Sunday July 5th – Day 8 - Beach No 2

A few photos are on here: http://picasaweb.google.com/murrayforsyth/SierraLeone#

I don't want you to think I've been lying on the beach all of the time, just today. It makes up for a six day working week, starting at 6:30am.

Roads

Anyway, this is the imaginatively named No 2 Beach - about an hour and a half drive from Freetown - it's only about 10 miles, but has the worst road in the world to get there - think proper off-roading, but with oncoming traffic, who don't really care if they pass you on either side, with an inch to spare.

There are two ways to traverse these types of roads. Kamal drove us there in the morning, and he falls into the passive style of driving – 5-10mph, avoiding all pot holes, stopping at so called checkpoints (informal roadblocks) – groups of kids who swarm round the car, asking for money – a semi-voluntary 5000 Leone donation (£1) literally makes them sing and dance, and lift their roadblock, which comprises a bit of string with a few bottles tied on, anchored between two more kids.

On the way back, Kamal's son definitely drove in the 'active' style – 20-40mph most of the way, through (and over the top of) any and all potholes and puddles. The puddles on these roads are not the pancake-sized dimples in the roads you might expect in the UK (one which you would expect a man with a van from the council to pounce upon within a week of it's first appearance), but more of a pond sized crater, big enough to warrant closing the car windows before passing through, as the bow wave is enough to wash over the bonnet, and through the windows. Certainly this style of driving is much quicker and far more fun – but a good way to eat through even the toughest 4x4's suspension. He reckons he replaces his shock absorbers every three months, and is on his third engine.

Beaches

Imagine one of those picture postcard beaches, perhaps like the one in Thailand where they filmed "The Beach". Need I say any more?

Well, just for today, just to make you jealous, I will, for which I apologise in advance. Imagine unspoilt white sands, coconut laden palm trees leaning over the beach, a turquoise sea breaking over a few rocks at the end of the beach, the white sands leading to a wide delta of a river mouth half a mile down the beach, where clean mountain water meets the warm sea. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the water temperature: 28 degrees C. night and day, all year round, the sea seems even warmer, especially when you stand in the mouth of the river, just after low tide, when the sea starts to rush back into the river mouth – fast enough to gently push you up river.