Lekki Conservation Centre, Lagos

I visited Lekki Conservation Centre in 2014 but I hardly remember much from that visit. Maggie, suggested we visit last week and it was such good fun. 

The entire centre stands on about 78 hectares. It is open every day but on Mondays. To visit, you'll need to make a reservation online. We didn't know this, by the time we got to the gate, the guard asked if we had made a reservation. He insisted that we do before he let us in.

We visited on Friday, we got there probably before 10am and some maintenance work was ongoing on the canopy walk. We were told that the first tour would be at 11am. So we wandered around the entrance area till we were set to go.

We saw a few mona monkeys around. We were told that there are around 700 of them in the centre. The animals in the centre roam freely.

Tortoise shells

The peahen kept looking away before we could finally get a close up picture of her. Their male counterparts, peacocks, are definitely more beautiful!

How it started!

A group of 5 joined us so we were 7 in the group and we had a tour guide leading.  

The tour guide

The tour guide started by telling us of the different animal in the centre but didn't say much else on the trail. There were a few rest spots like the one below. At the canopy walk, she handed us over to another guide who led us on the canopy walk then she met us at the end of the walkway.

The canopy walkway had clear instructions.

The walk way has 7 levels, 3 ascending, one levelled in the middle and 3 descending. It is 401m long. From the peak, it is 22.5m above ground level.

I had seen videos of people who get so dramatic or paralyzed on different canopy walk ways from fear. I didn't see any of such with the group I went with but there were a few times when people got scared, my ears were full with different utterances, hahaha. Maggie was not excluded, and asked me a few times if I had a will. There were times I would stop to look around and look below to take things in. This got Maggie on the edge so she was always ahead of me.

It would help if you had gloves for the walkway as you are advised to hold onto the sides. While you hold on and move, it rubs the palms quite hard and could leave blisters.

There were rest areas between the trails, those pauses were useful. It was a sunny day and we were dripping in sweat.

Guests are not allowed to take refreshments with them to avoid litter. Also, the monkeys might not be within sight but were they to see any kind of food, we were warned that they would come at you for it.

A level walk way on the left and an ascending one on the right.

After the canopy walkway, we were shown around, there were fish ponds for Japanese Koi fish (someone in the group said these are the most expensive fish in the world) and Tilapia.

Japanese Koi fish

Tilapia

There are game areas and a relaxation area. There is a spot where fresh coconut is harvested and cut open for the juice. Some guys roast chicken and probably fish as well. The group after ours sat over for lunch but Maggie and I were more keen on taking pictures, hahahahaha.

By the time we were heading out, we passed 2 different groups. I gathered that the centre gets up to or more than 100 visitors during the week. The weekends are busier with over 500 visitors.

This was definitely a good day out and I would recommend a visit if you are in Lagos.