"I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have a choice as to whether we fulfill our destiny, but our fate is sealed." Paulo Coelho
We were in Freetown. Manu, Chris's brother, had just arrived and would join us for the next 6 weeks. Chris picked him up and we all went to the Liberian embassy to apply for the visa. It was Thursday, and the visa would take till the next Wednesday, so we headed to Bureh Beach, about 40km away from Freetown.
Before leaving on our beach holiday, we stopped at the chimpanzee rescue sanctuary, which was extremely well run and amazing to visit. While driving up to the sanctuary, we saw where the mountain side had collapsed in a huge landslide 3 weeks earlier. It killed about 1000 people. Terrifying and heartbreaking to even imagine.
The road to Bureh beach was good till the last 20km, and then became rocky, and we were basically driving in a stream. After some scrapes and bumps, we finally arrived and pitched our tents by the sea at a small guesthouse on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Green, forested mountains with misty clouds covering them, ran down into the ocean. Palm trees lined the beach, and two rivers flowed into the sea. There were very few people, we had the place basically to ourselves. It was wonderful. We played cards, watched movies, surfed, and relaxed.
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| Chimps in Freetown |
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Bureh Beach
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| Bureh Beach |
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| Bureh Beach |
After 4 nights of beach life, we headed back to Freetown, picked up our passports, and headed towards Kenema, in the East. Our plan was to go over the notoriously bad road from Kenema to Bo Waterside, the Liberian border.
Our first day driving, we stayed in a small village. You must ask permission from the town chief, and we were always welcomed to set up our tents, often in a nice covered area. The people of the village of Gola were gracious hosts, and an enjoyable evening was had by all.
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| Heading towards Kenema |
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| Camping in Gola village |
In the morning we headed out, passing the town of Bo, and then stopping off in a small village that we were told had many diamond mines. We were curious about the process, so we asked if we might see the mines. The chief of the village was very willing, and led us out into the fields. A small diamond mining operation consists of a small pond. The sand from the bottom is dug up into a pile, and people sift the ore looking for the stones. During the day, we saw 5 different operations. It looked exhausting, and we were told that most of the diamonds had been found, so small operations did not have much chance, but this did very little to dissuade people from trying the luck. Hard work for sure, and often with no payout. People were very happy to speak with us though, and they even showed us a sample diamond that had been found the previous month, along with some gold.
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| Good roads for the most part in Sierra Leone |
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| Diamond mine |
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| Walking to the diamond mines |
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| Diamond that had been found a few months before |
We passed the night in the village of Blama, and made it to Kenema early the next day. We saw the begining of the bad road. We discussed with each other our options. There is a shorter road, that was supposed to be much better, but had a ferry. We had read that the ferry did not run in the rainy season, but we met many truck drivers, and police, who told us that the ferry was for sure running, and we were foolish to attempt the drive from Kenema to the Liberian border. So we backtracked for about 4 hours.
The road leaving Bo, heading towards the ferry was great, then turned to dirt, but still not bad. Finally we arrived at the very big, and fast flowing, Moa river. The ferry was running, but only the small one for people and motorbikes. Woof. Our luck with ferries has not been so good. So, we started back to Bo and passed the night camping inside a classroom at the school which the village chief was nice enough to give us for the evening. So cool!
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| Road to the Bo ferry |
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| Moa river ferry, not running in rainy season |
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| Camping in a school |
We made the 4 hour drive back to Kenema, and resigned ourselves to our fate of the terrible road. We had read that it was nearly impassable in the rainy season, and if you attempted it, you would of course need a large 4x4. Well, we had two 4x4's! Not so big though.
We went only a short way on the road that first evening, and stayed in Korma village. That night we were invited to the initiation of young girls into the women's society. All the village came to watch the "Devil" dance. A costumed woman in a suit of I'm not sure what, with a carved wooden mask, danced wildly and asked the audience for money for the women's society. There were other characters as well, a police woman, and a fancy dressed, over the top teacher, dancing to the drums and entertaining the crowd. It was amazing to see.
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| Driving into the jungle |
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| Korma village, devil night |
Leaving Korma, the road got worse. We waded through mud and waist deep water all day, checking to see if our cars could make it. The Panda's did great, passing through water over the hood, and crawling over mud hills. The jungle was all around us, dense and hot. We reached a bridge made from palm tree logs. It was too wide for our small cars. Many locals helped us to move the logs closer together, but they were still very narrow. Everyone was nervous as we guided the cars across, but we made it through just fine. That evening we slept in the village of Jegwebe. The locals brought us cacao fruit to try, it was delicious. We saw cacao growing everywhere, as well as Kola nut. It seemed like everything was eatable in this forest.
The next day was long and tough. Huge mud hills and a very deep river crossing. Eventually we arrived at Zimi, dirty, tired, and ready to be done, but we were still 40km from the border. Everyone told us the road became worse after Zimi. We needed a break. We wandered the streets of the jungle town, ate rice and fish, and drank coffee. We refuled from plastic bottles and bought camping supplies. Nobody was in a hurry to leave.
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| Cacao for breakfast |
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| Jungle roads heading towards Zimi |
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| Muddy roads |
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| Village life |
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| Panda in Zimi |
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| Resupplying in Zimi |
Finally we drove out of the town to find 20km of really smooth dirt roads! We slept in a small village of which I have forgotten the name, but not their kindness. Soon after arriving, a Liberian girl named Hannah, told us our baths were ready. We were taken to a shower area surrounded with tall plants and given a bucket of hot water to wash with! It was the nicest gesture we had received in a long time, and it felt so good to be clean again. We spent the evening talking with the village members. It was a great night.
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| Hannah in our last night village stay |
The last 7km were the hardest, as any epic finish should be. Deep and wide stream crossings. We had to pay a village to drive our cars between their homes as the ruts in the main road were too deep for our cars. We waded through countless puddles to check the depth. My feet were cut and bruised from the gravel and rocks. Finally, we came around a corner to the last obstacle. A huge mud pit greeted us, with giant ruts, and a Land Cruiser already badly stuck in one section. It looked impossible, but we scouted a route anyways...it wasn't good, but we had to try. We watched a huge truck go through and just barely make it out. Many people said they would help push when we got stuck. TJ lined up, and dropped into the ruts. When the car got stuck, everyone violently rocked it, and somehow, the tires gripped, and the Panda climbed out on the other side! Chris did the same thing, and soon, we were both through. We had made it!
We drove the last 3km of bumpy roads and arrived in the border town of Gendema, battered, tired, sweaty, and amazed at the last 3 days of incredible scenery and hospitality. We were pretty sure that if we could cross this terrible road, we could pretty much do anything. We drove on towards the border, and began our crossing into Liberia.
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