Freetown, Sierra Leone

This trip through West Africa started in French influenced Morocco, moved to Portuguese speaking Cape Verde then French speaking Senegal before heading into English speaking Gambia. After a few days in the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau and a quick foray into French Guinea it's back to the heavily English Sierra Leone.

A BRIEF HISTORY
The slave trade began in Sierra Leone in 1560 and within 100 years the British & Portuguese had established trading settlements all along the West African coast. By the late 1700's the optimistically named capital of Freetown was established at the mouth of the Sierra Leone river. Freetown is framed by beautiful mountains and white sand beaches, and quickly the colony known to locals as Salone became a British colony. Freetown was where freed North American slaves and others liberated from slaving ships were brought by the British. Known as 'Krios' the former slaves assumed an English type of lifestyle and openly discriminated against the indigenous population. Attacks by the French, disease and growing unrest led to a monstrous uprising in the late 20th century by the indigenous Mende people, who make up about one third of the population. Independence came in 1961, followed by three coups in one year in the late 60's, then the headline grabbing civil war that lasted from 1991 until 2001. Now peaceful, Sierra Leone is still recovering and while overseas investment may be slow in coming, it seems inevitable that the beaches south of Freetown will soon be overrun with resorts and golf courses, similar to Cancun.

FLYING INTO FREETOWN
After the trip from Gambia to Guinea-Bissau the next country south was Guinea but the Ebola outbreak had led to a lot of uncertainty around border opening and flight cancellations. I decided it was quicker and easier to return to Banjul in The Gambia and fly Gambia Bird airlines to Sierra Leone and approach Guinea from the south. Gambia Bird doesn't boast many flights on their schedule but they are cost effective and pretty efficient. The flight cost was only about $40 but with the airport fees and various taxes the total price was a little over USD$100 - still not bad I thought.

Ours was the only plane at Lungi airport in Sierra Leone so there were no lines and few touts. Lungi is the closest airport to Freetown but I was about to discover that it's not very close or convenient. A taxi from the airport to the city takes about two and a half hours and I was quoted USD$150 one way. I read that there was also a helicopter for USD$80 that would take 5 minutes or a hovercraft for USD$40 that would take 20 minutes - but both were out of service. I was left with one of two options; a rickety speed boat or a car ferry, but both involved catching a taxi to the port first. The water was a little rough so the speedboat seemed like a poor option so I waited for the car ferry. Schedules are optional for most forms of public transport in Africa so I wasn't sure when the boat was going to leave so I hung around and watched until the lower level of the ferry filled up with cars, trucks and animals until I jumped on board. I probably waited about an hour for the boat to leave and the journey to the Kissy terminal in Freetown took another hour. I was in no hurry but I wasn't sure where I wanted to stay once I got to Freetown - I had 2 or 3 options but they weren't particularly close to each other.

The port on the Lungi side of the Sierra Leone river

Welcome to Freetown

The Freetown side was extremely busy since the fresh boatload of potential customers had unearthed all the hawkers and taxi drivers. I spent some time trying to organize a taxi but the driver didn't know the location of the hotel and wanted to take me to another more expensive option. We couldn't agree on either the destination or the price so instead I put my life in the hands of one of the motorcycle taxi drivers. Part of the problem was the location of the hotel in my Lonely Planet guidebook was off by quite a few miles.

Freetown doesn't have a huge volume of traffic but it's predominantly made up of local buses, trucks, shared taxis and motorcycles (plus stray dogs, goats chickens etc). The shared taxis are an interesting concept and work well if you know where you're going and how far it is but I couldn't find any close to the ferry terminal. Motorcycle taxis are everywhere, quick and convenient but are more on the dangerous side. I agreed on the price with the driver, he had a good idea of the location and I told him to drive slow (he tried, but every now and then I had to remind him). The Hotobah Lodge is an excellent hotel in a so-so location, but for $75 a night with views over White Man's Bay and huge room with a massive balcony I couldn't complain. There were not many restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, apart from a dodgy looking Chinese place but no-one should ever have to eat Chinese food in Africa.

The Hotobah Lodge in Freetown

I rented a car and driver for the day to take me to the northern part of the country around the Scarcies River and we were close enough to Guinea to make a trip across the border for lunch in Pamelap. I changed some US$ into the local Guinean Franc and received a fistful of well worn notes to add to my collection. As is compulsory the car broke down and we had to get help from some folks at a nearby taxi rank. They fixed it pretty quick but left me with the 5,000 Franc bill (about USD 75c).

I spent another day exploring Freetown on my own including the huge Cotton Tree which marks the center of town and the various churches in the downtown area, the State House and the National Museum - all free. The Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the hills outside the city was an excellent excursion and well worth the effort.

The Tacugama Chimpanzee sanctuary

After Freetown I decided to spend a couple of nights in the southern beaches near Tokeh. I stayed at the River No. 2 Guesthouse, a very basic community run outfit boasting fresh seafood and the best beach. The food was great and the beach absolutely stunning but being Easter weekend it was overrun with tourists and the place was a real mess. Far from the relaxed beach retreat I was looking for it was more like a nightclub - between the music and the leaky shower I didn't get much sleep while I was there.

Tokeh Beach south of Freetown

CURRENCY
Sierra Leone uses the Leone as the national currency, but US dollars can be used in many places like hotels, rental car hire and the tourist sites. The main issue with the Leone is that the largest bank note (10,000Le) is worth about US$2.40 which means that carrying local currency means thinking outside the wallet - there's just not enough room. I tried to get some of the smaller denomination coins from one of the local banks and was sent to the bulk cash room in the back where a number of locals had boxes full of bundled notes they were depositing. They laughed when I asked if I could get some coins with a value of about 25c for my collection but I still had to try.

SIERRA LEONE QUICK GUIDE
Capital: Freetown
Currency: Leone (USD$1 = 4,400Le)
Language: English, Kriol
Drives on the Right, or wherever there are no pot holes
Beer of choice: Star