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. :)
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.
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.
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.
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