back from salone - we go see back

We are 2 Belgians, used to travel in African and Latin-American countries. We prefer to travel in an independent way; i.e. we book a flight and explore the possibilities ‘on the spot’. No ‘big spenders’, but rather looking for modest guesthouses or hotels and preferring public to private transport. Fully aware that the actual Salone was not used to host tourists with our profile, we left for a 5-weeks-stay on Friday, October 28th 2005.

Our Astraeus flight from London Gatwick arrived in Lungi airport around 22.30. From there we chartered a taxi to Tagrin, where we took a ferry to Kissy terminal (40 minutes to cross). Joseph, a relative of Salonean friends staying in Belgium, welcomed us and drove us to ‘Sweet Mother’s Guesthouse’, close to Lumley Beach, a place that he spotted on our request. 70.000 Leones for a double room with veranda and small backyard (ask for room 1 or 3). No power problems (long live the generator !!!), but (running) water supply was not so regular. The place is owned by Ellen, who left Salone in the 70ies and settled down in Norway. Since she never got used to the Norwegian climate, she made up her mind a few years ago to spend Norwegian spring, autumn and winter time in Salone. Mamy Ellen always kept a watchful eye on our food; she urged her (lovely) cook to supply us with plenty of fruit. The breakfast we got here was excellent and varied.

Sweet Mother’s Guesthouse is very close to Lumley Beach, but unfortunately this part of the beach is very dirty. One day we even found the swollen dead body of a dog on the beach (!!!) For lack of a restaurant in Sweet Mother’s Guesthouse, we went to nearby (Lebanese) ‘Atlantic Restaurant’ (try the ‘camarones with tartare sauce) or to (also Lebanese) ‘Angel’s Restaurant’ (close to Mamy Yoko Hotel).

From Lumley Village (about 1 km from Sweet Mother’s Guesthouse), we regularly took a shared taxi (Peugeot break) to the center of Freetown (1.000 Leones). Walking in the center of the (overcrowded) capital requires attention and caution, because theft is very common here. At 3 different occasions, young boys tried to take money from the pocket of my companion’s shorts, but it did not keep us from changing money on the street (Rawdon Street and Charlotte Street). Many begging people in Freetown… women with children, amputees, blind people, homeless youths,… A lot of destroyed buildings, especially in the center and the eastern part of the town. The weather in Freetown was another problem to cope with; cloudy, humid and extremely hot. We thought that we had visited the hottest place on earth (Massawa, Eritrea), but Freetown was much worse…

During our initial stay in Freetown, we decided to visit Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Kabala, and we planned to visit some natural reserves (Gola Forest Reserve, Tiwai Island, Bintumani Mountain) and to end our journey by visiting some of the beaches and islands, close to Freetown.

Our first destination was Bo, the second city of Salone. We intended to take the government bus (SLRTC) to Bo, but it was already full when we reached the bus station at 6.45. Luckily, there were 2 seats left on the government bus to Kenema, which stops in Bo. It was a comfortable ride, as far as the bus concerns, but it took long (8 hrs), due to the bad condition of the road between Moyamba Junction and Bo. Some passengers succeeded to break the monotony with their performances; singers, witch-doctors, evangelists… In Bo, we were lodged in ‘Sir Milton Hotel’. Most of the rooms that we saw looked run-down, especially those with a carpeted floor. We chose one with a tiled floor (49.000 Leones for a double room, breakfast included). The breakfast and food served in the restaurant was quite OK, but the service was not (at all). Most of the waitresses seemed not to care about the well-being of their guests, although the manager tried his best.

In Bo town –as in most of the Salonean towns- short distances were bridged over with the help of (motor-)bikers. A Belgian of Salonean origin who left Salone in 1995 was not aware of the existence of this means of transport. In Bo, we went to the compound of MSF Belgium, where we met one of the medical doctors. She was extremely surprised when we told her that ‘tourism’ (tourism ??) was the main purpose of our stay in Salone. Astonishment and even suspicion would turn out to be the most common reactions of foreigners and Saloneans when we disclosed the purposes of our presence in Salone. Most of them expected us to have ‘a mission’ and it was difficult -if not ; impossible- to convince them that we did not have any other ‘mission’ than exploring the country.

From Bo, we took a shared taxi to Kenema. As road conditions were not too bad, we reached Kenema after 1 hour driving. In Kenema, ‘bikers’ also dominated the transport scene within the town. We asked two of them to bring us to the ‘Lambayama Motel’, about 2 km outside the town. Surprisingly we were dropped at ‘Swarray Kunda Lodge’, what most of the bikers would do, as we would experience the following days. We paid 25.000 Leones for a double room in Lambayama Motel. Breakfast and dinner (which you are supposed to order in advance) were excellent and were served on a pleasant patio. In Kenema we made an appointment with a lady working for the Gola Forest Reserve, which we wanted to visit. We were told that all the 4x4 vehicles of the reserve were in use for longer periods, which forced us to abandon our initial plans to travel to this reserve. We asked her for opportunities to travel to Tiwai Island, and we were told to go back to Bo, from where we could easily get public transport to Tiwai Island.

We came to realize that the lack of a proper 4x4 vehicle risked to restrict our freedom of movement in a considerable way.

We decided to travel from Kenema to Bo early in the morning November 7th. That morning we got information that 2 (motor-)bikers of Kenema were killed during the previous night and that their bodies were found in the ‘Pastoral Center’ in Kenema. The bikers of Kenema gathered and blamed the police of lack of protection. Some of them attacked the police station, which resulted in serious clashes between police and bikers. Curfew was installed and we got stuck in the motel. There was a lot of panic among the staff of the motel, which made me very anxious. Around 4 p.m. one of the staff members of the motel, which spotted a poda-poda on the highway to Bo, urged us to leave and assisted us to get a vehicle to Bo. Back in Bo’s Sir Milton Hotel, we heard that people had been killed in the clashes between police and bikers in Kenema. I did not sleep well that night… Nevertheless, the following morning we left for Tiwai Island.

We took a poda-poda from Bo to Potoru (3hrs driving) and the driver dropped us at the office of the ‘EFA’ (Environmental Foundation for Africa), from where we intended to organize our stay on Tiwai Island. Unfortunately, Mr. Magona, the coordinator of the Tiwai Island project was not around, which prevented us to continue our journey to the island. Finally, around 6 p.m., Mr. Magona arrived on the scene and convinced us to spend the night in one of the rooms of the EFA office (20.000 Leones for a double room). He provided dinner on the terrace and we got completely warmed up to his enthusiasm of developing Tiwai Island as one of the major tourist attractions in the region. A very nice and sensitive person, which stole our hearts from the first moment that we met.

The following morning Mr. Magona and a retired military man picked us (and our backpacks) up with their motorbikes for a ride of 16 km to Kambama Village. With the heavy packs on our bag, it was not easy to keep in balance with the biker. In Kambama we were introduced to the chief and his wife. After some socializing, we were handed over to 2 boys, who brought us -as well as a tent and cooking stuff- to Tiwai Island, on the opposite bank of the Moa River. We seemed to be the only visitors and when the boys left us behind, we experienced for the first time a stay on a desert island. To be honest… it was a bit scary… Knowing that this island had been occupied by rebel forces for a considerable period of time did not decrease that feeling.

We made a guided walk in the forest and saw different types of monkeys (red colobus, black and white colobus, olive colobus and diana monkey). No chimps or pygmy hippo’s, though our guide called our attention to a footprint of the latter. The next day we made a boat trip, which permitted us to see some birds (as the horn bill and some others of which I forgot the name). Dinner was supplied by Mamadou and Alhusein, 2 boys of Kambama village. The last evening we had a long talk with them about their horrible experiences during the war and about the despair of the youths in Salone. Another sleepless night resulted from this conversation. The following morning, we turned back to Potoru, from where we continued our journey to Bo. The next day the 2 ‘pumwi’ -as the small children called us in Mende language- left the southern part of Salone with mixed feelings.

We went back to ‘our’ Sweet Mother and decided to investigate on the excursion opportunities around Freetown (peninsular, Bunce Island, Banana Island,…). We went to IPC Travel Agency, but the manager made clear that : 1) the tourist season in Salone only starts in December (we intended to leave on the 2nd of December …) ; 2) at his knowledge there were no tourists in Freetown at the moment of our request ; 3) excursions required the presence of at least 4 (at preference 5 people and 4) the rates of renting a 4x4 vehicle were very high. We only bought some postcards in the IPC office and made up our mind to travel to Laka Beach by poda-poda.

The brand new ‘Trinity Guesthouse’ (65.000 Leones for a double, breakfast included) turned out to be a quiet place –we were the only guests- with a nice staff . A perfect place to get sick, my traveling companion must have thought before permitting himself to get high fever. During a walk to the village, I was questioned by a CID agent (in plain-clothes) on my purposes of stay in Salone (“Tourism ?! Really ?”). As one of the staff members explained, CID agents were patrolling in the area to investigate on the use (especially by white people) and selling of drugs on Laka Beach, which caused considerable security problems in the area. It took my companion 3 days (and some antibiotics) to recover, but by then the urge to relax on the beach had weakened and we turned back to Sweet Mother.

Ibrahim, a woodcarver with a stall on Herman Gmeiner Avenue at Lumley Village, but originating from Makeni, convinced us to explore the northern part of the country. According to him, the most important rebel leaders in Makeni (Superman, Rambo) had been killed and only the small ones had remained. Moreover, he told us that Kabala was the coolest place of the country, that we could expect some snow in that region, and that people –because of the cold- only woke up around 11 or 12 a.m. (!). His arguments seemed decisive to go for it… We took a shared taxi to Makeni from Shell Company motor park (Kissy). The road was so excellent that we were disappointed when the ride had ended. We were dropped at the Azzolini Highway. Not knowing were we were (we had no map of Makeni) or where we were going to stay, we must have looked a bit desperate.

A man invited us to stay in the ‘UN House’ (on the Highway). They have a few nice en clean rooms for unexpected guests (25.000 Leones for what they called a ‘single’, but it had a double bed with one pillow). They recommended a restaurant in the neighborhood, where we had breakfast and dinner, but I forgot the name and the location. The next day we left for Kabala. We hired a room in the brand new ‘Paygay Guesthouse’ in Moneh Street (20.000 Leones for a double room). We had dinner in ‘Choices Restaurant’, which was not the best experience; there was no choice at all. The next day, we tried ‘Twins Restaurant’, where food and service were excellent (especially the beef).

We intended to meet with somebody working for the UNDP who was supposed to show us the places of interest in and around Kabala.Unfortunately, he was too busy to meet us, but the second day he send his driver as well as his 4x4 vehicle. The driver took us to several places. We visited the hospital of Kabala, which seemed to be in expansion. The matron, Mrs. Isatu Kamara, showed us the different wards. We were shocked to see in which disastrous circumstances doctors and nurses were supposed to work and patients were expected to recover. But we were also surprised of the courage en enthusiasm of the people working here. Unlike Ibrahim’s warnings that we would freeze in Kabala, we enjoyed the cool temperature very much. We couldn’t stay any longer, because we had to ask for an extension of our stay in Salone at the ‘Immigration Service’ in Freetown.

We went there on the 31st day of our stay in Salone (our visa permitted us a stay of 30 days). We were very surprised that they demanded a typed letter in which we had to ask for an extension. When we explained that we didn’t have a typing machine or computer of our own, because we were simply tourists, we noticed once again that people got suspicious. Finally, a secretary of the ‘Immigration Service’ was willing to type the required letter. We were asked to collect our passports 4 days after our request. They gave us an extension for 2 months, although we got the passports 1 day before we would leave the country…

On the 2nd of December 2005 our stay in Salone had come to an end. We took the ferry from Kissy and chartered a taxi to Lungi Airport. We were supposed to leave at 11.3O p.m., but from the beginning it was clear that there would be a considerable delay. However… time passed quickly while chatting with some entertaining officers of Lungi Airport… Finally, the plane took off around 6 a.m..

A few recommendations to future tourists of our type :

Don’t forget a torch (in most of the towns in the provinces power supply has stopped since the war started and even in Freetown it remains a big problem)

Don’t hesitate to send postcards to family and friends; we tried it (from Makeni post office) and hardly 10 days later they arrived in Belgium.

According to a collaborator of the Commercial Bank it is useless to take traveler checks to Salone and it is recommended to take enough cash, because getting cash with your credit card is not always guarantied.

A few recommendations to future business men and women :

Salone needs work opportunities, especially for the massive group of youths who are actually staying in Freetown. Despite the presence of plenty of NGO’s in the country, the youths in Freetown seem to be forgotten. They become more and more desperate and frustrated and they don’t have the courage nor the patience to acquiesce in their situation. Those who have the means leave the country, but those who don’t have this opportunity (and probably will never have) are the most vulnerable group. They need to regain their self respect and getting a decent job seems –in my opinion- the best way to achieve this.

Final conclusion ; we go see back, because we fell in love with Salone