Awhum Cave and Waterfall

Useful Information

Location:	Amaugwe village, Awhum town, Udi Local Government Area, Enugu State, Nigeria. (6.533098, 7.434031)
Open:	no restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Gorge
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Awhum Cave and Waterfall, Tel: +234-.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1975	Our Lady of Mount Calvary Monastery opened.

Description

Awhum Cave and Waterfall is a typical local misnomer, if they talk about a cave they actually mean a gorge. Those slot canyons are quite typical and there are numerous of them. A river flowing down a hill slowly cuts into hard rock until it reaches the lower rock below, there erosion increases. And what you get is a cliff or step with a waterfall and a plunge pool at the bottom. Now the waterfall starts to erode the rock where it falls down and the waterfall moves upstream creating a gorge with almost vertical walls. Its windig as the river above was winding, and the waterfall is always at the end of the gorge. The reason is simply that it continually extends the gorge by its retrograde erosion.

Another typical thing is that people say the waterfall has healing powers. While this is obviously nonsense, the falling water is like a massage and thus may make you feel better. The locals used such special spots for shrines and thought they were sacred. Here, above the gorge on top of the hill a monastery was built, the Our Lady of Mount Calvary Monastery. They replace the local shrines by Christian idols of Virgin Mary and Christ. The superstition is the same.

The people of Awhum (Ohum) call the waterfall Igba. It is 30 m high. The water originates from a spring right above at a large rock formation. The rock is said to be granite.

Many people go to the monastery for a guide to the waterfall, but for some reason they seem to be reluctant, and there are phrases such as that "they cannot allow visits to the waterfall due to the current security situation". Actually that’s nonsense, and actually they do not own the waterfall, it is owned by the Awhum village. The abbot has put up a sign with rules which includes forbidding photography and the monks are collecting an entrance fee. The locals live here for millennia, and the gorge was their shrine for a long time. So look for a local who guides you to the waterfall. The hike is easy and there is no climbing the floor of the gorge is level, but it’s going down into the valley and back upstream into the gorge, and afterwards the whole way back. You might plan about 2 hours for the full tour. The only problem is that the trails are not marked, and we do not have the exact location, so it is almost impossible to find without a local guide.