Beach Hopping with Banke - Sussex to Tokeh

The joy of being between jobs is that you are available for anything at pretty short notice.  The ideal would of course be some paid work, but in the absence of that joining a friend on their holidays is a very good substitute.  This was the case last week when I partnered Banke on part of her walk down the peninsula to visit all the beaches.  She started at Lumley on Thursday morning and I met her at Sussex for lunch at Franco’s on Friday.  She had had a number of adventures by then.  I was full of anticipation of what lay ahead.

View of Sussex as we left

We walked the short distance to the main road to make our way to our first stop – Baw Baw.  The sun was searingly hot as we reached the tarred peninsula road which magnified the baking sun. It was hot and walking was not that appealing – heat, traffic fumes, lorries thundering past – not the relaxing holiday break we had envisaged.  So, this is how we ended up on the back of a lorry as described here to reach the Baw Baw turn off.

This was my first time at Baw Baw, it did not disappoint. 

Baw Baw Beach

Derelict structure from better days gone by

There are no amenities here and it was lovely to have it all to ourselves to explore a derelict structure while surmising its previous use.  We walked on through the forest to emerge onto No.2 River.  It felt like a scene from a film as the beautiful beach opened up in front of us.

Only one thing to say about this "Wow"

 

The next stretch to Tokeh was all on the white sand.  Until that is we hit the river.  We contemplated wading across but the tide is strong and it looked pretty deep.  So shorts off and we hailed a boat to take us the short distance.

A natural sailor!

Another 30 minutes of walking and we reached our resting place for the night – Tokeh Sands Resort.  

Home for the night

We had called ahead to book the little white hut where we sat down to a well earned ginger beer- ginger beer with such a hit that we had to water it down with Sprite!  We headed into the water and reflected on our travels to date.

Another amazing Salone sunset

As the sun set we wondered what tomorrow would bring. 

Map of the Peninsula

Here is another map it may have been advisable to post earlier.  Over the next week I'll be bringing you the highlights of the beach hopping trip down the peninsula I did with Banke.  This map should help you see where we were.  Sorry for the lack of scale.

A Half Marathon? I said I'd never do that again...

but ladies are allowed to change their minds.

I'm sitting on the sofa exhausted but happy after having run the Half Marathon at the Street Child Sierra Leone Marathon in Makeni. If you scroll back to June 2012 you'll find this post.  Last year I ran the 5km and said I'd run the half marathon if I was still here in 2013.  Well, you know me, if I commit to something I commit to it, so in January I started running with my friend Heather targeting the half marathon on 26 May.

We met two or three times a week and employed a run and walk strategy - 10 minutes of running followed by 1 minute walking.  Using this pattern we slowly increased our fitness and the distance we were comfortably running. So by the time this morning came we had managed a 2 hour 5 minute training run 2 weeks ago.

So at 4.30am this morning my alarm sounded and the big day began.  I had spent the night with Aoife who kindly made us Weetabix to fuel us for the 13.1 miles ahead.  We popped onto an okada to make it to the start for 5.30am.  The plan was to start as soon as day had broken so that we could run in the coolest part of the day.  In a special moment the President arrived at 6.15am to start the race and to take part in the 5km.  Quite a coup for the organisers.

Here we are ready to go

Aoife and me

Heather and I ready to get started

Heather and I ran together keeping in the main to our pattern.  There were deviations as the miles were well signposted so we aimed to run to the mile marker, walk for a minute and run to next mile marker but did walk early if there was an uphill or keep running if we were cruising downhill. It was lovely to run through the beautiful countryside and villages with the children cheering us on with shouts of "Opoto, Opoto".  There was an unexpected stop as a train from one of the mining companies sped past - a very long train!  A guy who is with Peace Corps and has lived in the are for 2 years who was stopped with us said it was the first train he'd seen in his time here.  Bad Luck.

It must be said that miles 11 and 12 were hard but we kept going and the final mile flew past culminating in a sprint to the  finish line in 2 hours 19mins.  We were dead chuffed as you can tell from these smiles.

Well Done!  Go team us

 The marathon next year?  I don't think so.

Wherever I lay my hat..

that's my home, so the song goes.

When I decided to come back to Freetown in April I needed somewhere to live.  Luckily Jo (Freetown Fashpack) Dunlop came to my rescue by renting me a room in her house.  However, Jo has visitors for most of May so I have had to move out.  So this month I have been relying on the charity of friends who have allowed me to stay with them.

My first stop was on The Maze where I moved in with Banke, Alex, Imran and Nathan.  It’s been a long time since I have lived with so many people but I loved it!  And who wouldn't love this lovely house.

Look at the size of the balcony!

I had forgotten how much fun it is to live in a shared house.  Another bonus was that the mattress on my single bed was the most comfy I have slept on in the last 14 months.

My lovely wee room and the comfiest bed

So many lovely nights of sleep with a fan too!  This was my first experience of having a generator and the responsibilities that go with it.  Should I put it one solely to do my washing, should I wait for someone else to be in, how long does 10 litres of fuel last?  Unfortunately, these questions came up often as the National Power Authority (NPA) was not providing electricity for the bulk of my time there. 

Two and a half weeks up it’s time to move on to Ed’s. This will be a very different time again as he’s off to the UK so I’m housesitting all by myself in an area of town I don’t know too well. Solitude returns.  Solitude with a generator, running water with water heater, TV, DVD player and loads of DVDS.  I feel many hours may be spent on the sofa in the next fortnight.

The house is beautifully situated with amazing views.  Here’s the one from my bedroom.  My room here is far bigger and I found it odd sleeping on this big bed after my time in a single bed. 

View over Aberdeen

A lovely space to sleep and work

I am such a lucky girl to have these wonderful friends who have been so generous.  So thank you to you all.  I really do appreciate your hospitality. 

The Laughing Cow

I have been meaning to write about Laughing Cow for a long time.  Why?  Well it’s something I shall always associate with Sierra Leone.  It is a staple part of the expat diet and I know many a VSO volunteer who has developed a serious Laughing Cow habit.  I counted myself in those ranks until January when I went cold turkey.  The habit can be kicked.

So what is Laughing Cow or La vache qui rit?  It is basically a triangle of cheesy goodness – if you believe the label.  But I’m not so sure.  What have they done to a product which can be kept unrefridgerated and not go bad?  It is like the Dairylea of my childhood. 

Triangles of happiness

It is predominantly a sandwich filling with the benefit of not needing a knife to spread it as the silver wrapping can be used to smear it over bread.  A breakfast food too if you stay over at the beach as it comes along with the bread that accompanies your omelette.  I have also heard tell that it is nice atop a ginger nut biscuit to create an individual cheesecake.  True addicts though need none of that, they eat triangles straight from the wrapper.

One of the main roads in Freetown is Wilkinson Road which has a number of walls along it.  This wall space is used by as advertising space instead of billboards.  So as you travel along it your journey is punctuated with many Laughing Cow sightings.  The likeness is amazing with the bright reds and blues cheering up a boring grey wall.  Genius!

The real thing

The mural!

The Cow is truly laughing all the way up the road.

Really?

And I had a laugh too as part of the photohunt

Travelling by lorry Salone style

Banke and I have just been beach hopping down the peninsula and there will be lots more of that later.  First I thought I'd share our experience travelling by lorry for part (a very short part of the journey).  The pictures tell the story.

Our fellow passengers and driver, "My name is Ishmael", he said

The task of boarding our latest for of transport

Made it!

How do they stand on this moving vehicle on these bumpy roads?

We were happy sitting on the spare tire

How do I get down?  Oh like this!

Cargo unloaded they drive off, probably muttering "mad opoto"

Another very special goodbye

April was a month of goodbyes and ended with the departure of Laura, Dave and their cat Ishmood.  I was lucky to join a lovely bunch of people in wishing them goodbye in a very special way.  In a previous post I mentioned that people here find many ways to make their own fun and this is a great example.  The person behind this amazing video is Banke who will also soon be leaving for the UK.  It's just all too sad but watching this always brings a smile.

I tried very hard to upload the video to no avail but if you click HERE you should be redirected to You Tube.

Oh technology in the developing world!

My good luck had to run out...

In the past 15 months I have been very proud of the fact that I have kept remarkably good health here in Sierra Leone.  However, on Friday I discovered what it is to be struck down with a Freetown Tummy.  It was not pleasant.

I'm not sure if my luck ran out or I have become more complacent.  Bottles of hand sanitiser are definitely lasting longer and I have started boiling tap water for my morning cup of tea.  No longer I am back to packet water in the kettle from now on.

I have not become lax with my daily handful of tablets:

1 anti-malarial (I use doxycycline which I have not had any problems)
1 probiotic (to counter the anti biotic qualities of doxy)
1 women's multi vitamin
1 oregano tablet (prophylaxis for gastric issues)

So what do I think could have been the culprit?  Well I had chicken at a bar on Monday night and I wasn't quite right all week.  I think though that an Indian meal on Thursday night may have been the source of my woes.  Luckily it really was only 24 hours of inconvenience. Confined to the house I kept drinking water to flush through my system and topped that up with Oral Rehydration Salts (something I actually carry in my handbag) to replace what was being lost oh so rapidly.

So Friday - death warmed up, Saturday back to my usual self and running around Freetown enjoying that feeling of wellness.

Here's hoping it's another 15 months until I have to deal with that again.