Travels|| A road trip to Erin-Ijesha8 mins read

About two weekends ago, I joined the league of people who can proudly boast of visiting Erin-Ijesha waterfalls at least once! I went there with a friend and it was a really beautiful experience which I’ll tell you about in this post.

So, a little backstory about this trip. Earlier in the year, I felt a need for a sort of midyear getaway ’cause house job year and life in general can get a bit overwhelming and a break is needed every once in a while. Initial plan was to visit both Erin-Ijesha waterfalls and Ikogosi warmsprings. Unfortunately, most of those I planned with couldn’t make it and I had all but cancelled the trip from my mind until one of them (Fisayo 😘) reached out that she’d like to come to Akure.

I was excited about that cause I’d missed my Lagos people these past few months. While talking about her coming, it crossed my mind that we could actually still make it to Erin-Ijesha at least since it was just about one hour away from Akure and that’s how the dream stayed alive!

Travelling to Erin-Ijesha.

As I mentioned above, we travelled to Erin-Ijesha from Akure. Fisayo had travelled in from Lagos the day before and we had gone to the mall before retiring to our room at the hotel where we lodged.

On the morning of the trip, we realised that we didn’t really know how we’d get to the waterfalls. Lol. It sounds a bit unbelievable but it was actually true. The initial plan was to charter a car/bus for all of us going but doing that for just 2 of us would have been way above our budget.

I was already beginning to think of other things we could fill the day with instead when we decided we could use public transport and proceeded to ask the hotel receptionist for help (Travel tip: in any city, a good hotel receptionist should be able to provide relevant information on how to get around the city as well as reach tourist centres around).

She told us we could get a bus going to Erin-Ijesha at Road Block close to FUTA and then find our way to the waterfalls from there. We then boarded a bike (okada) which took us to the park.

At the park, we found out that there was no straight bus to Erin-Ijesha, so we had to enter a bus going to Oshogbo (both places are in Osun state) which will drop us along the way. With this realization, I was already getting cold feet but Fisayo was still up for it.

I checked the route using Google maps and found out that we’d be dropped along Akure-Ilesha Road, a good distance from the actual falls. I also found out that we weren’t certain of our transportation back to Akure. At this point, I almost said we should turn back but my exploring partner seemed determined to see the falls and I let her determination soothe me.

The bus got filled up after about 30 – 45 minutes and we were on our way. We got to Erin-Ijesha (Erin-Oke) within 1 hour of leaving Akure.

Erin-Ijesha Waterfalls

We highlighted from the bus at the entrance of Erin-Oke community. We had told the bus driver about our mission and he had erroneously called the waterfalls ‘waterworks’. Lol. He told us we could get a bike to take us to the falls and so we waited a bit till we saw one.

The view on our journey to the waterfalls was a lovely one. Everywhere in front looked green and plush and the muddy houses around added an effect as well. At some point it felt like we were going into a rain forest.

On getting to the entrance, we saw some people selling drinks and snacks and they cajoled us into buying bottles of water which we initially thought we didn’t need but were ultimately grateful for.

Getting in, we met some men who seemed to be the ‘gurdians’ of the premises. We were told to pay an entrance fee of 500 naira. We were also asked if we had cameras as those attracted an additional 500 naira. Thankfully we had ‘camera phones’ and not actually ‘cameras’ so we didn’t pay extra. Haha.

As we prepared to explore the area, one of the men approached us and offered his services as a tour guide. After some haggling, we settled on what I believe was a fair price. He was really helpful and he doubled us our ‘paparazzi’ as he took multiple pictures of us as we explored.

I expected that he’d give us a brief history of the place but he didn’t and we also got carried away with the sights and picture taking and forgot to ask. We were told though that there were 7 levels with the 3rd level being the ‘swimming pool’ where most people stopped to bath in the falls. Climbing to the 7th level also takes you to Ekiti state meaning you would have walked from Osun state to Ekiti. I already knew that I wasn’t really interested in reaching that level.

There are lots of steps around with a bit of hiking along the way (about 650???). I got pretty tired early and was grateful for the stops we made at the different levels which I took advantage of to catch my breath.

At some point during the climb, I really started wondering who sent me on this exploration and thinking about how I wouldn’t do such again. Lol. I guess it was just the lazy, unfit Kunmi talking because rn, I’m thinking about hiking in Abuja later this year, among other future adventures. Upping my fitfam self before then.

We were alone for most of the journey which majorly involved marveling at the beauty and serenity and taking pictures. At some point, there were no steps and we had to climb the rocks. Extra stress.

We also happened to be alone when we got to the 3rd level where the ‘pool’ was. It felt good and we had the whole place to ourselves until a group of students invaded.

The invasion accelerated our exit. The journey down was definitely faster than the climb up and I was grateful for that.

Going back home

When we got to the bottom, we settled our bills and called the bike man from before to take us back to the entrance of the community. We apparently had to stand by the road and flag down a bus going towards Akure as there was no park close by.

Shortly after we highlighted from the bike, a car with a female driver and passenger stopped by us and asked if we were going to Akure. I immediately told Fisayo that we shouldn’t answer them saying, ‘Did we come here with them?’ 🙃 With all the stories going around about kidnappers and all, I didn’t want to take the chance. Once again, Fisayo urged me on and we decided to go with them. I guess we can all rightly say she was the real adventurer on this short trip.

Thankfully they brought us back to Akure safely, but I don’t think I’d be taking such a chance again anytime soon.

The whole experience was a fun one and I definitely had a very needed refreshing weekend. Currently looking forward to my next adventuring/exploring/touring trip.

If you’ve been to Erin-Ijesha before or plan to go soon, do share your experiences in the comment section below.

Till next time,

Sisikunmi ❤️.

Total cost (in naira)

Bus from Akure to Erin-Ijesha: 800 (I tried beating this price down since our stop was halfway through the journey but I didn’t succeed, maybe my yoruba wasn’t deep enough. You neve know if you don’t try though, soo).

Bike from entrance to the falls and back: 700

Entrance fee: 500 per head

Tour guide: 1000