I’ve been traveling on water for the past 15 years, and never for once have I seen the body of water as angry as what I saw that Saturday morning. I think and the biggest mistake I made was not looking up the weather forecast before fixing my private hangout at Tarkwa bay.
Why Tarkwa Bay?
It was the 3rd edition of my monthly private hangout and I’ve invited 12 participants this time to join me at a Jaybee Beach house- A private beach house carefully built along the shores of Tarkwa bay beach Island. 11 am was the agreed time of assembling at the Marina Jetty at CMS, Lagos and I ensured every invited participant was fully briefed.
Tarkwa bay was chosen due to its uniqueness- a few of which includes the facts that:
- It’s one of the few beaches in Lagos that is inaccessible by road, thereby, ensuring every visitor uses the waterways.
- Tarkwa bay is also one of the cleanest beaches in Lagos. Thanks to the proactive community members who take deliberate measures towards ensuring its cleanliness.
- It is also safe to a very large extent. And this is largely due to it’s proximity to a naval base.
It took like forever as we journeyed from Marina jetty towards Tarkwa bay Island- a journey that normally should take 16 minutes. The angry water body wouldn’t calm down as it threw the speedboat up, right, and left at every given opportunity. We all were forced to hold tight whatever wouldn’t allow the boat to throw us out.
And as if this wasn’t enough, our speedboat’s engine stopped working at least twice whilst on motion. I could see the lagoon smiling. But the smile was shortlived when our boat got kicked back to life by our driver.
30 minutes later
Safe for the whistling wind forcing itself on the resisting trees, Everywhere was quiet on getting to Jaybee beach house, just the way I had envisaged. It set the perfect mood for the style of event I wanted.
Introductions
I wasn’t sure if everyone prayed before leaving home but I’m dead sure they must have all said a prayer or two while on that boat, so I left out opening prayer from the order of event and kicked off with a detailed introduction of the event, followed swiftly by allowing everyone to introduce one another.
Speed Dating
Following the introductions, the 12 participants (already split into a group of 2) were paired in twos and the instruction was simple: Take yourselves out on a 15-minute date and ensure you know as much as you can about one another. Also, take the most beautiful selfie you’ve ever taken.
I counted down from 3 and everyone dispersed to find befitting spots for their dates.
On returning from the date, you could see excitement written legibly on their faces. I could tell they had a good time.
On settling back to their seats, each pair was made to elect one person to talk about how the date went and what they had learned. It was fun watching them from the wooden chair I sat.
Blind drawing
Blind drawing is a type of game where each team (with a representative) have to describe their chosen item without revealing what it is and they are not able to see what the “artist” is drawing. At the end of the activity, the team whose drawing is closest to the actual item wins. This game was one of the highlights of the day.
So, what I did was writing down some objects (T-shirt, Boat, Tree, and Bicycle) and rolled the papers for each team to pick. Maryam and Reuben represented their teams at different times while Khaerat and Zino stepped up for theirs.
It was fun watching the teams describe to their representative how and what to draw. Watching Maryam trying to draw a tree cracked the hell out of me. I’m still laughing as I write this.
The Flying Aeroplane
Immediately after the hilarious blind drawing session, everyone on each team was made to write 3 facts about themselves on a paper, turn it into a paper plane and fly them in opposite directions (team A flying theirs towards team B and vice versa).
Following this, each member of both teams was made to open up a plane each and guess whose facts were written in the dismantled plane. It was another moment of fun as things went gradually from smooth to rough.
Introducing the Nomadic Negro Minimalist Club
As soon as the flying plane game was concluded, I introduced the Nomadic Negro Minimalist Club. An initiative I’ve been planning for many months. The goal is simple: “Encourage members of the Nomadic Negro community to donate the majority of personal items they wouldn’t be needing anymore to folks who’d need them.”
This was set to achieve two things:
- Encourage people to give more of things they’d not be needing.
- Allow people who’d need and appreciate these items to get them.
Little things like this, to me, makes the world a slightly happier place. Gosh, I hate to see people sad about little things. I mean People who are not homeless but still not having a home. People who survive and not living. lastly, I’m talking about people who have no hope because they’ve forgotten what dreaming feels like.
Since every participant has been briefed beforehand to come along with at least one personal item. These items were piled together and kept in a corner.
The Scavenger hunt
Done with my introduction, we moved on to the scavenger hunt game where each team was made to perform a set of interesting tasks as directed by clues hidden at different places.
Before embarking on the search, both teams were made to give a name to themselves. Team A chose Marina while Team B went with Lekki.
It was really a tough one as both teams spent a bulk of their time trying to figure out what the clue wanted them to do next. But after what took forever, Team Marina emerged winners. They uncovered the treasure inside a trash basket by the entrance of our cabin.
The joy they felt was unlike I had seen in a while.
By the time each team got back, their lunch was set at their tables. Everyone ate as we discussed the hunt.
The photoshoot session
I led the groups to the secluded part of the Tarkwa bay beach where we took tons of amazing pictures.
Here are a few of the shots.
Tips on planning a team hangout at Tarkwa Bay
- Ensure everyone is fully committed to the trip so you can plan concisely.
- Tarkwa bay is one of the few beaches in Lagos that Cannot be accessed by road.
- You can hire a boat from any of the jetties offering rides to Tarkwa bay. However, the Marina (CMS) jetty is the most popular of all options.
- At the main entrance, you’d be made to pay N200 each
- You won’t be charged for Corkage
- You have an option of either hiring any of the sheds from the long stretch of sheds or you can hire a beach house which is usually more expensive
- Exept you’d be camping at the beach, you should plan your visit such that you round up before nightfall since boats won’t be working at night.
- Come along with swimming wears. Tarkwa bay is one of the few beaches where you truly will enjoy playing with the water.
- If you need a contact person, Solomon is sure and very dependable. He can double as your guide and boat guy. You can reach him on +234 806 710 1447
Thanks for reading to this point. You deserve every good things in life!
Till the next blog post, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram and also watch a few videos from my youtube channel!
Would you be interested in joining subsequent hangouts? Shoot me a DM.
“ Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”” — DALAI LAMA.
