THE ANCIENT Russian helicopter rose up slowly and swung into the night. We
left the arrivals hall behind — the crowds, the humidity, the smell of
sweat, dust and aviation fuel — and were now cruising a thousand feet above
the river towards Freetown on this most singular of airport transfers. At
the city heliport we stepped out into the African night, looking around with
new and curious eyes at Sierra Leone.
My last visit to this tiny West African state had been in 1992. The country
was already in trouble, with tourism all but dried up and the economy close
to collapse. A revolt in the provinces had just begun, and that April the
first of several coups and counter-coups began, ushering in years of civil
war. Those ended in 2000 with the intervention of British troops and the
establishment of a UN peacekeeping force. The war was officially declared
over in 2002. But what has become of the place since?
In some ways it seems to be getting back to normal. For 18 months a London
travel agent, Kevin McPhillips, has kept a lifeline open to Sierra Leone by
arranging twice-weekly flights between Gatwick and Freetown. Last week he
increased these to three a week. The Foreign Office lifted its advice
against travel to Sierra Leone in April and the UN is about to withdraw.
The next morning, on the terrace of the Country Lodge hotel — perched high on
a ridge in an old British hill station — Freetown sparkled in the distance.
Then I drove down the potholed road into town and realised that things
weren’t that normal after all. Freetown seemed in a daze. This sprawling
city, with its sea of concrete office blocks and tin-roofed shanties, was
once a major international port.
Now, with no working traffic lights, the city centre was gridlocked. Ribbons
of razor wire hung from public buildings, and piles of rubbish stood
uncollected in the street. The old City Hotel, where Graham Greene propped
up the bar during a wartime stint in MI6, was now a burnt-out shell. The
souvenir-sellers outside, I noticed, had been replaced by beggars with
amputated limbs.
But slowly other, more encouraging, sights emerged. Teenagers playing
basketball in Victoria Park. High school kids in immaculate blue uniforms
piling out of school, chattering and laughing. Noisy stallholders at King
Jimmy market, the busiest in the city. If Freetown is down, it clearly isn’t
out. Still, memories of the war are fresh. The city was occupied twice by
rebel troops who specialised in maiming and looting. “They were barely kids,
half of them,” said one man. “I’ll never forget them. Especially their
eyes.”
The rebels won’t come back. The UN disarmed them, and since 2002 Sierra Leone
has held two successful democratic elections. “We’re watchful, of course,”
said Ione Brown, the English operations manager of the Country Lodge. “But
we’re cautiously optimistic.”
The hotel was a good place to catch the mood of Sierra Leone. Formerly a
private mansion, now it is home to a richly diverse clientele, from Lebanese
businessmen to World Bank officials and British army officers in mufti. In
the afternoon the pool filled up with expat families and the odd spirited
tourist. There was an air of gossip and intrigue. West Africa has always
attracted romantics and adventurers.
At dusk I drove to Lumley beach, a gorgeous strip of sand close to the city.
Half a dozen ramshackle beach bars had set up on the sand, their customers
drinking Star beer for 60p and watching the sunset. Strange to think that
Sierra Leone was a favourite with British package tourists in the 1970s. Now
its resort hotels look dusty and dated, although with a few licks of paint —
so the government hopes — they might once more bring in the crowds.
Possibly. But much more likely is a growth in independent tourism. Inland from
Freetown lush mountains rise up, criss-crossed with walking trails and
threaded by rushing streams. At the Guma dam reservoir the sun glinted on
the water, and families sat around its edge picnicking, in an oddly touching
scene. And at the Tacugama chimpanzee sanctuary there was a 30-acre
enchanted forest of teak and mahogany trees, dotted with rare flowers and
brightly coloured birds. The sanctuary is Sierra Leone’s biggest tourist
attraction. Founded in 1995 by a former accountant, Bala Amarasekaran, and
originally housing just one chimp, now it has 80 and an international
reputation that brings in visitors from as far away as the US. Somehow you
feel that it’s these quixotic ventures, and not mass planning, that hold the
key to Sierra Leone’s tourist future.
Likewise on the coast. The peninsula south of Freetown is home to Sierra
Leone’s magnificent beaches. In the 1980s a few small upmarket resorts
sprang up there, and now interest in the area is being revived.
A bone-shaking dirt road runs along the coast, passing tiny clapboard villages
where women carry baskets on their heads and slim figures bend double in the
fields. In a country still stuck in grinding poverty, wealthy foreigners are
not welcomed by everyone. The luxurious African Village resort at Tokeh was
ransacked years ago, and the neighbouring village where I once had “chop” —
dinner — with a local family was now a brooding, suspicious place. Not all a
civil war ’s scars are physical.
Things were better up the coast. At the point where the country’s “River
Number Two” emerges from the mountains into the Atlantic the locals have
banded together to form the River Development Association, half a dozen
plain but comfortable bungalows that are already attracting independent
travellers. Chris O’Connor, from Leeds, and his girlfriend Michiko Kyokan
had been staying for a week. “And the days just blur. It’s one of the most
peaceful places we ’ve ever seen.” All the profits from the resort go
directly to the villagers.
And at nearby Sussex beach is Franco’s guesthouse, opened 20 years ago by
Franco Miari, a burly Italian of 69 from Modena married to a local woman.
Nine plain rooms and an open-air restaurant overlook an exquisite lagoon
bordered by golden beaches and mangrove swamps. From here you can walk the
forest trails, go diving, or take a boat trip over to Banana Island, with
its ancient churches and slave artefacts.
In the evenings Franco sets out candles in the restaurant and serves up fresh
lobster and pinot grigio. We sat watching the sunset together, with Franco
recalling the war years in a voluble mixture of accented English and local
Krio dialect. Half the time he might have been talking about Sierra Leone
itself. “Hard times came, but we survived,” said Franco with a smile. “Now
we go one day at a time and we get better. Small-small. Slow-slow.”
Page 2: Need to know ()
Need to know
Paul Mansfield travelled with Kevin McPhillips travel (01293 822922,
www.sierraleonetravel.com). Flights from £424 return. A package with three
nights at the Country Lodge hotel, and four at Franco’s Guest House, costs
from £764 per person, B&B, including flights and transfers.
Red tape: UK passport holders require visas (Sierra Leone
High Commission in London, 020-7404 0140, www.slhc-uk.org.uk). Tourist visa
£35.
Further information: National Tourist Board of Sierra Leone,
www.welcometosierraleone.org; www.visitsierraleone.org.
Browse
travel offers at Times Selects
