My Interesting Tarkwa Bay Experience

So my friends and I went to Tarkwa Bay beach the other day. As we started our trip I decided I would write about the experience.

The day before, I found myself in another part of Lagos after going to and fro Lagos Island for 4 hours with my friend W. I was supposed to link up with my other friend M but I couldn’t. So we agreed to go to the beach the next day. I invited my other friends D, T and W and we had an amazing day.

So before we left the house, my friend T googled “Tarkwa Bay”. She called a travel blogger and another friend that’s been there before. We were trying to get information about the place, how to get there and what we should expect. T sent the article she saw on google to me and I sent it to my other friends. From the article, we learnt that the beach is only accessible by boat and boat ride costs between N300 — N500. We’ll also need to pay a gate fee of N200 at the beach. We’ll also pay for a tent, chairs and tables. This should cost about N1,000 to N2,000. So we prepared ourselves based on this information.

T called Taxify. W and I were at her’s so we left together. We were on our way to Bonny Camp where we’ll board the boat to the beach. I spent the entire trip from Lekki to Bonny Camp on the phone with my other friends, M and D. They were on their way too. M was the first to get to Bonny Camp. D got “there” and was stuck under the bridge because she wasn’t sure if she should drive into “Bonny Cantonment”. LMAOOOO. After a while, she found the car park. Me and the other girls got there after about 30 minutes. I was the link between all the girls, so I introduced everyone and my friends were happy to meet themselves. I loved how they all bonded like they had been friends for years. It was beautiful.

We got to the wharf. We saw the boatman and told him where we were going. The guy said the boat takes 10 persons, so we have to wait for 5 more passengers. But if we want him to take us there right away, we’ll pay for two extra seats and that would cost N10,500. We were looking at him like “Oga, is everything okay at home?” Then he goes, it’s N2,500 per person to and fro the beach but he’s reduced it to N1,500. I was just laughing. The guy went ahead to say “check am online nah” LOL. M said it’s our fault. We probably looked boujee and this guy thinks we have money. I quickly took off my sunglasses and told the guy “Oga, abeg no vex, we no get money. Make we give you N1,000 each” that’s like N7,000, (extra seats included). This man said no. I was looking at the boats like “is this even worth our money”. We finally paid N8,000.

The boat ride was fun! Growing up I loved boat rides. Especially when there’s a huge wave. I always looked forward to traveling with my folks for Christmas because we traveled by Sea. Until the government built a bridge then we started traveling by road. The ride to Tarkwa Bay brought beautiful memories. I was so hyped and I started taking pictures and making videos as soon as we set off. My friends were being dramatic. Well except T. She’s a Rivers girl like me, so she wasn’t really scared. She was calm but she kept telling the boatman to concentrate. D was shouting at intervals, “my mother does not know I’m on a boat o” LMAOOOO. M had the “I love this but I’m scared” face. W was sitting just in front of the boatman like she wasn’t there. That was the best way to handle the fear. After about 15 minutes, we got to the beach.

At the beach we had to pay N100 each at the gate instead of N200 as planned. I’m not sure what we told the man but we didn’t have to say so much. We went straight to a tent. Another guy comes to attend to us. We asked how much for tent and chairs. He said N5,000. I thought he was joking because I had seen N1,000 on google. Then he goes “forget all those things una see online o”. I was confused. First, boatman said “check online nah”, then this one is saying “forget all those things una see online” which one we go take? LOL. We eventually paid N2,500. The same guy helped us buy coconut and drinks. D came with a bottle of wine. There was no where to buy food at the beach. T bought peanuts. W suddenly remembered that we were supposed to buy food on our way to the wharf. I was like “girl! why are you are just saying this?”. Anyway, we had drinks and peanuts. We didn’t mind and didn’t spend so much time in the tent as we were playing in the water and taking pictures for hours. W went to the tent beside ours to tell the guys that she had a better playlist. She connected her phone to their speaker. LMAO. I was busy taking pictures of everyone from the best angles. I think I’m going to add “extraordinaire photographer” to my profile. It was so much fun.

I called the boatman at 2.40pm to come and pick us. He came at 3.00pm and we said goodbye to Tarkwa Bay. The ride back to the wharf was a lot calmer. The trip was beautiful. I only wished we had made better plans, like going with food and drinks instead of looking for what to buy at the beach. It would have been more fun. I’m definitely going again. I’ll plan better next time. I might as well make a post on what to expect and what to take to the beach. So that another person doesn’t make the same “mistake” we made.