As I mentioned in passing earlier, we headed to the beach this week-end. Now this might make it sound as if there is only one and everyone congregates there every week-end, a little like Brighton beach on a bank holiday. Far from it…
There is Lumley Beach in Freetown, lovely by any reasonable standard, but we’re not really in reasonable beach territory anymore. Oh no. So, when you head out to the beach in Freetown, you take the Lumley road and head south on a red dusty road along the peninsula. Every corner seems to reveal a turn towards one of the many beaches along the coast, each with improbable names such as Kent, Sussex, N° 2 or even Goderich and each apparently with its own brand of loveliness.
The beach at Number 2... Need I say more?
We headed for Sussex beach, occupied by the apparently legendary Franco’s and his guesthouse/restaurant. It isn’t so much a beach as a bay which fills up at high tide and which you can cross by foot at low tide to reach a sandy bar overlooking the ocean. And so we got our first swim in the Atlantic, one of many I’m sure…
Back at Franco’s, the kitchen were getting busy preparing our lobsters (or, as our resident fish expert informed us, our large langoustines – doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it?) and our fish carpaccios (carpacci?), all to be consumed in due course, ie after a couple of beers on the deckchairs and the application of copious amounts of mosquito spray.
Franco's at Sussex beach...
Lobster is a staple around these parts, as is most type of seafood such as shrimps or crabs, but also fish, with barracuda, snapper, grouper, mackerel, etc aplenty…
In fact, we spent most of the week-end sampling this amazing supply of fresh fish and seafood: lobster and carpaccio for dinner, grilled barracuda and shrimps for lunch on beach N°2 the next day, and, to polish it all off, freshly fished yellow jack sashimi and mackerel for dinner on Sunday back in Freetown… Good thing I like fish!
Catch of the day - Barracuda, Yellow Jack and two unbelievably big Mackerels...
The cold shower, barbaric as it sounds to most, is actually almost a treat here; especially in the first few days while you try to acclimatise to the hazy warm weather… But like most things in life, it takes some skill.
You can stand on the edge of the shower and wait for the water to be in full flow before literally jumping in, but I prefer the immersion method…
Here are the instructions: you turn on the single tap fully and wait with anticipation as you hear the water gurgling up the pipes towards the shower head. Then one single spray (always from the same hole on the head) hits you almost straight in the eye and you close your eyes and brace yourself… Then, just as you start wondering whether there’s something wrong, you open your eyes and relax for just a second, and the cascade starts and it hits you. A shock at first, then refreshing and most definitely wakening.
To give you a better idea:
I’m already looking forward to my next one.
Filed under: photos, society, travels | Tags: freetown, poda-poda, public transport, taxi
We started off the week end by a quick excursion to the centre of town, ditching the drivers and trying our luck with the local transport services…
Maybe a quick explanation is in order here. Not only is traffic in Freetown pretty hectic but you also have many different options to choose from:
• Foot: Walking around is quite nice if it’s in a quieter part of town, but the centre is pretty crazy. Also, Freetown is very spread out and walking from our place to the centre would probably take more than an hour. Also, some of the roads are pretty steep, most of the cars are in a questionable state and all the drivers seem to behave like London night bus drivers…
• Cycle: I have so far seen 3 bicycles in Freetown, and if the hills didn’t put me off cycling in the first place, the motorised competition certainly would!
• Poda-Podas: Our taxi driver yesterday described it as transport for ‘the common people’. Hundreds of those little minibuses with wooden benches cover a certain number of routes all across town. A bit like a bus, except it’s more often full and you quickly feel very intimate with your fellow passengers… Each seems to have a name or a motto, ranging from ‘Allah is great’ to ‘De Gunners’. Football might well be the number one religion here… (photos to follow, promise…)
• Taxis: regular taxis are shared and follow a certain route, so you can pile in as long as you’re going in the right direction. So far, taxis I’ve taken have been almost disappointingly civilised in terms of crowding but I have definitely seen up to three people in the front passenger seat! My taxi was also confidently hailed by a very young girl (maybe 7 or 8 years old) in a school uniform who announced she wanted to go to Hill Station before settling in the front seat on her own…
• Charter taxis: same taxis but you can hire it exclusively for yourself, so it’s a regular taxi, basically.
Add to this cohort of vehicles an astonishing number of 4*4s with more or less competent drivers and you might get an idea of Freetown traffic. Then take this idea and multiply it by the number of times a driver will beep his horn every 5 minutes (that’ll be about 10) and then you’ll have an accurate idea of how hectic it really is…
So after a quick tour of the city centre by means of taxi, foot and poda-poda, we eventually succumbed to the call of the beach and headed south to Sussex beach and Franco’s. But more on that later…
Freetown, Baby! 