Tourism In Cross River State
Cross River State can be accessed by air through the Margaret Ekpo International Airport at Calabar. There are daily flights to Calabar from Lagos and Abuja serviced by airlines such as Virgin Nigeria, Arik Airlines and Aero Contractors. Aero Contractors also have flights to the Bebi airstrip at Obudu for trips to the Obudu Mountain Resort.
From the soaring plateaus of the mountain tops of Obudu to the Rain forests of Afi, from the Waterfalls of Agbokim and Kwa to the spiralling ox-bow Calabar River which provides sights and images of the Tinapa Business Resort, Calabar Marina, Calabar Residency Museum and the Calabar Slave Park along its course, there is always a thrilling adventure awaiting the eco-tourist visiting Cross River State.
Cross River State is home to a vast selection of monkeys , chimpanzees and gorillas and 2 non-governmental organisations-CERCOPAN and Pandrillus Foundation who specialise in providing sanctuary to primates, rehabilitating them and working with the Cross River State government to ensure these endangered primates are protected. They are under threat due to climate change and being hunted as bush meat, and without the help of these NGOs they would almost certainly face extinction.
AFI MOUNTAIN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY & CANOPY WALKWAY
The Afi mountains in Boje local government is the home to the drill and other endangered primates including the Nigerian chimpanzee Pan troglodytes vellerosus, and the most endangered gorilla subspecies, the Cross River gorilla diehli. The Afi sanctuary is also host to the Afi Mountain Canopy Walkway. The Afi Canopy walkways are a series of suspension bridges linked to platforms on trees. They start-off from a hillside slope through flat ground using inclined bridges. The Afi Mountain Canopy Walkway allows tourists to experience a walk in the upper canopy of the forest. They are effective at attracting visitors who then become an audience ripe for information about environmental issues and approaches to natural history
The rugged massif (1400m) is a critical watershed for dozens of communities. It is listed as an IBA (Important Bird Area) for Nigeria and hosts one of the largest migratory swallow roosts in Africa. The forests on Afi are a barrier against the encroaching derived savannah from the west and north.
The sanctuary is managed by an organization named Pandrillus who started community protection patrols using local hunters to discourage shooting and trapping.They also organised education programmes in the 17 villages surrounding the mountain, and brought the communities together as a common interest group for the first time. The mountain was then part of the Afi River Forest Reserve (383 sq km), a production forest reserve for which logging concessions had been issued. Pandrillus community protection program prevailed and made great strides in controlling hunting, in particular developing popular support for protection of “The Big Three” - gorilla, drill and chimpanzee.
In 2000 the Cross River State government legally created the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary from the northwest portion of the Afi River Forest Reserve. Today the sanctuary is the best-protected area for drills in the world.
The Calabar Carnival has become an annual state event to look forward to and takes place each year on the 26th of December as a high point of the series of activities organised by the Cross River State Government to celebrate both the end of the year and Christmas season. The Carnival has always been a showcase of talents, the performing arts and culture and an exciting rallying point not only for residents and indigenes living away from home but also a host of foreign tourists from different countries around the world.
CALABAR DRILL MONKEY SANCTUARY
The Centre for Education, Research and Conservation of Primates and Nature (CERCOPAN) in Calabar is a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to conserving Cross River State’s primate communities through forest conservation, community education and support, primate rehabilitation and research. CERCOPAN is home to 2 types of primates: guenons (genus Cercopithecus) and mangabeys (genus Cercocebus), orphaned as nursing infants when their mothers were shot for bush meat. Visitors here are treated to an array of various species of Drill monkeys in the sanctuary.
Donations and confiscations of orphaned primates have always been an integral and important part of their work towards protection and conservation of primates in Nigeria. The Nigerian public have donated ninety-five percent of all incoming orphans to the project - which is largely due to the NGO’s educational outreach programme.
Accepting and caring for these orphaned rainforest primates is an important tool in helping to spread the message to the general public about the importance of protecting Nigeria’s wildlife heritage, about giving wildlife the respect it deserves, living freely in their natural habitat. It also is important in terms of removing primates from miserable and degrading conditions, and contributing towards survival of endangered species.
The newly developed Marina Beach Resort by the seaside gives visitors and tourists a refreshing breath of a unique sea-viewing experience and a splendid landscape. The landscape of the Resort is a magnificent sight to behold and pundits can even hitch a ride on one of the speed boats across the Calabar River which usually hosts the annual Boat Regatta. You can also take a 20mins boat trip to along the Calabar River to Creek Town (also known as Western Calabar) to see the statue of Mary Slessor and the work she did there.
More interesting in the Calabar Marina Beach Resort is the preserved history of the slave trade that took place from the beach in the colonial days at the Slave History Museum along the Marina Beach. History records that 30 per cent of slaves from the West Coast of Africa, left the continent from the shores of Calabar. Their experiences at the time were captured with a digital presentation in the slave museum that is sited very close to the beach resort.
Youths in the Marina community have been given skills training in marine tour-guiding and in the provision of water-taxi services in order to complement the recent upsurge in tourist activity and to make the Marina Beach Resort visit an eco-tourism adventure to remember through the facilitation of standardised marine tour-guide services. Don’t forget to take a visit to the numerous craft shops that adorn the streets along the Marina roadside for a souvenir.
The Calabar Museum is situated nearby the Marina Beach Resort and is housed in the Old Government House building which used to be the former residence of the colonial governor when Calabar was the first capital of pre-independent Nigeria. The museum is beautifully tucked besides the hill overlooking the Calabar River and Marina beach waterfront and provides stunning scenery. The present museum building was designed and built in Glasgow and shipped over in pieces. The museum concentrates on the history of Calabar, the region and slavery. The museum houses the largest quantity of original documents and artifacts’ relating to Nigeria than anywhere else in Nigeria, the UK or USA. The amiable museum staff are always at hand to give visitors a guided tour around the museum.
The Cross River National Park is a tourist’s delight. It was created from two existing forest reserves of Bashi-Okwango and Oban Forest Reserves. It is famous for its unique rain forest vegetation which, according to conservation experts, is some of the richest in Africa. This park contains the last remaining rain forest in Nigeria, which is being preserved with the help of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The Cross River National Park, together with the Oban Hills, forms the focus of the activities of World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) in Nigeria.
The National Park was conceived to protect and conserve the last vestige of the rain forest ecosystem and to promote eco-tourism in Nigeria. It has a herd of forest elephants, the white-faced monkey (indigenous to Nigeria only), buffalo, leopards and lowland gorillas, besides over a thousand other animal species. The park has a tropical climate characterized by a rainy season between April and October and a dry season between November and April. The moist green vegetation cover makes the for¬est an excellent place to see birds and butterflies.
The biodiversity credentials of the park also make it home to a herd of forest elephants, the white-faced monkey (indigenous to Nigeria only), and buffalo’s, leopards and lowland gorillas. Other animal species found in both sectors include: antelopes, chimpanzees, high forest monkeys, high forest elephants, manatees and bush pigs. Others are baboon, leopards and gorillas some of which are endangered species which have the park as their last stronghold in the whole of West Africa.
The park is famous for its unique rain forest vegetation which, according to conservation experts, is some of the richest in Africa. The park has a tropical climate characterized by a rainy season between April and October and a dry season between November and April. The moist green vegetation cover makes the forest an excellent place to see birds and butterflies
It is about an hour's drive from Calabar and the ultimate tourism potential of Cross River National Park lies on the development of the Kanyang Tourist Village to exploit the unlimited tourism resources of the Mbe Gorilla and the Obudu Cattle Ranch.
A visit to Nigeria’s version of Stonehenge known as the Ikom monoliths presents a pleasant historical-cum-anthropological experience. The Ikom monoliths are known as Akwasnshi/ Atal among the Ejagham people of the Cross River State and are distributed among over thirty different communities. The Ikom monoliths are a series of volcanic-stone monoliths constructed anytime between 2500 BC and 1 AD. They are between 1 and 1.8 metres (3 and 5 feet) high, and are laid out in some 30 circles located around Alok in the Ikom area of Cross River State. The monoliths are phallic and some feature stylized faces as well as decorative patterns and inscriptions. Exposure to extreme weather conditions has put these monoliths at risk of erosion and deterioration. They were recently added to the World Monuments Fund's list of sites in danger and are being considered for inclusion onto UNESCO's World Heritage Site list.
In each community, the stones are found in circles, sometimes perfect circles, facing each other standing erect, except where they have been tampered with by weather or man.The monoliths could also be found in the center of the village or in the central meeting place of the village elders, as in the case of Alok and Agba communities. In the Nabrokpa communities, the stones are located in an area of uncultivated forest outside the villages.
The majority of the stones are carved in hard, medium-textured basaltic rock; a few are carved in sandstone and shelly limestone. The common features of the monoliths are that they are hewn into the form of a phallus ranging from about three feet in height to about five and half feet and are decorated with carvings of geometric and stylized human features, notably two eyes, an open mouth, a head crowned with rings, a stylized pointed beard, an elaborately marked navel, two decorative hands with five fingers, a nose, various shape of facial marks.
The stone monoliths of Alok Ikom bear a form of writing and a complex system of codified information. Although they seem to share the same general features, each stone, like the human finger print, is unique from every other stone in its design and execution.
The geometric images on the monoliths suggest that their makers possessed more than a basic knowledge of mathematics, not only because they are geometric, but also because of the obvious implication that there were computations and numbers on the layout of the stones.
The Ikom monoliths with their geometric inscriptions could be compared to the rock Arts of Tanzania. The meanings of the codified symbol are known to only the artists. These are also associated with their origin, which is like most rock art works in Africa. Ikom monoliths could be West Africa's answer to United Kingdom's Stonehenge.
Mary Slessor was a Scottish missionary from Dundee sent by the Presbyterian Church who came to Calabar and ended the practice of murdering of twins. Her picture currently appears on one of the Scottish ten pound notes and her missionary exploits in Calabar are quite legendary. Her tomb is presently located at the Eyamba Street cemetery in Duke Town (quite close to the Marina Resort) and attracts lots of visits from tourists. Although the tomb is located inside a general cemetery that is mainly under lock, there has been a strong clamour for the tomb to be relocated to a more centralised location where it could be turned into a national tourism monument for a lady of her stature and historical importance.
The Ranch is located on the Oshie Ridge Plateau of the Sankwala Mountains, approximately 65 kms from Obudu town in the north eastern region of Cross River State.
The Obudu plateau was initially explored in 1949 by Mr.McCaughley, a Scottish rancher who came back here in 1951 with a fellow rancher-Mr. Hugh Jones and Dr Cranfield to develop the ranch.
It is located on a hilltop which is a 35 minute drive from Obudu town and about 5 hours from Calabar. The ranch also has a helipad and an airstrip for access by air at Bebi .The management of the resort had recently installed a cable car which brings guests from the base of the hill to the summit of the ranch. It is claimed to be the world’s longest cable car system.
Once you get to the ranch there are lots of things to do. Tourist attractions include the numerous mountain-area and country-side views. There is a newly built water park with swimming facilities and water slides for children and adults Others attractions include the cable cars, ranch cattle and horses, the honey factory, the canopy walk and the 9-hole golf course.
The Obudu Ranch Resort has 20 African bungalows, 20 Mountain Villas providing 60 rooms and a newly built International Conference Centre that can seat 250 persons. There is an Executive Board Room which can seat 30 persons, two Syndicate Rooms that can seat 40 persons each in addition to a posh restaurant, bar and an Internet Service Room.
The Tinapa Business Resort is situated within Cross River State and was conceived as an alternative entertainment and retail destination to what’s available in Dubai or South Africa. Tinapa is a resort district, 10 km outside of Calabar, in the Cross River State, Nigeria and is an excellent base from which to attend events, conferences and meetings. Tinapa opened in December 2008, offering 243 well appointed bedrooms; an excellent restaurant overlooking the Tinapa Lakeside and a great location to explore. The hotel comprises of 243 rooms and delivers top class comfort and service to every guest.
A visit to Tinapa exposes its breath-taking architectural design, and includes a wholesale emporium, retail outlets, food court with take-away outlets, administrative centres, parking space for 3000 cars and coaches, wave pool, standing wave surfing, lazy river slide, water slides, picnic area, children’s pool and play area. The fisherman’s village compromises of the mud bar, a branded nightclub, arts and crafts village and a man-made lake. These and more make Tinapa, a world-class edifice. All these facilities are supported by a robust 24/7 independent power supply system, first-class ICT infrastructure as well as top security.
The Tinapa Shopping Complex is located within the Tinapa Free Zone & Resort, Adiabo, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. It comprises four emporiums of 10,000m2 each and about fifty four line shops that range between 150m2 to 200m2 in size. The product mix will include lifestyle products, fashion and accessories, specialty goods, stationery and office equipment, leather and luggage, pharmaceuticals, food, fruit and vegetables, toys, telephones, cosmetics, coffee shops, home accessories, computers and gadgets, electronics and appliances, art and framing materials, banking services, courier/ logistic services, vehicle rentals, photographic services, and so on.
The Tinapa Free Zone & Resort, home of the Tinapa Shopping Complex, is a world-class integrated business and leisure resort conceptualised and promoted by the Government of Cross River State and implemented in four phases under a Private Public Partnership (PPP) with some private investors. Located by the Calabar River, and contiguous with the Calabar Free Trade Zone, it is the realisation of an exciting dream - the first integrated business and leisure resort in Nigeria.
The first phase of the Tinapa Business Resort & Free Zone was officially commissioned on the 2nd of April 2007 and is currently leasing retail and wholesale spaces to reputable retailers who are interested in tapping into the over three hundred million brand-hungry consumers in West Africa with more spending power than ever before.
Apart from providing shopping experiences for shoppers, Tinapa, Africa's Premier Business Resort, also offer world class facilities that allow for leisure and entertainment. Some of these facilities include:
- An open exhibition area for trade exhibitions and other events.
- A movie production studio commonly referred to as "Studio Tinapa" or "Nollywood". It is set to become the most modern film production studio in Nigeria. Visitors can watch an actual movie production taking place.
- An entertainment strip that comprise a casino, an eight-screen digital cinema, a children's arcade, international standard restaurants and a mini amphitheater, a night club and pubs.
- An artificial tidal lake that feeds from the Calabar River.
- A 243 room international hotel christened "Amber Tinapa" being operated by African Sun, South Africa.
- A Water Park (Leisure Land).
- Parking space for 4000 cars.
- A truck terminal.
- An independent power plant that ensures uninterrupted electricity supply.