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

Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

A BRIEF HISTORY
Guinea-Bissau was once an outpost of the enormous Mali empire but in the 1450's the first Europeans from Portugal landed and established trading routes for slaves and goods. Once the slave trade declined, the Portuguese moved further inland and became known for their repressive exploitative practices, particularly under right wing dictator Antonio Salazar who came to power in 1920's Portugal. By the 1960's many African states were sinning independence from colonial control but Salazar refused to relinquish control.

The war to liberate Guinea-Bissau, and it's ally Cape Verde, was mainly fought in Guinea-Bissau with many locals recruited by the Portuguese it became a very personal affair with families pitted against each other. Amilcar Cabral was the father of the independence movement but he was assassinated in 1973 before Salazar's regime fell the following year. In 1974 the new Portuguese government recognized the new nation named Guinea-Bissau so as not to be confused with their French neighbor, Guinea.

Independence didn't lead to prosperity however. The country was in ruin, corruption rife and education almost non-existent. Since 1974 no president has served a full term, either dying in office or handing over power following a coup. A country short on resources with only fish and cashews providing any material subsistence, Guinea-Bissau has become synonymous for its lucrative source of cocaine. Sounds like a lovely place to spend a weekend alone.

SEPT-PLACE TAXI'S
From Gambia I decided to travel to Guinea-Bissau via sept-place (seven seater) shared taxi. There are no such things as luxury buses or trains so the only way to get to the capital of Bissau, without flying, was to mix it up with the locals. The trip would also mean two land border crossings to add to the complexity, but I was ready for a long hard day of travel, Africa style.

It started well enough with a taxi to the border, about an hour and a half for 700D (USD$18). The border crossing was uneventful and complete within about 30 minutes but only because the respective immigration offices are about 2-3 km apart so there's a large stretch of no mans land. My first exposure to the sept-place taxi was pretty good - 2,500 CFA (USD$6) for the two hour drive to Ziguinchor and being the last of the seven passengers we left straight away. I got seat number seven which is in the back right (seat number 1 is hard to get!). As soon as I arrived in Zig I got a taxi to the Guinea-Bissau consulate and got a visa in 15 minutes, no waiting, for 20,000 CFA (USD$42). Back at the taxi rank I was again the last of the seven to buy the ticket to Bissau and we set off immediately but this taxi was in awful shape. The doors didn't close properly, the back seat had some kind of bar running through it and the engine was constantly overheating. During the four and a half hours we stopped at least 30 times to either show our passports at the too many customs stops, or to pour water over the engine. Mercifully the border crossings were easy and there were no hint of brides or anything untoward by the officials.

One of the many stops along the way

One time we stopped to help another taxi change a tire which gave us all a chance for a toilet stop next to the huge termite mounds. We were dumped on the outskirts of Bissau where I had a bit of trouble getting a taxi for the first time all trip. I ended up jumping in one as he stopped in traffic and started telling him where I needed to go. He had no idea and between the two of us we drove around for a good twenty minutes trying without luck to find the hotel I was looking for. Lonely Planet had the location incorrectly marked on the map and Google Maps was no better but after a few minutes walking blocks I stumbled upon the hotel I was looking for. I left the beach resort in Gambia at 8am and closed the door of my Bissau room nine hours later at 5pm.

BISSAU
I stayed at the Hotel Diarama not far from the center of town and the main sites - the only sites really. The room was huge, clean and at $40 a night it was great value, especially considering the toilet bowl was conveniently located in the shower stall which would speed up my morning routine considerably. There is a huge hospital nearby and lots of pharmacies dotted all around the neighborhood. The Belgian run "O Bistro" around the corner has a huge menu including build your own pizza's and crepes and they have real Belgian beer, a rare gem in a place with not much to offer.

Bissau is a filthy forgotten city. Only a few of the main streets are well paved, others that are paved are hopelessly falling apart and most of the streets are red dirt affairs with huge rocks and holes everywhere. There is no way to wander around the streets and remain clean but the only mercy is that the traffic moves very slowly so crossing the street is easy. The harbour is filled with all manner of trash and virtually all of the buildings are falling apart. I shouldn't have been surprised as Guinea-Bissau is ranked 164 out of 169 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index 2010. The motto of the nation is Unity, Struggle, Progress but I saw very little of the latter or former, just the struggles of the people in a nation where two thirds live below the poverty line.

Although Portuguese is the official language, only around 40% of the population speak it, instead most conversations on the street are carried out in a Portuguese Creole hybrid which is very unique. Billboards from last weeks' general election where everywhere and at the time of writing no clear victor had been decided. A run off election is to be held next week so political fervor is still rife and there were many public gatherings taking place which I avoided in case things became troublesome (they never did). People seemed to be hypersensitive though - I was shooed away from the Presidential Palace while trying to take photos, a game of checkers up and left because I was watching for too long and one of the street vendors selling sunglasses didn't want his picture taken even after I offered him a few francs for the privilege. I didn't see as many smiles as Senegal and Gambia but I didn't feel unsafe either.

Bissau Cathedral

The city is pitch black after 7pm. The power is off at night so only places with generators and car headlights help negotiate the streets at night. I used my iPhone torch to help keep me out of trouble and away from the stray dogs, cats, chickens and vultures eating the trash from the side of the road.

THE RETURN JOURNEY
The trip back to The Gambia was quicker. The shared taxi to Ziguinchor was a minivan instead of a station wagon and it took an hour and a half less. The one from Zig to the Gambia border was the most cramped of the lot but it was all over pretty quickly. Before long I was back in Serekunda and within striking distance of the Kombo Beach resort, where thankfully they remembered me and had my room beside the pool waiting for me.

GUINEA-BISSAU QUICK GUIDE
Capital: Bissau
Currency: West Caribbean Franc (USD$1 = 475CFA)
Language: Portuguese, Portuguese Kriol
Drives on the Right, or wherever there are no pot holes
Beer of choice: Did not find any local beers.