By Wale Ojo-Lanre, Esq.
In this dazzling age of smartphones and social media, tourism is too often reduced to the art of clicking rather than the act of connecting. Travellers today rush to capture, filter, and post, forgetting that the soul of travel was never meant to be lived through a screen. True tourism transcends the lens; it is not the pursuit of pictures but the pilgrimage of perception. To travel meaningfully is to let places, people, and cultures leave their imprint upon your inner being, for what endures is not what the eyes behold, but what the heart absorbs.
There are sacred corners of Ekiti where no photograph can ever suffice. Stand before the Abanijorin Hills of Iyin-Ekiti, and you will behold granite sentinels that have watched centuries unfold. Their ancient flanks shimmer under the sun, whispering stories of hunters, warriors, and lovers who once sought refuge in their shadows. The camera may record their height, but never their heartbeat—the silent throb of time itself.
Or stand before Ope Olori Yeye in Ilogbo-Ekiti, the miraculous palm tree that bears multiple crowned heads. Its strangeness humbles the intellect. It is a wonder not to be captured but contemplated. The hush that surrounds it cannot be frozen into pixels; it can only be felt in reverence, in awe, in surrender.
Susan Sontag once warned that “to photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed.” But Ekiti teaches us the reverse: that to travel rightly is not to appropriate, but to appreciate. It is to listen before looking, to learn before posting, to encounter before editing.
The truest travel experience begins when we put the camera down and open the soul. Climb Oke Sagbonke, the Mount of Clouds in Efon-Alaaye, and you will learn that silence can speak. The mountain’s cool breath, the veil of mist that wraps around you, and the solemn echo of distant chants remind you that nature has its own language—one that requires stillness, not selfies.
Journey onward to Mount Erio Ekiti , the hallowed ground of Apostle Ayo Babalola, whose prayers once ignited revival fires across the land ( Olorun 1930) .The same divine vibration still dwells there; pilgrims feel it in the wind, hear it in the rustle of leaves.
Nearby, Mount Ido-Ile stands in equal dignity, another altar of devotion where faith and landscape become one continuum of belief. And when you step into the First Catholic Mass Centre in Usi-Ekiti, where simplicity and sanctity coexist, the altar is not a monument of marble but a memory of faith—of men who travelled not to be seen but to serve. These places demand not a camera’s gaze but a pilgrim’s heart, for as one Yoruba saying reminds us, “Oju lo n ri, inu lo n mo”—the eyes may see, but only the heart truly understands.
The ancient Greeks called travel theoria—a sacred journey to witness and return wiser. Every true traveller is a philosopher on foot. At Ikogosi Warm Springs Resort, where hot and cold waters flow side by side yet never mix, nature preaches her quiet sermon on harmony. It is a liquid metaphor for peace, proof that difference need not mean division. Here, the warm and the cool, the modern and the traditional, the earthly and the divine all coexist in tranquil balance. As T. S. Eliot beautifully wrote, “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” The traveller who journeys with mind and heart returns not merely informed but transformed.
Tourism, at its moral core, is not exploitation but exchange. It is not about taking pictures of people but taking interest in them. The ethical traveller honours communities, protects sacred spaces, and contributes to the economies that sustain them. This philosophy undergirds Ekiti’s tourism vision under the leadership of Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, whose administration champions sustainability through sensitivity. The Ekiti State Bureau of Tourism Development upholds this creed—reminding visitors that tourism must not only create memories but also cultivate meaning. We must move from sightseeing to site-feeling, from collection to connection, from consumption to communion.
A photograph can fade, but a moment of revelation endures. When you climb Oke Sagbonke and the clouds enfold you like a blessing, or when you stand at Ikogosi, listening to the eternal dialogue of warm and cold waters, something within shifts quietly. You return home not merely with pictures but with perspective; not with souvenirs but with stories. That is the true legacy of travel—the slow awakening of the soul to the poetry of the world. Marcel Proust once wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Tourism beyond photography is not a rejection of technology; it is an invitation to depth. It is about trading the camera’s flash for the heart’s illumination. It calls us to see with empathy, to listen with humility, and to move through the world as custodians, not consumers. So, the next time you travel—to Abanijorin Hills, Oke Sagbonke, Mount Erio, Ope Olori Yeye, Usi Catholic Centre, or Ikogosi Warm Springs—don’t just take pictures. Take meaning. Because in Ekiti, every hill whispers history, every stream hums spirituality, and every rock holds revelation.
And that is why you have to Visit Ekiti — the Land of Wonders.
visitekiti.ek.gov.ng
… Ojo- Lanre Esq is the Director General Ekiti State Bureau of Tourism