air.
It was like a scene in a movie similar to the ‘Blue Lagoon.’ Voices in the forest, loud drumming and noise of dancing, yet, those at the beach front could only hear it faintly, but could not decipher exactly where it was coming from.
Atunda Entertainment, in their Edo costumes, were as colourful as they could be. Regal and looking was indeed in the entertainment mood, sharing the joy of African songs and dance steps to the guests, as they had their breakfast, watching the cultural performance, seeing monkeys jump from tree to tree, and colouful birds flying in and out of their nest where they had come to roost.
The scenery was like that from a children’s story book.
One could hear the excitement among the children at breakfast this morning, despite the noise of the drums, songs and dances.
After breakfast, it was time for guests’ moment at the breakfast show!
An opportunity for guests, to join Atunda Entertainment on the dance floor. A moment to capture the joyful response from the heart of the guests who pleasantly are enjoying every bit of their holiday. And one could see it as they gladly join in the dance, urging their family members, friends, colleagues or just the next guest to them, to help record on cell phones, their dance, their enjoyment, as they engulfed and flowed in the joy of the moment, no worries, just being happy!
And that’s what a holiday is supposed to be.
* Paul Ukpabio is Nigeria’s Tourism Writer Of The Year 2023
