"I miss Sierra Leone"

This post has a random mix of photos and thoughts from the past few months. Our time in Sierra Leone is coming to an end early and we're heading back to Ireland. Very mixed emotions about going, but definitely ready to leave rain season behind!

Freetown is a city once visited never forgotten.

Anything can be bought at the side of the road - the colourful displays form the backdrop to life here in Freetown.

And sometimes what you see on the road is just amusing

Balmaya is an Art Gallery and restaurant that held a beautiful exhibition by African artists for the Sierra Leone independence holiday at the end of April.

There was a limited amount of kids facilities in Freetown, but one spot we went to a few times was the Family Kingdom playground.

Type of African deer, not sure what its called

An unfortunate horse names Juba walks the length of Lumley beach hoping to find tourists agreeable to photos.

"Let's go to the beach" were the most common 5 words spoken in our house. It was usually just to have a walk (or run) along Lumley beach, but always generated the most high pitched squeals of excitement. And that was just Hassan!

Lumley Beach

Cockle Point

Number 2 Beach

The hardest thing of all about going is leaving family and friends behind. This has been an incredible opportunity for Daniel and Ilanay to get to know their big sister, grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins and to experience the culture that is their heritage. We'll keep it alive as much as possible in pictures, phone calls and memories, but we'll also be back as often as we can for the rest of our lives.

"Monkeys with no tails are chimpanzees!"

On a very exciting Thursday morning we headed up into the mountains above Freetown to visit Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

Both Daniel and Ilanay couldn’t keep their eyes off the chimps and Danial lapped up all the information Moses, the tour guide, provided, including how to differentiate between a monkey and a chimpanzee.

The sanctuary is on 100 acres of beautiful rainforest that is the 17k hectare National Park. They were established over 20 years ago to rehabilitate confiscated, orphaned and abandoned chimpanzees with the aim to release them back into their natural habitat. It cares for about 75 chimpanzees in several forested enclosures and run tours every morning. Hunting, killing and trading chimpanzees is unfortunately still practiced in Sierra Leone.

Food is coming!

Chop Time

AJ getting comfortable 

The chimps have a tendency to hurl stones and rocks at visitors so there was netting at sections of the viewing points. The kids found it so exciting when the chimps came up with a stone in hand and they were ushered behind the net by staff. Daniel claims a stone hit his forehead, but I think it’s an embellishment that’ll help him always remember this experience.

We headed further into the forest to see the chimps that are in the largest, most natural enclosure.

Ilanay spent the rest of the day doing chimp noises and Daniel re-told all the information he'd aquired to everyone he met! Every experience here is magnified in brilliance by seeing it through the eyes of our children. 

The White Beach at the end of the Red Road

Tokeh beach is one of the longest beaches along the peninsula. It's also a bit of a trek to get there.

We headed off early one wet morning in the hope that the sun might come out by the time we arrived. The peninsula road has been under construction since before I first arrived in Sierra Leone back in 2008. The road as far as number 2 beach (almost) is now a smooth dual carriageway but, once it ends, travelling is a whole other experience! Because it was an extra wet morning the craters in the road had become lakes and the lack of visibility of what was underneath added a whole new dimension to the challenge of driving in Sierra Leone. Hassan was born for this kind of driving!

I spent half my time taking pictures and other half holding my breath and feeling my heart jump into my mouth. There were ridiculously narrow bridges over deep gorges and on coming trucks around every corner. Daniel, no longer the bad traveller he was in Ireland, absolutely loved it!!

And it was oh so worth it in the end...

This was once a prime tourist location in West Africa, especially for French tourists in the 1980s. The former resort was know as Africana Tokey Village and had hundreds of rooms. The derelict, run down, reminents of Tokeh's heyday now sit beside the newer establishments which are amongst the most expensive along the peninsula.

But it's also still a fishing town and the view always has a boat or 3 in frame.