Hike in Kabala...

Having arranged for someone from the guest house to act as our guide, we set off towards the hill. Five minutes into the hike we realized that our guide had no clue where he was going. He was leading us on a vertical path, right up the steep hill, rather than zigzagging our way up. We became somewhat out of breath all too quickly and all of us being out of shape didn’t help matters either. Neither did the loose dirt. Fortunately we ‘ran’ into a group of boys who were supposed to be collecting firewood. After joining us up the steep path for a bit they revealed to us that this was not a good path to take. This path ends in tall grass, not passable by folks like us! They with their machetes would have been fine of course. Fortunately for us, they kids eagerly left their chores toguide us, on their flip flops! We were happy to reach the top of the hill. The view was great.



However, this wasn’t the peak that I wanted to reach- the peak being the top of the hill with the piled up boulders. So after a bit of convincing some of the others we continued our journey.



Luckily for us the boys were still up for a hike. They led us along a path, over a fence, past the banana tree plantation, through a two hut village, cutting through tall grass, and finally climbing onto the huge boulders at the VERY TOP of the hill. The view of Kabala was spectacular. Definitely worth the trip. Half way down the mountain the kids went their separate way. And we headed back down to the guesthouse.



A little while later we got in the car and headed back towards Freetown. We did stop at Magbenteh Community Hospital- just outside Makeni. The same hospital we stopped at on the way in with the Dutch doctors. Because friends of mine used to work there itw as fun to visit again and see how much building had gone on. The place looked great. We also heard that David Beckham was there the previous day (on the Saturday). So the reason the hotel was full on Friday night on our way through, was because Beckham and UNICEF had rented the whole hotel! An hour later we were on our way to Freetown again. Back to the busyness of life…