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.

#outambakiliminationalpark #OKnationalpark #alwaysanadventure #40before40 #bucketlist #sandraturns40 #40isthenew30 #adventuresinsierraleone #sierraleone #sweetsalone

40 days until 40 years...

I have 40 days to go until my 40^th birthday. So, how’s the list going? Well, I recently finished one more activity and another one is due to be completed later this week:

#10 ✔Successfully complete an online course (12/6/17 – Clinical Supervision)

#21 A 30-day challenge – completing acts of kindness or gratefulness (started 8/5/17)

That leaves me with 10 activities that still need to be checked off.

#1 Visit 1 new country

#2 Drive a vehicle in Sierra Leone for the first time

#11 Get a massage

#13 Run a race

#16 Sponsor a child

#20 Get a manicure and pedicure (1/11/16) at Nali, Freetown, Sierra Leone

#24 Visit Bonthe island, Sierra Leone

#27 Walk down Lumley beach making a fashion statement

#28 Visit Bomba ice cream factory and discuss new flavours

#39 Take a photography lesson

Some of these activities are already planned. Tickets to Portugal for July have been booked, which is very exciting! And we’re throwing in Morocco as a bonus country just because we can. I'm discussing child sponsorship with the organization my parents work for. I'm hoping the trip to Bonthe island takes place later this month. Other activities are yet to be planned. It will be a busy 40 days…

#40before40 #sandraturns40 #40isthenew30 #bucketlist #alwaysanadventure

Midnight Poetry...

I have managed to check another activity off of my list. 

35. ✔️Write a short story or a poem

One night I woke up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep. So I wrote some poems, in haiku* style, focusing on various themes. The first one was for international nurses day and the other 7 focus on other topics. Enjoy!

nurses are vital
they work hard to help save lives
thank a nurse today

six lovely ladies
on a boating adventure
spotting sights from sea

getting on a boat
is really an adventure
i'm glad I survived

what more can I say
i'm thankful and love you lots
happy mother's day

every child has rights
we need to love and protect
stand up for justice

malaria kills
expats need prophylaxis
be wise and prevent

rainy season's come
thank God my roof doesn't leak
unlike roofs of some

be kind to yourself
so that you can help others
it's good for your soul

#internationalnursesday #boatadventure #mothersday #childprotection #malariaprevention #rainyseason #selfcare #bekindtoyourself

#haiku #writeapoemorstory
#40before40 #sandraturns40 #40isthenew30 #bucketlist #sierraleone #alwaysanadventure

*Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.

10 new recipes: completed...

17. ✔ Try 10 new cooking/baking recipes in 10 months – completed on 24/5/17

Here’s the list of the recipes I’ve made over the past 6 months:

-Pumpkin Roll

-Pie Crust

-Sugar cookies and icing

-Havermout chocolade banana muffins (oats, chocolate, banana muffins)

-Lentil Curry

-Cinnamon Rolls

-Quick Pickles

-Grilled halloumi, rocket and avocado salad

-Naan bread

-Lime bars

-I also helped make Turkey Soup, Cruesli and baked a Mango Crumble, just to add a few extras.

So, here’s the rundown:

Best recipe: Cinnamon Rolls – so tasty, especially right from the oven

Worst recipe: Havermout chocolade banana muffins – strangely this recipe does not call for flour and you end up with quite a mushy muffin – seeing as no one like them, this is not to be repeated.

Best discovery: Lentil Curry – I had never cooked lentils until a few months ago – what a brilliant discovery on my part

Fastest recipe: Quick Pickles, hence the name!

Recipe that needs some perfecting: Naan bread, tastes good but needs a little work in terms of presentation

Most labor intensive: Lime bars, squeezing 20-25 limes took me a while, as well as using a knife to grate enough lime zest

Most fun: Sugar cookies and icing – mostly because it was a great activity with nephews and nieces, both in the USA and NL

Recipe I would like to repeat soon: grilled halloumi, delicious!

Most challenging & creative: Pumpkin Roll, figuring out how to bake the dough so that it would be thin enough to roll, and then finding a way to roll it up to cool it down and then adding the filling and rolling it up again.

Recipe everyone needs to have: Pie Crust, important for any pie making, and so easy

Happy baking & cooking!

#10newrecipes #40before40 #sandraturns40 #40isthenew30 #bucketlist #sierraleone #alwaysanadventure

Books & Basil...

Here's an update on two of the activities I checked off this week. I suppose it depends on how much my Basil needs to grow before I can check that one off. Maybe until I eat some of it? I've gone ahead and checked it off anyway. 

14. ✔Grow something green (and edible!) (started 30/4/17, 3 sprouts 15/5/17)

18. ✔Read 10 books in 10 months – (12/5/17) 

It’s been fun growing Basil. It’s the first time I’ve grow an herb (besides in primary school I suppose) and I’ve enjoyed watching the sprouts come up. I plan to branch out and grow some coriander and hopefully some rocket (arugula). If only I had a big garden, as opposed to a narrow balcony! This is a step by step learning process.

I’ve also managed to read 10 books in the last 5 months. This is probably a personal record for me! It also means I can check this activity off.  The easiest read of the 10 was the Dutch book, which one could argue is more of a children’s book, but I would like to add that it’s a longer children’s book and it’s not my primary language. Land of Love and Drowning was definitely the strangest of the 10 books. This is the book I read for book club, which I attended in March, which was also on my #bucketlist The book that I found most thought provoking was Half the Sky, which talked a lot about oppression of women, trafficking, lack of education etc. This is also the book that took me the longest to read, in part because some of the stories were pretty intense and I wanted time to process what I was reading. I would highly recommend this book.  The book I found the most inspiring was Dirty Glory, which is a book about the 24-7 prayer movement. I’ve enjoyed reading and am about halfway through book #11, which is The Five Love Languages. Let’s see how many more books I can read before my birthday!

#read10books #growsomethinggreen #basil #40before40 #sandraturns40 #40isthenew30 #bucketlist 

Sunday snaps...

Over the past year, more and more of Asia's three-wheeled tuk-tuks have made their way to Africa. A year ago I would see the occasional tuk-tuk on Fourah Bay or Kissy Roads but now they are all over Freetown They are safer than the motorcycle taxis (slower and a bit more protected) and since their introduction, accident rates have gone down in Liberia. They also provide employment for youth, which is especially good as more bans were placed on motorcycle taxis (for safety reasons). In Sierraleone they are known as kekeh - I'm looking forward to my first ride in one! #kekeh #sierraleone