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| Sunset on Burah Beach |
IT’S THE WEEKEND BABY! The clichéd 5fm line bellows out from within. I join up with two other MS’ers and head out of the port, up Bad Boy lane, to the Savage Square junction. Looking down Bad Boy Lane, past the container trucks with dodgy breaks, the funnel of the Africa Mercy is visible over the tops of the containers in the port. Africa Mercy is Mercy Ships flag ship, currently serving in Sierra Leone.
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| Poda Poda Wisdom |
We flag down a Poda Poda (mini bus taxi) shouting aloolooloo. How you get Waterloo from what sounds like an Indian war chant is still a bit of a mystery to me, but none the less it works. The three of us squeeze into the back bench of the Poda. If you think taxis, pot holes or Eskom are bad in South Africa, you have obviously not been to Salone. Podas are basically rusty beat up sardine cans on wheels. They are South African Taxis, older, more beat-up, less comfortable and definitely more dangerous (if you can believe it) brothers. There are four rows of steel and wood benches which have four people squeezed onto each. The windows have a big steel bar across to stop the crammed people/chickens/goats popping out the windows.
We happily extract ourselves in Waterloo where amid shouts of ‘Abpoto’ and ‘hey white boy!’ we buy a pot, some drinking water and barter for the next leg of the journey. As soon as you pass Waterloo the country side opens up beautifully. Driving southwards down the peninsular you pass through small villages, over clear mountain streams and next to lush green rice paddies. With beautiful jungle covered mountains on your right and big open mangrove lined flats on your left the drive is quite spectacular.
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| 'While walking down the beach to our campsite shaded by coconut trees, the sand squeaks underfoot' |
Walking down through the Bureh village to the beach we are welcomed by friendly locals and little children running up and grabbing our hands. While walking down the beach to our campsite shaded by coconut trees, the sand squeaks underfoot. The beach is a long white crescent with rock outcrops on each end and a big rock in the middle of it. Small waves push and pull on the shore with fishing canoes bobbing just beyond them. The bay is framed by a small jungle island on the left and the silhouettes of the jungle covered slopes of the peninsular mountains on the right.
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| Chilling on the beach with friends with island in back ground. |
After a day of swimming and enjoying the beach we all came together for a friends birthday celebration. A number of other MS’ers had made their way out there and we enjoyed a dinner of fresh barracuda, crab (I stayed well away from this as I am allergic) and rice cooked by the local villagers. As the sun went down hammocks were strung up between palms and a campfire was started.
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| Relaxing in hammocks hung between the coconut palms. |
During a late night swim we noticed something amazing happening. Millions of little lights flash around you as you move through the water, giving the impression that your body is glowing. It was incredible to see. This is apparently caused by phosphorescent plankton which lights up when disturbed. If you wee in the water a huge lightshow starts. While this gives you away to those swimming around you, the lightshow is definitely worth it.
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| Hauling in the midnight catch |
On the way to go sleep in my hammock I heard a soft chanting further down the beach. I went to investigate and met a group of fishermen hauling in their fishing nets, so I joined in. About half an hour into it, I started wondering what I had gotten myself into. My hammock was calling as it swayed beneath the midnight shadows of the palms. My knuckles were aching from gripping the rope and the coarse nylon was starting to rip at my hands. Just as I was about to let the locals carry on unhindered, the fishermen excitedly informed me that the chain was onshore. I didn’t know what this meant at first, but about ten minutes later we had a seething net full of fish.
When I finally climbed into my hammock I stared at palm fronds silhouetted against the bright myriad of stars above. No words can describe.
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| The view from my hammock |
The following morning after a nice breakfast and a stroll through the forest, I jumped into a friends van and was looking forward to an afternoon relaxing with friends on the ship. Fate would have it otherwise. As we drove out of the parking lot, we heard the bottom of the vehicle scrape but thought nothing of it. This is Africa after all. A little later a pickin (child) came running up shouting about something leaking under the vehicle. With pinpoint accuracy a rock had knocked the oil sump plug resulting in us losing all the engine oil. After chewing over how to best fix the leak we stopped it up with bubble gum and then sealed the deal with some quick set epoxy (mental note epoxy and duct tape can fix anything). Some other suggestions included laundry soap and cement powder. Who knew? We eventually got back to the ship in time for dinner. What a great week end.
