The caretaker of my guesthouse in Bo said there are two government busses going to Freetown in the morning: at 5am and at 8am. If I miss them, there are other vehicles though.
Bradt Guide says government busses are the best mode of transport because they’re the cheapest, fastest (!) and they have a beautiful policy that I no longer even believe exists: one passenger one seat.
Of course when I arrived at the junction, I was welcome by a crowd of minibus (the call them here poda poda) conductors shouting towards me to take this van, it’s almost full, take this van you will sit in front, maybe you wanna charter the taxi, or you wanna a seat in a car, it’s almost full, just one more passenger and we leave! After Kailahun I assumed this is just talk talk and a government bus will soon show up.
I saw a man with a bunch of what looked like tickets in hand. They had words Road Transport Workers on them. In Nigeria NURTW – Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers – complete with green-white uniforms and baseball caps are godsend when it comes to transport. I remember lying on a roadside in Adamawa State in NE Nigeria while a NURTW worker told me he would catch a passing bus for me.
Someone dealing with road transport workers cannot be bad. So I approached the man and asked him for advice. He said the government busses are gone. I have the option of a larger bus that is here and stands empty for 30,000le or a smaller van for 35,0000le. He advises the smaller one, it will reach Freetown quicker. So I went to the van. They told me I could sit in front but there was already the standard mark of “seat taken” – a plastic bag. They moved it to the middle seat, just next to the driver but a man dressed in a Muslim white robe immediately showed up and moved his precious to the seat by the window.
So I was told to sit in the back row (4 seats) on a seat, in front of which there was space – the other two rows had only 3 seats each. We waited.
I managed to bring out a knife and to buy myself baguette, two boiled eggs and make myself a sandwich. 5,000le. We sat down in the van and… a seating stool materialised in front. Of my seat. And a man was squeezed into the narrow space. Back to sardines.
The road was uneventful, except the fact that there is payment for using the roads in Sierra Leone. There is some sort of of dual-carriage motorway close to the capital city. The driver had half of his house decorating the dashboard. I saw a racing car, three teddy bears, flags of Sierra Leone, Ghana, USA and Chelsea FC, a box of paper tissues, a plaatic box of cotton ear wipes, two boxes of orange lozenge and two golden statues of women playing volleyball, tastefully enhanced by mirrors places behind the statues and three rear mirrors dangling on rubber holds glued to the window. All of that was somehow attached to the dashboard and it didn’t budge when we were jumping off the speed reductors.
Dangling from the ceiling were two charms, one with islamic calligraphy, one with Jesus. One can never be too safe.
Before we set off the islamic-dressed man in front said a prayer, then some passengers protested that we need a pastor and a Christian prayer was said, God allow us to reach Freetown in safety. An elderly man sitting in the back row reminded the driver not to drive fast.
Bradt Guide divides Freetown into three zones: West, affluent, where the beaches are. Central, that includes downtown where the heaviest traffic is and East where most of city’s population lives. East part is considered “unsafe” but that most likely means it’s just very poor.
The minibus dropped us at a petrol station in the East. It was about 13kms from the West of town (beaches) and I know that because there was a guesthouse just maybe a 1km away from the beaches that was in my price range (shoestring). The guesthouse has only 4 rooms, it belongs to Sierra Leone Agriculture Research Institute (SLARI). Better to call them.
Both phones switched off or out of range all the time. I picked another guesthouse, belonging to a secondary school just outside of downtown. It will be noisy but cheap.
I stopped a local tuktuk and from 20,000le I managed to come down to 17,000le and we rode through the town.
The guesthouse was in what looked like a bit isolated area – which isn’t good for walking back after dark – one of the young people walked me to it. Unfortunately it was full. I thought it was a sign and I took a moto, 10,000le to the SLARI guesthouse, in a Lumley neighbourhood. I was dropped on the road and the guesthouse is off road and it took me a while to find it.
The SLARI guesthouse was full. The phone numbers are correct and they don’t know why they didn’t work. They worked now. I was directed first to a 400,000le guesthouse “close to the beach” but I had to complain that it’s too much and they sent me to another one, Jeska Mac. “Go to the junction and ask”. I did go to the junction and I did ask. The guesthouse sits on a narrow lane, there is a bar/kitchen downstairs, the rooms are 150k-200k. I refused first, the cheaper room was small, cramped and smelly. But then after thinking for a while – where should I go, back to downtown, seems like they have shared bathrooms in the cheaper hotels – I decided to stay.
150k is around €15/$17/70zł and it buys you: carpeted floor, constant water, constant electricity. There was even a TV! The ladies in the bar downstairs were all excited watching “Housemates Salone”, a local rip-off of Big Brother. There was even WiFi! But nah, it didn’t work.
I got down for food, and had manioc leaves for 12,000le and the food was delicious.
Afternoon I went down to the beach.
On my way I visited SLARI guesthouse and asked if I can maybe stay there the next day. The man said probably not but then we continued chatting, I told them my story and at the end he said “call me tomorrow” and the other man said “we will have a place for you”.
I will stay in Freetown for a few days, I have to get Liberian visa and the rumour says Nigerian visa is also possible to obtain.
Some years ago I was in Freetown for work and I stayed in a Mami Yoko hotel. I was the only guests next to the UN garnison stationed there. Now Mami Yoko is Radisson Blu. Apart from that there are perhaps other new hotels but the beach doesn’t tell. The dead skeletons of unfinished constructions are more visible.
The beach is moderately clean, plenty of ramshackle bars grace the shore, people swim only in a few places. But it’s 5km of sand so it makes for a good walk. I walked in to some beach bars and had a beer. Food was expensive, barracuda fillet 80k. I’ll go back to my manioc leaves.
As I walked during the sunset a couple walked opposite direction. He in white muslim robe, she in colourful one piece dress. They looked nice. I snapped them secretly.
A few minutes later I was snapping myself in the setting sun when I saw the man approaching me. “Did you just take a picture of us when we passed you by? Don’t lie. Why did you do that? Why didn’t you ask? We are all humans!”
Oh well. He was right. Though as to “we are all humans” I’m not quite sure the issue of having photos taken needs to be escalated to this. I understand people won’t like to have photos taken and most of the time the refuse when I ask. But then it’s just a picture, taken with a phone, from a distance. I can’t imagine myself taking out camera here.
I took a 2,000le shared tuktuk back to Lumley, had my manioc leaves and another Guinness.
There was a Freetown music festival starting at night, with two stages being ready. I wanted to go but be it the tiredness or the beer or both, I fell asleep under the fan running 24/7.
Coming back to Maman 