Day 4 time to head south

The Nearly finished New Road

We all know birds do it ... But it's also what bareguitarists do ... Head South in the winter  .. South to an area past lumley beach ... South on the new road that never existed in my day ... On the "nearly finished " new 4 lane road being built to link Kent - Sussex - and Freetown ..  I was heading to a place down in Sussex called Franco's ...

A hotel bar restaurant right on the beach in Sussex .. a few miles of golden sands not spoilt by any surrounding buildings ... An odd dwelling or two yes .... But a view to kill for....

Franco's, and the road South, were built after I had left Freetown - but the pure deserted sands and isolated beaches are what Lumley beach used to be in my day....

Aberdeen bridge

There is a new bridge across Aberdeen river inlet that (after some debate with my sister) it was decided did not exist in our day. This bridge links the main part of Freetown to the beach area Lumley beach. Before the bridge it would take an hour and a half to get to Lumley Beach from the town. Driving all the way inland before taking a "road" across open bush to the beach area. The bridge has changed the entire landscape. Now hotels and bars sit on Lumley beach - and it has become more of a town beach than the beach I had in my mind.

Apparently at one stage, it had become an area filled with local shack bars, and attracted some very dangerous people as a drunk person is a much easier target. The government decided that Lumley needed clearing up, so they did. In true African style they sent in a few hundred young men, backed up by a handful of armed police, with free licence to smash all the shack bars ... little debate happens in Africa when a decision is made like this. Now Lumley is cleaner, nicer, slightly safer, with a scattering of well built bars and beach clubs, but still not the beach it was. Anyway back to Franco's .....

Francos beach

Francos beach

The place is a sea water natural lagoon filled with sea water and a sand bank in the middle - tidal yes - and the currents can be a little strong on certain tides - but step out of the restaurant onto their own private beach ... A short walk / swim across the lagoon and you are straight onto a secluded beach of about 4 miles of golden sands with not a soul in sight ....

The inlet by the Hotel

Of course you have to watch the tide slightly here - and the beauty of a beach with no-one for miles is a plus and a minus... The obvious minus being the fact that this part of the coast line has some pretty heavy under-currents ..

It took about 2 hours to drive from the centre of Freetown to Sussex - but it was only about 30 mins drive along the road from lumley... No town traffic helps !! And of course a minor detour to the G-Spot bar fly bar as we pass it on Lumley cross road !!

Here and in beautiful surroundings - we are shown to our room ... It's pretty hard to describe .. But take a road side b&b of the 70's and you are close ... Mustard coloured Walls and a wood ceiling which would have been skimmed by plaster in more recent times ... A large but bare room with hot and cold leaking water in the bathroom... Well I am sure the image in your head is more flattering to the actual real image of the place ... But don't forget this was an area constantly ravaged by rebels during the war... Stories of Franco and his son having to head out to sea every night to avoid being shot or worse by the rebels ... Him and many others.. Only returning in the day time not knowing if the place has been burnt down or if in fact the rebels still sat in wait for people to return .... We can't imagine the thoughts that went along with this part of Sierra leone history ...

So you can understand the slow march to progress for a place like
Franco 's - family kingdom - and in fact all these places in and around Freetown. But the staff at Franco's were a big let down .. and there is little excuse for this.

You can forgive what takes time to recover from - but staff who don't care about delivering a service to customers is not acceptable .... Tolerated as we settled into the place ... We were not going to have to chase cleaners to do their job - waiters to do their job - and eventually the lid blew ... In day 2 of our 4 day planned stay at franco's...

However - one thing that cannot be missed - the food at franco's is divine !!!!!!!! So a must stop for at least one night for food and to check out this beautiful place on the mouth of a lagoon, and obviously the unbelievable decor ... But for 4 nights !!! I don't think so ... So day 2 needs a serious decision ...

making decisions is not the strongest point of bareguitarists on holiday !!!!



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