I went on a trip to Enugu last weekend and had planned to visit the old coal mines and maybe see the caves I had heard about.
I had asked a friend (@bee6th, the photo of the tunnel belongs to him) I was going to meet up with in Enugu to help me find the location of the mine. After asking several people he managed to reach someone who kind of knew the location of the mines and we worked with his instructions which turned out to be the best advice we got.
Most of the people we asked gave us directions to the estate where the employees of the defunct coal corporation used to stay. It was as if most of them had never bothered to find out why Enugu is the Coal City. Yes coal used to be mined here but where exactly?
The keke we got to take us on the final leg of the journey said he had never heard about the mines but that he would take us to Camp 2 which we had been told was close to the mines. At Camp 2 he spoke to someone in a road side drinking joint who said he had an idea but still had to make sure by speaking to an older gentleman. The beer joint gentleman then acted as our guide and even took over the driving of the keke. Yes I know he had been drinking but he was still better at driving than the owner of the keke.
We found the mines or what was left of it. If you decide to go on your own trip to the mines, let me just say here that the place has death traps. Cave ins deeper than 6ft and wide enough to swallow a car.
We managed to locate the entrance to the cave before leaving. The trip in the keke to the camp and back cost N2,000.00. That was how far and terrible the road was.
Would love to tell you the names of the different streams passing through the site and where they originate from but I can’t remember their names as I couldn’t wait to leave the site to catch my bus back to PH.
This trip was more about the discovery than the photo opportunities the trip provided. As you can see the photos I took are just crappy. Just working on the knowledge that the mines and caves exist and then seeing it for myself was worth it. If I knew how hard it would be to locate the mines I would probably not have gone through with it though, just saying.
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