Easter Monkeys

We had a five day holiday for Easter, as there was a Muslim holiday on Thursday, so we decided to take advantage of our long weekend and take a road trip. So, myself, Krystle, Kate, Patrick, Simon and Gianni headed to Tiwai a nature reserve on the in the south of Salone, in the district of Pujehun. Tiwai means ‘big island’ in Mende and it literally is a big island in the Moa River. The island is uninhabited, but the EFA (Environmental Foundation for Africa) have set up a wildlife reserve, so you can camp in the bush and go for forest walks etc.

Tiwai is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and incredibly peaceful. It was the kind of place where seeing people on the landscape just looked wrong. You just don’t find that sort of untouched landscape in the UK.

On Easter Sunday morning we woke at 7 and went on a forest walk. We saw many monkeys of different types, mainly in the trees, but also one on the ground. It was amazing. We also saw all kinds of birds and butterflies and insects and lizards. There were some fantastically old trees, with roots that I literally had to climb over. No Easter bunnies though. And no Easter eggs this year, although somehow without the commercial Easter stuff surrounding me, I never even thought about that until yesterday.

One of the big issues in Sierra Leone is roads. Most of the roads are pretty bad, which makes travelling around hard and long work. However, the road to Bo, which we travelled along, is starting to be redone and it’s easy to see what a difference it will make to industry and to life in Sierra Leone to get the road network repaired and give transport infrastructure a chance to improve. There are so many places where people are isolated, they don’t own vehicles and they have to take any chance to grab a lift to the nearest town, sitting in the back of a truck or on the roof of a poda poda. The picture below shows some people we saw in Bo travelling with their furniture on the back of a lorry. We travelled six in a hilux, with me and Krystle sharing the front seat. It wasn’t always that comfortable, but at least we were inside the car!

I have some pictures to post, but the connection is slow right now so I'll post them seperately later...