Military walk...

Last Saturday I decided to be adventurous and join the group going on the IMATT walk. IMATT is an international military group who advise the Sierra Leone military and they also happen to organize hikes every Saturday morning. Seeing as they meet at 9am on a Saturday morning I often bail out and stay in bed instead. But last week’s walk sounded exciting; the WHALE RIVER walk. So at 840 in the morning a group of use went up to the IMATT base in our land cruiser to join the rest of the expats. We then headed towards John Obey beach, an hour and a half through the hills to the starting point of the hike.

We were with a group of 30 and on arrival at John Obey quickly got started on our walk. Off we went into the jungle, in the rain, until we reached Whale River itself which is when we noticed that the usual bridge had been swept away. Not a problem, we were with the military and there happened to be a lot of wooden planks lying around. We would build our own bridge. The first attempt was unsuccessful. In the end we ended up using two planks to get across. I am sure an engineer would not be impressed, but hey, we got across. We continued through the jungle and soon arrived at the river’s edge again- near the waterfall! We decided to cross a very shallow but fast moving part of the river, which was quite adventurous. As long as you took small steps, it wasn’t a problem. The fast paced walkers were more likely to slip and slide; I took it slow. Once we were on the rocks at the top of the falls we had time to admire the spectacular view; beautiful. Meanwhile our leaders were trying to find the best way down, but in the end we turned around and headed back the way we came. Only to get back to the first crossing and realizing that our bridge had disappeared; I guess someone needed the wooden plank. Well, like I said, there was plenty of wood, so the bridge was quickly erected once again. I decided however, that since the river was only knee deep, I would just walk across; easy and more fun, besides I was already soaked!

After a pleasant but very wet walk we reached the cars again and then headed off to John Obey beach; a beautiful beach (although I am very partial to River no. 2), with no other people around. We enjoyed the waves, walking to the far end of the beach, crossing a river with ‘quick sand’ sinking knee deep into the sand at parts, and scrambling over rocks taking silly pictures. A great ending to the day out!