Last day - Goodbye to Freetown - , Ratta, Cockroaches, and Lobsters

Little sleep last night - again ... It's not so much the fact that you have been eaten to death by every type of insect in the known world .. It's the fact that the heat is a humid 35 degrees . no air ... No fan - no AC ... And even with the Windows open .. It's hot as hell...

Tonight is no different .. Except for one thing .. To add to the luxury of the holiday - we are invaded by cockroaches .. 2 in the room - one fighting to get in under the door - and one under mosquito net we discover after getting into bed ...

So with no BOP  (the famous spray that kills just about every living thing .. Including humans if you stay in the room as it's sprayed )- then the old fashioned method is put into action ... Flip flop in hand ... I go to work ...

Hot as hell - cockroaches by the dozen ( I discovered in the morning they had been doing work on the drain behind the hut and had left the top off !!! hence the invasion) - and the ratta having their usual late night party on the roof .. Made for an uneasy sleep ... Of course all this has the usual sounds of being in the African bush over night ! light on for the cricket - light off - lights on - light off .. well no TV remember !!

By the time morning comes ... Knackered .. We get up for breakfast .. Papaya and toast - coffee - lemon grass tea - and late but welcome a cool onshore breeze ...

I have damaged my flip flop ... no not by the zealous hitting of cockroaches .. It was trying to salvage the lobsters from certain death ...

When Hussman swam out to retrieve the lobsters .. Fred and Fiona .. In the dark .. One thing became very clear .. Not even the locals want to swim lin the dark sea late at night ... So having retrieved the lobster .. He hung them into the water from a branch overhanging the beach when the tide was in ... As I finished my last beer and headed to bed that night ... I noticed the lobster hanging from the tree in mid- air .... The tide had gone out .. Everyone had gone to bed .. And some 10 lobsters were about to die ... So I waded into the water tried to get them loose and in water .. Without breaking the cage of course ... But only half a success .. And with some slipping on the rocks and falling around in the pitch black sea ... I had torn my flip flop ... I went to the office area to get some help .. Found a drunk and asleep guy who was totally off the planet .. Gave up .. And went off to bed (for my further entertainment - this you know about)...

Just as I was about to go into the bathroom we heard the night security walking past ... So out in my skimpies I got his attention .. I am not sure if it was the sight of me in skimpies that got his attention or not!

The lobster are out of the water I explained .. Yes sir - right - I am sure they are ok sir ... Obviously I wasn't the first White guy to have this discussion at 11 pm !!! - no I said look at the tree - they are hanging there out of the water ... He looked at me ... I know he had thought I was pissed or such before .. But I seemed to be talking lucidly ... So humouring me he said - show me ! I did and I can say he wasn't keen on going into the water either .. But being as it was only the 2 if us around ... and I had zero intention of going back in .... He stepped in .. Ran out .. Stepped in again ... ran out again .. Anyway you get the picture .. another fools and horses moment .. Bored I left him to it ... I had cockroaches, crickets, ratta, and 400 other insects to attend to ..

Back to breakfast .. Our boat has arrived .. We say our goodbyes ... Pay our bill - and off to Kent ...






Pretty much as the outward trip .. We arrive - our driver is waiting .. And we load the bags ... We are asked if we are taking the waterloo road as the island nurse would like a lift .. Anyway that route apparently is all Tarmac - so yes yes yes !!!! .. We take the road and give her a lift... Through waterloo and into Freetown - time with my cousin and his kids - 2 beers later it's time to get the pelican boat to the airport.

The problem with such a high risk country in terms of travelling is that you have to do everything far in advance in order to cover the fact that if something goes wrong it takes a long time to sort out the problem and potential solution ... so we are going to be in the airport very early ....It's going to be a long 4 hours at Lungi airport !!!

Much too long for a bearguitarist with no patience !!!

So its goodbye to Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. I wanted to add some thoughts if you can tolerate a few more sentences ..

Freetown and Sierra Leone is NOT ready for classic tourism  - in fact it is far from ready. But if you are an explorer, ready to put up with quite a few ruff edges, and want to see countries before they are spoilt by commercial tourism.. If you want to see beaches virtually untrodden, jungle not carefully prepared for granny's wheel chair access, and use your holiday pound to make a difference in a 3rd world environment - then I say keep Sierra Leone on your radar for another year or so ... as after the main road is done, really done, the elections finished in June, and BMI being bought by BA (BMI just about the only flight option right now..).. Then give the hotels a little time to make repairs and upgrades to their rooms, at this point you MUST go ... before it becomes another Spain.

I have walked along beaches where only 2 people in 3 days have trodden ... seen miles of beaches where no-one can be seen for miles. Seen backdrops of Jungle mountains and hills, visibly untouched by human hands. I have seen a place where a useless war based on greed and destruction took the heart of a beautiful country and put it back 40 years in its development. More importantly - and what remains in my memory after all the insects, cold showers, no electric, ratta, cockroaches, no meat, and the daily lobster ...  I have been back to one of the places I call home.


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Day 2 of banana island - Fishing - Fred & Fiona

Last night our food arrived at 7 not 8 .. And we were still full from lunch and asleep for an afternoon snooze .. Followed by no one to sort out drinks caused a short discussion with the management ...

Let me try to explain about this - as it sounds very petty ... the drinks were stored in a solar fridge - the only one on the island - about 5 mins walk back into the village - virtually no lights, and no way to have a help -yourself service, you are fully dependant on the service offered to you. We explained to the management ...We can work with a system .. But if the time we agree is acceptable by both parties - then that's when food is expected .. But it came an hour early ... Hence the discussion ...

But in the end it was agreed to be a mixup .. And we agreed to push on with the day ahead ..

Night time was interesting ... During the evening meal we had heard and spotted a small bush rat (ratta locally) living in the roof of the restaurant .. He looked on in lustful envy at us while we ate our food ... Spying on us throughout the meal .... Once finished and in our hot sweaty bed ... He and what sounded like 40 of his closest friends decided to dance on the roof of our hut ... Not sure if this was in the hut roof or in the room... made for an interesting night .. If you combine this the sounds of the wild that echoed all through the night ..

When you put on the lights - a few crickets close to the hut get very loud .. loud as in ear piercing loud .. and the only way to stop them - is to turn the light off - then on until they hit crescendo, off, then on again. it gets a little surreal doing this as you feel like you are in a comedy sketch being filmed for a only fools and horses Xmas special ...

But the morning came .. We were not eaten by bush ratta - and breakfast was booked for 9 am ready for our 10 am fishing trip ... And sure enough based on our precious nights discussion ... Breakfast came at 9 !! Ish !! So toast ... Bananas ... Coffee - tea - jam ... On the beach about 10 ft away from the sea ... Very civilised !!!!!

An old Submarine Mine on the beach

As we have breakfast .. Our boat arrives for fishing ... It's a local pirogue open top - which is perfect for me .. But could be too hot for meerkats !!!! Anyway - we are going for 5 hours only .. And providing the sun does not come though too heavily - should be just about do-able !!

I am just so tired of constantly having this drunk monkey on my back !!!! (metaphor or real I am not commenting !!)



Into the water - onto the boat - and we are off for a trip around the islands ... Fishing being a key objective !!!

It was a very pleasant trip around the islands. A few stops to try and catch fish by hand line. hand line means no rod, just line and a hook, and a hope that while you want to catch something of reasonable size, you don't want to catch anything too big...

Our final stop in the afternoon, nothing caught yet, we get to snapper point. I called this snapper point as clearly this is what you catch here - red snapper. Not too large - not too small, and we have caught about 10 of them and a reasonable sized barracuda. Normally I would be over excited about eating freshly caught fish - my own freshly caught fish - (its a man hunt food primitive thing) - but I am just pleased that the fish selected to eat was the first edible fish caught by Sandra ever in her life ... a nice sized red snapper selected and cooked as a starter.
The rest we leave to the villagers to enjoy.

Last evening in Freetown, last night on Banana Island, we have our fresh caught Red Snapper, and we select Fred as the main course. Fred the lobster. We had been joined by another couple by this point on the island, and they had been around a few places on a 10 day trip to see Freetown.





They were typical of the slightly more adventurous traveller - however they had a camera that would put any Japanese tourist to shame ....they had also selected a lobster for dinner - so we called theirs Fiona ...

Hey - no TV, no radio, virtually no lights, no electric ... you have to make your own entertainment out here.... And a nice before and after set of photos we thought .....

Beer - red wine - and our jealous bush ratta watching us eating.. its another evening so surreal that even drugs could not induce visions like this -  for a bareuitarist ...

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Last 2 days - banana island or bust !!!

Well - set off around an hour ago to get to the beach at Kent .. which is where we are sitting right now .. Waiting for the boat to take us across to banana island ... Yes it is an island ... And the only access is by boat.. Bit of DUH moment there ...

The first 5 miles of road was a challenge until Touki Beach.. I can describe these roads as challenging .. The sort of challenging you see on tv programs about discovering lost tribes of the Amazon ...

But then hitting tarmac for the next 15 to 20 miles was almost like heaven .... Allowing for the fact that we zoomed past villages at an amazing 30 mph...

I don't remember the last time in Africa I was going so fast... It felt almost like 100 MPH as we had been going so slow due to traffic and the road conditions that my life was at 15 MPH maximum until then.

My cousins driver was coughing and spluttering all the way .. So it made it a pleasant trip .... I suspect he is ill and I hope it's not catching.... !!

The road past Kent goes to Waterloo - and this road is carefully monitored by armed military police to ensure nothing is smuggled around the country .. or at least nothing that has not been arranged to be smuggled around the country .. to make the drivers life easier on the way back I was very chatty to the check point chap .. and even took his photo .. there - good deed done for the day !!!

At last at Kent ... Ah yes ... First thing a brisk discussion with a guy from the village who wants to charge us 5000 leone to park the car... As we have no intention of parking the car I explained it in my best diplomatic voice and  multi-national lingo "piss off we are not paying " !!

So then down to park the car and offload our luggage .... It's a trek over some bush trail and rocks to the shore line where we are due to be collected by the banana island boat ... Along with medical supplies .. And some local passengers .. And a couple of guys doing a geological study ...
The landscape around Kent is just breath taking again - various miles of pure sandy beaches with a back drop of untouched jungle - I think to just see one is a stunning event - but this is now our 20th and whilst it causes a gasp every time .. we have gasped out a little by this point.

No there isn't .... you are quite right if you are thinking there is going to be no boarding jetty ... It's a wade into the sea and a clamber into the boat ... For everyone ... except lucky women who were carried onto the boat by one the Island guys .... chivalry is not dead ...

The boat took some 25 mins to arrive ... So a wander around watching the locals hand carve wood for their boats ... A quick look at the bucket of fish ... Then 23 mins of sitting around !

Finally we got to banana island which is an old creole colony with a dark slave trade background .. Relics of the 17'th century still hang around and graves of navy seamen sit in the cemetery ... Houses built with wood slated together still adorn the island ... And an old colonial church still stands here.. The beaches however are not what we have come to expect from other parts as they are subjected to littler that drifts in from Freetown ... But I am here to spend a couple of days seeing sights that were nearly inaccessible in my days here - and to get some fishing in .. That's tomorrows main task ...

The service here is straight back to the days of the 1940's .... And the food is excellent ... However cold beer is a little illusive ... Dodo illusive ...Warm beer however is readily available anytime (we are told).

I am promised chicken for dinner ... Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....Chicken .....CHICKEN !!! Ok I know I should not be so excited about it - but I am !!!!!! it's been 4 days since I have had any meat ... Now that's worth the trip !! I know what you are thinking .... Chicken V lobster .. You would eat lobster any day over chicken ... But this is day 4 of lobster ... twice a day - And it's too much ...

So it's a sit on the beach for Lunch (now ish) and dinner ... Which we have ordered for 8pm ... And some beer which I do hope is cold!!!

The rooms ? Well there are 6 beach huts here - very basic - cold water again ... But are nicely set up .. The missing element here is no AC and no fan no electric ... Just keep the mozzy screens closed and hope for some breeze I guess .....






After lunch went through the village to the big beach on one side of the island ... The beach was disappointing as it was littered with empty plastic bottle .. and an array of things you didn't want to examine too closely  - but hey it was 20 mins walk and we were going to have a dip...  the village Creole huts and church were amazing to see, and photo's a plenty of them .. its when the camera came out to photo someone clean underwear, tops and jeans drying on a stone that I though it best to point out the obvious .. perhaps this was not a tourist item to photograph ...

Got bitten to death .... You could hear the various biting insects shouting white meat ... white meat .. white meat ... white meat .. white meat ... white meat .. WHITE MEAT !!! I sort of understand their excitement as clearly they were waiting for 4 days for some meat also !!! And in the absence of chicken .. They made do with us!

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They were clearly using the stunning plants and bush to hid in ... as they were virtually undetectable - but there were at least plenty of banana trees around ... Banana Island then ???

Its going to be a sweaty night for bearguitarists for all the wrong reasons  .... !!!!


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