Hiking the beaches along the peninsula

John Obey Beach

We spend the next two and a half days hiking north up the coast along the stunning beaches of Sierra Leone, and over the occasional rock bunch along the water. We relax on beaches in secluded coves, with a sea breeze lulling us into a peaceful state. We stop for lunch and get fried plantains and fresh fish and rice.
Then more hiking along soft, fine, empty, long stretches of beautiful white or yellow beach. Swimming in the ocean is perfect, the shallow slope of the beach, the extremely warm temperature of the water (mom, even you would swim here), and the clear and colorful water make it absolutely ideal! A river follows parallel to the coast in many places, so rinsing off in the fresh water, was also helpful.

 Some beaches have hotels or guest houses, but we opt for the more secluded beaches which only have a camping option.  There is generally a dude hanging out on the beach who says it's his stretch of beach.  You pay him a negotiable fee (we're pretty good negotiators) for a spot for your tent, a bonfire, "security," and breakfast in the morning.  They'll also cook dinner: rice, tomato and onion sauce, and "catch of the day".  Sometimes the catch is fresh, other times, smoked.  The fishing villages smoke a lot of fish and crab so they can bring them inland to sell.  Without a steady refrigeration method, smoking is the way to do it.  One beach we walk pass, River No. 2, is more touristy and an odd German tells us that it was ranked by a tv show as one of the best beaches in the world. 

Estuary at River No. 2

At one point, the rocks became impassible, and we scrambled up through the brush to find a road, where we were introduced to the spicy baked bean sandwich.  Also, there are different varieties of bananas here that are not for sale in the states.  They ought to be.  They're delicious.  Once our time on the beach sadly comes to an end, we fit on to a motorcycle with my bag on the handlebars, the driver, myself, and finally matt with his bag, and drive through the red dust back to Freetown.  Our faces are filthy!

Freetown Peninsula-Chimps and the Banana Islands

We take a taxi on the Mountain Road, which is dirt with many holes and rocks, to our drivers chagrin, up to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary up in the hills. You should look this place up, if you have time...interesting fact, Lush, the bath-bomb company based in Canada, is one of its sponsors.  (Have I mentioned that there are many hills in and around Freetown, which adds to the place's beauty?) Here is a photo of a typical hillside in Freetown...

We go on a Chimp tour, through a variety of enclosures, seeing a few different family groups and some younger chimps playing in a playpen area. I am run off by a boisterous chimp at one point, even though there is a very sturdy electric fence in between us, and Matt still finds this humorous. They love to throw rocks though...kinda scary...although not really. I'm just trying to make myself feel better about being scared. :)

We stay in a bungalo in the hills near the sanctuary and hear birds and chimps as we fall asleep. Matt goes up to the sanctuary to get some water and meets a girl from Capital Hill, Seattle who is in Sierra Leone working for the special court trying war crimes cases! Small world. 

We walk to a nearby waterfall and the cool water is....wonderful. On the way there we see pineapples growing next to us on the path and walk through a mango grove.

Get a taxi to Waterloo, on our trip towards the southern tip of the peninsula past small villages like Grafton, that was originally set up by the UN for refugees during the war. We stop for water and get a shared taxi to Kent. Matt and I share the front seat; I hang out the window and catch the sweet breeze a little and there are 5 people in the back seat, as well as a boy who shares the drivers seat with the driver!
We meet Dalton in the sleepy fishing village of Kent, who happens to be the owner of the guest house we are headed for on Banana Islands in Kent, so we get a ride from him in his large wooden boat. When he attaches the motor it takes about 30 minutes to get to the islands, passing a sunken ship on the way. We found out later that people dive and get metal parts from ship wrecks to sell as scrap metal later.

On Banana Island we meet a couple from England who are biking from Dakar to Monrovia. For dinner we eat fresh fish that is caught by the owner by spearfishing an hour after it is caught! The next day we try our hands at spear fishing and discover that it is much harder than it seems. We eat fresh caught crab for lunch. We also snorkel around the rocks and spend a decent amount of time in a hammock before walking around the village and exploring some of the pathways through the bush where we see an amazing amount of termites and termite hills. At about 7pm that night, right when the sun is disappearing, hundreds of thousands of bats fill the sky flying towards the mainland for food. The view is breathtaking...

On the left is the hut where we stayed on Banana Island.  On the right, I am walking along the path from the north of the Island where we stayed, to the southernmost tip, which we never reached...it is a several hour-long walk. Below, you can see our private beach at Dalton's Guesthouse.

Freetown

Although the flight to Sierra Leone from Senegal is relatively short, the flight was delayed and then getting from the airport to the city once we arrived was quite a process. Because the airport is on a peninsula, the options for getting into town are to take a helicopter, hovercraft, ferry, or the long 6 hour drive around via land--no joke. We opted for the ferry, which was quite an experience. We were in the 1st class lounge, where people sat in a room while the dj, yes, there was a dj, played loud 30second music videos through the speaker and the tv in the corner. Most of these videos were Christian Rock videos, which made the whole experience even more interesting.

When we arrived in Freetown at night we took a taxi to the hotel through the urban east side and center, over tiny bumpy streets with deep open gutters. We were amazed by how many people were out on the street eating, listening to music, and generally socializing. The taxi was swiped twice by motorcyclists trying to weave in between the cars and through the stop and go traffic (not serious at all, but certainly different from what we have been used to).
After our first full day in Freetown it is immediately clear that Sierra Leone is an amazing country with friendly and interesting people. We are surprised by several things about the country: there are lots of Lebanese people who have started a lot of very successful businesses in the country (grocery stores are possibly better than some in the states--you can even get Corn Flakes!) and there is an amazing amount of NGOs and International Aid organizations present, leading to many more white faces than we expected. When we explain that we are tourists and not working with an organization, we get very confused and surprised faces.

I wear the African fabric I bought in Senegal as a skirt/wrap as many women do here, and am greeted by locals calling out "African woman!" with smiles on their faces.
After we explore around the West side of the city, we head to the beach that is practically empty with a few boys pulling in fishing lines, and a few restaurants across the street for "chop" as its called in Creole.
Many people will come up and announce that they want to be your friend, some with genuine interest, others hoping for some money or assistance with something..."friendship sometimes comes with a price". 

From Seattle to Paris to Dakar

 

After a quick flight to Paris, we had several hours to explore the city, and we headed for Notre Dame and the surrounding area. It was nice to stretch our legs and walk around, and surreal to be in such a different place after only a few movies on the airplane. Walking around the St Germain neighborhood around Notre Dame was really wonderful, stopping at a cafe for hot and delicious crepes and fresh squeezed juice. We walked around some parks in the area and witnessed the abundance of motorcycle riding, scarf wearing Parisians.

This is a small neighborhood named Yoff near where we stayed (also close to the airport). This was one of our favorite places, where we could witness the slow paced life of the people outside of the city.  Kids played in the streets, chickens, goats, and dogs wandered, and colorful laundry and beautiful bougainvillea add to the beauty of each street.  

Our first day in Dakar, Senegal we dive right into the urban market scene, which is very overwhelming, kids leading us through the different sections (some "sections" include chicken, clothes, autoparts, trinkets, nuts, smelly things, etc.) of the extremely large section of town that is the "market". With some sections inside, some in stalls outside, some along the streets, and some on the 2nd/3rd floor of buildings, it was easy to get lost. If I hadn't had Matt with me, who has an impressive inner sense of direction, I might have spent the rest of my trip in this one market.

We spent the rest of the day, and the following couple of days, exploring the city and walking a LOT. We saw lots of Baobob trees, which are beautiful--you should look these up if you have the time--and some boys using a slingshot to get the baobob fruit down from the tree. 

For all of you who have ever been to Muscle Beach in Cali, the Muscle Beach in Dakar is quite something to see as well. They have work out equipment on the beach and the stretch of sand along the road is packed with people running, working out, showing off their bodies, and starting games. Amazing how many people there were!

Dakar is one of the only developing countries I've been where there hasn't been street dogs hanging around...even more surprising is that in lieu of the street dogs, there are goats!

Highlights: There are beautiful African fabrics everywhere and the food is wonderful, partly due to the French influence, I'm sure. 

Dakar

Hello! Matt and I have arrived in Senegal....

People sit on the sidewalks and walk in the streets.
Everyone is friendly
Computer keyboards have a Q where the A should be, which makes typing very difficult for my brain....
There is less heat and hassle than we expected. And lots to see!
We travel to Sierra Leone on Friday, and will write more later.....off to explore the city!