Outamba - Kilimi National Park
28 december 2022
I found myself locked in to the guest house in the morning. As the only guest, the manager had obviously thought it best to lock me in and take the outdoor door key with him!
I rang him the minute I discovered this and went into immediate health and safety mode looking for an escape route. The manager turned up minutes later with a genuine explanation - he was worried about me being in the house alone...
He escorted me to the taxi rank and I got in a shared taxi for 100,000GF towards Kindia and Conakry. The road and route seemed much better in this direction as we headed down hill past abandoned trucks and cars which had broken down on their struggle up the hills. Again we stopped for food on the way = a breakfast stop and a chance to sneak some photos.
I was dropped off at the junction with the track to Medina - Oula, on the border with Sierra Leone. Here I met the tribe of motorbike drivers that drive this route regularly, delivering goods and passengers to the remoter villages. I agreed to pay 150,000GF to Ibrahima to take me to the border crossing - a 30KM drive. We rode along fairly decent tracks, passing villages and areas which were being burnt in the preparation for clearance for palm oil plantations. We had one check point to negotiate. My documents were accepted, Ibrahima had to pay as they said his weren't in order - seems to be a common occurrence amongst these security officers..
Medina-Oula is a small village with a passport office managed by a gentle and friendly police officer. He checked me out of Guinea and I walked to the border post where my passport was double checked. I stepped over the rope into no man's land and started walking. I soon realised that I must have got this wrong - the Sierra Leone border was much further away than I had envisaged! Luckily a couple of men came along on a motorbike, one being able to speak good English. They agreed to take me to the Sierra Leone border. So that's how I came to be squashed between two brothers on a motorbike ride with my rucksack tied to the back of the bike for the 8km drive. They left me at the Sierra Leone border post - a dilapidated hut by the side of a dusty track. Here I helped the police officer to fill in my passport stamp correctly. I also met the Founder of the Deserving English Academy based in Kindia. He and his family and friends were in a 4X4 returning from a trip to Sierra Leone to see family. Like many people in this area - they have family and friends bridging the two countries. Youssouf Samoura explained that he had made money in a job in Freetown and had used this to begin to pay back to his community in Kindia. He was currently providing for 36 destitute children with no home or family. Other children attended their school and social programmes. Like so many people I speak to, he described the programmes they have established and the challenges they have doing this with little funds.
I organised a motorbike driver to take me from the Sierra Leona border at Sanya to the National Park entrance close to Koto Village for 180,000GF. Before we left the village I had the opportunity to meet the Principal, Sheku Gadre Kamara, and Primary Headteacher, Musa Nabieu Kamara, of the Sanya Community School. Both had returned to this village after working in Freetown ten years ago. They had invested money in the school and done their best to build sustainable classrooms, get teachers and resources. Sheku asked me for support; we need funds, books and computers. They try to teach the Cambridge curriculum and take students through GCSE's with the little resources that they have.
The ride to the National Park was adventurous, along rough tracks, through villages, across small rivers and deeper into the Sierra Leone natural forest land. The villages wre getting more remote and had unique characters of its people. The buildings were all mud bricked, with gathering points in their front yards. People were busy washing clothes in the rivers and preparing food outside their homes.
Evenually we arrived at Koto village and met the chief, Ramadam. He is employed to oversee the management of the NP too. He gave directions for my bike driver to take me to a camp site in the park. The two other sleeping options had long since fallen into disrepair. I was very relieved to see another group of tourists at the camp site; Sam, Megan and Corina from Freetown joined by three family members. They had already spent a night here and told me that food could be got from the village and firewood could be arrange for a fire to boil water. It was back to basics with very little infrastructure to support us; we were trusting the good will of the park rangers and villagers. I would have felt extremely vunerable being here alone!
After pitching the tent, sorting out the fire, washing in the river and meeting the other campers, I settled into the tent for a night in the Sierra Leone forest in its remote NW corner.
