| ABOUT
THIS TRAVEL
Guinea-
Sierra Leone
14 days, December 07- January 08
INTRO SIERRA LEONE
Kind of travel:
Alone in a 100% independent travel
When:
24th Dec07- 05th
Jan08
How
I moved: This's really tough: crowdy minibuses and
shared taxis max 20 km/h on the non-existent super-bumpy roads,
connecting all the main villages, though. Luckily I got a 3
days long lift on a jeep (thanks Ben and Mir!) and I jumped
for 100km in a remote area on the back of a motorbike.
Freezing
or baking?: Dry
season (Dec- Jan) is the best period of the year to visit the
country. It's hot (24-28 C) and a little humid, but never unpleasantly.
The inland, Kabala, is definitely dryer.
Where
I slept: In most of the small towns you'll always find
basic guesthouses (5-10$). In Freetown be ready to spend at
least 30$ and in 'Tiway Island' there'r some tents available:
generally forget running water and electricity.
What
I liked: Two great adventures: the visit at the diamond
mine and the 100km from Kabala to Faranah by motorbike. The
last but not the least I found people more relaxed (and NOT
PUSHY) towards the whites than in many other African countries.
What I disliked:
The obsession of the locals for the cellphones (no food but
holding a cell!), the bribing culture, the frequent fights among
the locals and the food sucks!
How much
daily: Not very cheap. Accommodation prices are reasonable
(5-10$) but Tiway Island (2 days :40$), motorbike lifts (100km:
40$), staying in Freetown (80$/ night, I had to get the visa)
brought to 45$/ day.
Dangers/
hassles: no more a single rebel
in the country and little criminality, but two risks: malaria
(I took Lariam) and the main one, the car crashes. By the way,
while on the motorbike we seriously risked to smash down twice.
What
to bring: mosquito-net,
candles and a flash lamp. Ear-plugs could turn out useful against
the generators in the night. And what about the book 'Memoirs
of a Boy Soldier' by Ishmael Beah?
THE
TRAVEL IN SIERRA LEONE
Thanks to a bird eager to enter the jet while
my plane was taking over, I arrived in Conakry from Paris with
a 24h delay!
Looking for a hotel in the Guinean capital when the city is
wrapped in the darkness, means coping with dodgy taxi drivers
and asshole hotel keepers.
Once it got morning I went to the bus station to take the minibus
to Freetown. I had no clue how tough it would have been the
15 hours to reach the Sierra Leonese capital, through corrupted
soldiers, bastard border guards, and a lot of dust along the
unpaved roads.
In Freetown I slept at the 'Family Kingdom hotel', where I had
to book in advance to have a proof of reservation required to
get my visa in Italy.
I didn't fall in love with the capital, or maybe I was just
nervous to start my travel in the country, so I left Freetown
quite soon reaching the city of Bo. It's a 6h minibus travel,
half of which on a dirty road, but works were on going to pave
the road, hence I guess in a near future it'll be quicker and
less painful.
In Bo, thanks God, I bumped into two wonderful people, Ben and
Mira, who were taking a holiday from the work in a NGO at Makeni
hospital. They were visiting Sierra Leone by their own jeep
and the initial lift to the Tiway Island, turned into a 3 day
long trip together around the country.
The landscape around had been red roads following the shapes
of the green hills and once a while some locals walking from
nowhere heading to nowhere.
Tiwai Island is protected island on the Moa river, where I slept
in some sheltered tents. We walked around (a guide is mandatory)
and we did a boat tour, looking for chimpanzees, small hippos
and crocodiles, only partially succeeding (info
about Tiwai Island).
The day after in 3 hours of a bumpy dirty road we reached Kenema,
the town where most of the diamond buyers (they buy, but they
don't sell openly!) are concentrated.
50 km north of Kenema I had the best experience of the whole
travel: the visit to the diamond mines of Tongo (read
about it, in Italian)
From Tongo in 4h we got to Makeni where I greeted Ben and Mir
(Thankssss friends!!!) and I proceed to Kabala. Here first I
walked to the top of the small mountain overlooking the town
and then I organised the 100km motorbike trip across the remote
region of Sierra Leone bordering with Guinea. The next day I
left early, and it was a loooong day. (read
about it)
[Proceeding in Guinea]
Alby
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