Day 21 - 23rd March West to the Banana Islands off the coast of Sierra Leone

Photo above - arrival at Banana Island. Photos to follow below

Hitting the road again

Today we left Bo to travel west to the coast of Sierra Leone and catch a boat over to the Banana Islands. We quickly got clear of the city, and got on to the main road. Another great road, with almost no traffic, and only the occasional very small village, which went by in a flash. The scenery changed a bit after a while from jungle to comparitively cultivated land, with Palm oil being predominant.

Another village stop

After a couple of hour, the van started playing up again, so we parked up to let the driver have a look at it, whilst we invaded yet another unsuspecting village. This one was very small and some of the kids were definitely vary wary, and exclaimed when they touched our skin. We had bought a football and some pens to give to the children of the next village we stopped at, so we got these out, and they were so pleased.

We stopped again later to buy some pineapple at the side of the road. There were a lot of sellers selling pineapple, nuts, mango and other produce. When they could not persuade you to buy something, then they would simply ask for money. The straight out asking for money, and noticeably not asking for food, has been much more prevalent in Liberia and Sierra Leone, but that is to be expected, as they are two of the poorest countries in the world.

We stopped to have a snack at a petrol station. Next to it was a small village and I walked over to have a look. A policemen was just getting out of a taxi with his son, having picked him up from school. We started talking, and he was quite friendly, then he said he had a creature, and would I like to see it. A couple of minutes later he came back with a small monkey on a lead, called Chico. He said he was a pet, and he has had him since he was a baby. He feeds him milk, bananas, rice…..and chewing gum !! I said I thought that must be bad for him, but he did not seem to understand.

Arrival at the port

A further hour”s drive and we arrived at the southern end of the peninsula south of the capital Freetown. The village here is called Kent, and it is where we catch a boat to Banana Islands. As we came through the outer suburbs of Freetown, we had to negotiate a huge street market with people everywhere, all over the road. The scenery here is quite mountainous, but still with trademark red dust and palm trees.

We arrived at the port, which is actually a piece of sand. There were a couple buildings, and some goats sitting under a tree. On the beach, we got on to a wooden canoe like boat, with an outboard motor.

Cruise to Banana Island

Once we got out of the lea of the island, the sea was very rough, all be it hot and sunny. We all got very wet! As we approached the island we could see quite a large ship wrecked on the coast further along from where we are putting in.

The archipelago of the Banana Islands, has stunning beaches, forests and fishing villages. There are three islands making up the Banana Islands : Dublin and Ricketts are linked by a stone causeway and have a combined population of about 900; the third island Mes-Meheux is the smallest and is uninhabited.

Walk round the island

We are staying in tents, and I have one right next to the beach. After we had dried off slightly, I went for a short walk around the island of Dublin. Met with some of the permanent villagers, met with a Mancunian who lives here during the UK winter, saw two churches, a primary school that is being renovated, a small cemetary, a village shop, a pit from the days of slavery in this area that dead slaves used to be put in and their bodies burnt, and lots of different fruit trees like mango, pineapple, cotton, tamarind, avocado, lemon grass, star fruit, cashews etc

Back at our tents, we had some food, then an early night, as there was very little light. Tomorrow, we go back to the mainland, and explore the nearby capital Freetown.