An adventure in Outamba Kilimi National Park...

In February I made it to Outamba Kilimi National Park, and surprisingly, it’s not that difficult to get to with a tarmac road for a good stretch of the way. More people should put this on a to do list and not wait 12 years to get there!

Four of us hired a vehicle and set off on a Friday morning. The drive was relatively straightforward and took us about 6 ½ to 7 hours. We made a quick stop in Makeni and then continued our drive towards the Northern part of Sierra Leone. We had a picnic lunch off of the beaten track and then continued the last stretch of the journey, which included a ferry crossing.

The ferry was one of the highlights – this is the simplest ferry I’ve seen. It fits one vehicle and the ferry is manually pulled across! It’s managed by the Sierra Leone Transport Authority, and to our amazement, it’s free.  Once across, we continued on the dirt road for another 25 minutes until we reached the sign for OK. After that, it was another 10-15 minutes until we entered the park.

We were warmly welcomed by park staff and shown the “menu”, which included options for accommodation, food options and day trips. The huts are simple, and although hot, they meet the basic requirements needed to catch some sleep, basically a bed and a mosquito net. Thankfully the mosquito nets are of good quality and gave me the confidence that any creepy crawlies would stay out. My sleep was quite interrupted, however, due to roving bush pigs and mischievous monkeys throwing some kind of pit/seed at our hut throughout the hours of the night. Ow fo do. That’s nightlife in the rainforest for you.

There was no running water, except for the running water in the river! So any bathing, dish washing, etc. was done in the river. Thankfully we brought a gas cooker and were able to prepare our own meals, although otherwise, food would have been available for purchase from the village. Be careful not to leave out any food while you’re not near your hut. While we were bathing in the river we watched a cheeky monkey sneak over to our hut and run off with a banana!

Saturday morning we crossed the river and went on an amazing walk through jungle, forest and savannah like landscapes. We reached the top of the hill and marveled at the 360 views. We saw elephant and buffalo foot prints, which was impressive, but unfortunately the animas are only ever in the park at the height of rainy season.

In the evening we ventured out in canoes to seek out the hippos. Yes, they are ranked as one of, if not the most dangerous mammal in Africa and we were going out in canoes to find them. It was both thrilling and scary. About 30 minutes into the canoe ride we spotted the group of hippos. We stationed our canoes at the waters edge and watched the hippos as they would submerge and then come up again a few minutes later, sometimes in the same spot, sometimes in a new location. It felt like we were pretty close and I hoped they weren’t slowly creeping up on us while underwater and out of our sight. Our guides make this trip all the time, so we had to trust their judgment! The sights and sounds were incredible.

The other creatures we encountered were mosquitoes and black flies. The flies were especially terrible during the boat ride and I managed to get bitten a number of times. In the evenings, despite long sleeves and lots of insect repellant (even spraying our clothes), we got covered in bites. Thankfully none of us got sick in the weeks to follow. Maybe thanks to malaria prophylaxis! So, be aware, there are many insects to contend with.

After a great adventure in the park, we packed up the vehicle on Sunday morning and made our way back to Freetown. I had to make a quick photo stop in Sanda Loko Chiefdom, since this is the chiefdom that closely resembles my name and this was the first time for me to drive through it.  I would highly recommend a trip to OK. We didn’t call in advance but if you want to make sure there’s space you could call ahead of time, network permitting, and make arrangements with Mohamed, +23288606632.

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The wrong mountain...

I’ve been in Sierra Leone for over 5 years and have never made it to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. Crazy, I know. I can say I tried though because we did make a serious attempt last December but unfortunately failed. Yes, I know, it’s not even a tough mountain to climb, but we really didn’t make it and I can assure you it’s tougher when you’re going up the wrong mountain.

That’s right, up the wrong mountain. You see, a friend of mine organized the trip (which I am happy about! Thanks S!) and in the end there were probably about twenty of us that headed out together. I suppose with so many people something was bound to go wrong. There were a couple of men at the front of the group, with maps. That might have been part of what made the hike complex: men with maps. We had only just started on the trail when people started to question where we should turn off of the path at the foot of the mountain to head up the mountain. Supposedly there were markings on the rocks and trees and about 10 minutes down the path, the men at the front thought they saw markings and decided to head up the mountain. The rest of us followed. Mind you, there was a lot of serious questioning, doubting and second-guessing because the path was not much of a path and the markings were not very clear. There were two Sierra Leonean guys at the back (neither of which had climbed Sugar Loaf before) who said they thought the turn-off was a bit further along but by this time half of the group was already scrambling over rocks and fighting their way through the bush. It was too late to turn back. So we continued.

After an hour we reached the top – sorry, not 'the' top but 'a' top. Knowing Sugar Loaf would have taken longer to climb we realized that we were not actually on Sugar Loaf. So, even though we could see that Sugar Loaf was the adjacent mountain we were clueless as to how to get there (at least most of us were). What followed next was very interesting. Group dynamics are amazing, especially when you have 20 or so people on the wrong mountain! We ended up walking along more paths, then backtracking, and trying new paths, sitting on tree stumps deciding what to do next, discussing in small groups, etc. I was happily in the group that decided to sit, relax, have a snack and follow the leaders. After some time we decided that we had hiked long enough (2 ½ hours at this point) and we would head back down the mountain and call it a day. After all, we had an enjoyable the hike, some good laughs, were surrounded by good company, but just went up the wrong mountain. So down we went.

Of course, on our way down, we ran into the right path with obvious markings on the trees. By this time we had hiked for 3 hours and knew it would be another hour up and then hiking back down again. So, feeling happy with our accomplishment for the day, most of us decided to continue down the wrong mountain to the cars while a few people continued to the top of Sugar Loaf. We made it back to the cars without any injuries and with smiles on our faces. And to top it off we drove up to Leceister Peak and enjoyed the view followed by a delicious lunch at Mamba Point. To be honest, I thought the hike was great. It was definitely an adventure and now I get to look forward to climbing Sugar Loaf again. Hopefully I’ll make it to the top of the right mountain next time.