River No.2

Sierra Leone before the civil war was renown for it's beaches - including the location for the Cadbury's flake advert of the 80's.  With a couple of days in Freetown we had time for a day trip out to one of the many beautiful spots.  

The journey to get there however was typical West Africa;

River No. 2

beach at river no. 2

After some negotiation (over about $5) we agreed a price & 5 of us piled into the taxi - 4 squeezed across the back seat.  Typically as with most taxi's they need to fill up with petrol after having secured a fare, but the petrol stations in Freetown had particularly vicious slopes on exit and after a close call in the first, we grounded completely on the second.  Out we pile & push the taxi back onto the road and we're off again, leaving the tarmac roads for dirt tracks.  Half an hour later and we stop with the smell of petrol fumes, and a quick examination of the bottom of the car leaves no doubt as to the cause - a hole in the petrol tank and it's streaming out.  The driver disappears off & comes back with a plastic bottle to rescue his fuel & we decide to jump ship.  Within a couple of minutes on a pretty quiet road 3 motorbikes have appeared, so we hop on the back for a final few km's to the beach.  Our driver is keen to pick us up again later so at the end of the afternoon he appears with a couple of friends to take us halfway back to a small town where we can secure a minibus - with Reggae music blasting out the whole way we charter a return to the hotel..

football on the beach

Our only other companions on the beach were a bunch of footballers in the distance, some people selling t-shirts & trousers and a couple of guys running a restaurant & bar, from which we procured some fine lobster at a very reasonable price.

lobster on the beach