The recent Lagos –Calabar coastal highway construction project currently on the Lagos-Lekki town corridor could be said to be a breath of fresh air in an area once declared by an Ibeju-Lekki Local Government area chairman as a Tourism Zone. It is now easy to access in record time the whole stretch of the lush white sandy water from with its coconut beaches that stretched Lagos into Ondo waterside.

Here, along this corridor is a picturesque postcard view of the blue Atlantic Ocean. The other side of the road used to be a dense spread of green mangrove forest, but has recently been taken over by one development activity or the other. The area is also rich in history and heritage for adventurists. Doting along the coastline are some abandoned ancient buildings that go back hundreds of years. They used to bustle with activities in the form of agricultural produce and even human cargo or slaves.

The Lekki stretch of the Atlantic Ocean beach front still has so many secrets, so many pleasant surprises for adventure tourists to discover along the off—the-regular beaches and fun spots.

One of the surprises along this beachfront stretch is the Oso natural water mystery, where annually, the ocean and the fresh water lagoon engage in mystic dance of nature, leaving the inhabitants with fresh food abundance that makes them raise their hands in thankfulness to nature’s continuous provision of its yields for humanity.

Along the Lekki zone coastal road, driving towards the Ondo waterside, there are points where the lagoon water on the left flows across the road towards the Atlantic Ocean. In these points of crossing that have bridges built to access the communities across, the water never empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Normally the fresh lagoon water is blocked from emptying into the Atlantic Ocean by the sandy beachfront. The waterfront and the Atlantic Ocean are separated by a few meters of sand.

However, annually in the circle of life, the water level of the ocean rises to overwhelm the few meters of sandy barriers between it and the fresh lagoon water. One of the places this happens is at Oso lagoon, just beside the La Campagne Beach and Forest Resort Ikegun. It is a natural spectacle worth experiencing.

It happens suddenly, the ocean water level would start rising. What used to be meters of sandy beach separating the ocean from the lagoon would begin to be eaten up by the ocean. Within a few hours, the beach disappears, the ocean opens and the lagoon water empties into it in its annual visit to the mighty Atlantic Ocean. As this happens, the body of lagoon water would disappear leaving only the underbelly of the muddy floor. Freshwater food like fish and others would suddenly be exposed gasping for air while the inhabitants enter the muddy floor to harvest from seafood. They know it is not a permanent phenomenon but a natural activity that lasts for a few hours.

The mystery of this ocean and lagoon water dance is that despite their coming together, each maintains its identity. The salty ocean water never mixes with the lagoon fresh water to become unrecognizable. Each maintains its individual identity.

The phenomenon has created an additional tourism product for the La Campagne Tropicana Resort Ikegun as some visitors come to witness the annual natural spectacle. The resort has turned the phenomenon into a prime product. It happens mostly as the peak of the rainy season when the water volume of the Atlantic Ocean rises to trigger the natural phenomenon.

This year’s Oso water and ocean embrace is no different. It happened in the month of September and was witnessed by many visitors to the resort, though many never planned for the pleasant natural spectacle. Some could hardly hide their amazement with what they have just witnessed.

Dr. Olayiwola Ajileye leads the Ibadan College of Medicine Alumni Association. He was at the resort to witness this nature’s surprise: “I have never been this close to the ocean and to the sea. And I’m witnessing a powerful phenomenon, a very unusual phenomenon here, whereby the fresh water makes way and mixes with the ocean.”

“When we were here this morning, we saw the fresh water. And just in less than two hours, this is phenomenal. This is great,” another guest enthused.

“Now we’re back and the ocean tide has gone down and you can see the fresh water moving into the ocean, but you can see the line of demarcation because they are not mixing. I believe later on this evening as the ocean tide returns, they will push the fresh water back in. It’s just absolutely phenomenal. I don’t think there’s any other part of Nigeria where we can see a phenomenon like this. And so we are just absolutely delighted that we’re here at Tropicana to witness this amazing feat . I will encourage everybody to um come and see this. When the land is exposed and the fish is stranded. That’s a perfect time for the villagers to catch some fish. So I think it’s just natural and it shows people being smart to know what nature is doing and take advantage of that. I’ve not experienced this, only in a textbook when I was reading geography. But this is life and direct. It’s really surreal,” another guest said, “I didn’t want to understand how nature works because you can’t understand how nature works. How can this be? I came here in June and it wasn’t like this. I even had breakfast around here and I wasn’t afraid of it. So, imagine me doing this. I don’t think I would do this during this period. But it’s actually interesting and it’s a natural, nice experience. I wish to experience it over and over again. Right from the time the water opened up to a very small opening, up to this point and as the villagers are arriving to gather fish. In fact, I enjoy the experience.”

So far, it is difficult to pin the exact day the natural phenomenon would happen for tourists to make plans ahead, however, the Oso water mystery is something an adventure tourist would want to tick in his pocket list.