Adventure is worthwhile
-Aristole-
WE SURVIVED A NIGHT AT THE CHIMP
SANCTUARY!!!!
After all my worries of noises over
dinner and as people were leaving, after everyone had left and we had all gone
to bed, the chimps also had settled down and I went to sleep really quickly
considering I was so worried about a chimp breakout and us all dying at the
hands of our closest relative. Yeah-I
must have been really worried. NOT. We were woken by our neighbors at a
reasonable hour of 7am, good to know that they are sleepy heads too, and the
noise is just something you would never hear anywhere else but in a chimp
sanctuary. One starts its hooting (this
is a happy noise of a chimp) and then the rest all pick up and they all hoot in
unison. It will something that I won’t
forget and with the story of Bruno and their escape and knowing that there are
4 chimps that never returned, as sad as it is that someone lost their life
during the escape, the positive thing is that these chimps have integrated into
a family ‘outside’ the sanctuary and are living well in their new environment. That is the whole purpose of the Tacugama
Chimp Sanctuary, so there is good work happening here-but in this instance it
came at a very dear cost.
Today was the last day of the tour,
after 28 days and four countries, this awesome section was to finally
finish. The last day of tour can be a
good thing or a sad thing, depending on the group that you have had and I am
happy to report that this was an AMAZING group and normally that would signify
a sad departure day BUT this was a little different and even though it was the
last day of the tour and it could have been a sad day BUT all five of us were
continuing on the next leg, so we were able to postpone the sad farewells for
another 3 weeks. The best goodbyes are
the ones that you don’t have to say-yet.
The bigger deal of the moment was welcoming the new 7 people into the
small close knit group that we had all formed.
When you are travelling you do form a special friendships, you are
together for more than 12 hours a day, on this trip especially, there were some
trying days and circumstances and we pulled through it all with no issues at
all and I think that takes a certain kind of people and I met those people on
this trip and I am eternally blessed that I had a chance to have met them,
share with them the amazing journey of West Africa with them and I look forward
to sharing the last few weeks with them and welcoming the ‘newbies’, and if
they half as nice as these guys then we are going to have a great group to the
end of this incredible overland experience, and I can’t to continue the next
section.
I was up early, and my roomies Ian and
Suzanne weren’t far behind me and as I had time to kill until 8.30am and I was
able to push out another blog. I’m pretty excited as we are heading into
Freetown today and the 99% certainty that we were finally going to get some
internet and I could upload the growing backlog of blogs, which I think stands
at 16 or 18. Yes I know it is a lot, and
my Facebook friends will shoot me as I will be coming up in their feeds for the
next 2 days, but I know they will forgive me and I hope that they take the time
to read a few as well. Since I changed
my blog layout, I have certainly picked up more clicks through my site and in 9
months I have just about hit the 20,000 click mark which is awesome and I am
glad that people find what I am writing interesting enough to read and
hopefully come back. I checked my world
odyssey blog a few weeks back and I had hit the 50,000 clicks on that site,
which is cool it is still getting reads when it has nearly been 12 months since
I last posted a blog entry on the site.
So I will apologize in advance for all the blogs and hopefully pictures
that I will post in the next few days and I just HOPE AND PRAY that there will
be internet, if not at the hotel, then at least a café, as I just HAVE to get
online today. People say ‘oh it’s kind
of good to not have access’ which I agree for a week, maybe 10 days, but after
16 days, I rekon in this day and age everyone would be pulling their hair out
and I am not afraid to admit it and deep down you all know that you would feel
the same as well.
After a great breakfast in the ‘BBQ Hut’
and chatting over how everyone slept and hearing the group that arrived
yesterday talk about the cold showers they had this morning and how hot it
was. It was funny eavesdropping thinking
that these guys are not potential Dragoman clients with their little blingy
shoes, their mascara made eyes and the thought of the cold showers. I was thinking of the 3 days we didn’t even
get to shower (in a row) when we bushed camp and I am still amazed that I am
now that type of person. If you had of
met me before my world odyssey, I could count on one hand how many times I had
camped, I couldn’t live without my hair straighteners and I wore makeup every day. My how times change, as I’d like to think I
live a more stress free life, without all the fuss and I have to say I am a
convert and I love it. I’m not dishing
makeup as I still wear it, albeit not as much, and I will be lucky to
straighten my hair once a month, but it is not a necessity for me anymore. Anyway, each to their own. The group are here from the UK for 11 days,
and it is nice to see that they are in the country as tourists (as there aren’t
many of us) and this is what the country needs to move forward and I hope they
have a great time like we are and then we can all become unofficial ambassadors
for the country and send out the word that it is safe to come and there is lots
to do.
We were on the truck at 10am, and some
quick running repairs were made on Madge from yesterday’s drive up the tight,
mountainous track and with a 50 point turn to turn us around we had to take the
same 1km track back to the main road that would take us back to the city and
our accommodation for the next 2 nights.
It took just as long as yesterday, the 45 minutes to travel the, to use
a dramatic word, treacherous track back.
I decided to keep my window closed this time for the trip so I didn’t
have to worry about getting slapped by tree or a branch, which some of them
were thick and could have done some serious damage if you weren’t paying
attention, but there was no other choice as Madge hugged the narrow track. We made it down in one piece, after having a
small altercation with Peggy the Praying Mantis, which I wasn’t scared of to
start with, but as he crawled his way up to me, I freaked and between Ellie and
I fluffing the rescue to get her out, Suzanne swooped in with her hands and
scooped Peggy straight up and ushered her out the window with no worries what
so ever. Well that is how you evict a
praying mantis I suppose.
We retraced our steps back the same way
that we had come yesterday, descending all the way back down to Lumley on the
main road and then we turned onto Lumley Beach Road, and followed the coast road, passing the
Freetown Golf Club, and looking at the golf course it looked like it needed a
good mow, and the greens were black not sure what they were made with and just
when you think why would anyone play on that kind of course, we spotted 7-10
golfers, all in different groups actually playing!!! And it was a Thursday morning! I guess you need to make the most of what you
have and I am hoping that they are good golfers as a few of the greens were
located about 10m from the road we were driving on and there were no nets to
stop the wayward golf balls. We arrived
to the hotel just before 12 noon and it looked AWESOME from the outside and I
don’t care what people say about books and covers, we were going to be in the
lap of luxury if we had a shower, a fan and Wi-Fi. Sam was able to park us in through the gates,
so that we could get off all our bags without the world seeing how much crap we
had, well me mostly, as for me this entailed 2 large ‘Koala’ shopping bags, my
day backpack, my tent bag, my snack bag, my big backpack and my souvenir bag
that I haven’t been into since leaving Accra 4 weeks ago. I also had my sleeping bag stuff, but I was
ok to leave that on the truck, so in reality I had 8 bags. This is why I love overlanding, especially
with only 4 other people, but I wonder if that will change with an influx of 7
new people brining our family to a total of 12, 14 if you include Sam and
Zoe. Time will tell. I have been called ‘bag lady’ on several
trips and for those people I just want to let you know that some things never
change.
With everything off the truck, Zoe was
going to work on Madge this afternoon, giving her a mani and a pedi for the new
group so everything had to come off, which is fair enough and would also let me
do a stocktake of what I had been purchasing for the last 4 weeks and also
remind me what I had bought the 3 weeks prior to that. I am going a little crazy on the buying
front, based on the fact that Kenya Airways let me have 2 pieces of luggage,
according to my ticket, so I will be in a whole world of hurt and cost if they
don’t stand by the ticket, but I have it in black and white, so I am sure I
will not have a problem. But TIA-so
until I am checked in I will believe the ticket. The hotel guys helped me with my bags, all 7
of them, which we all stacked near reception while Sam organized all the
rooms. While he was doing that, guess
what I was doing, yep, getting the password for Wi-Fi, which they had, which
worked and within a minute I was hooked up to the outside world again and I
literally danced for JOY!!! It was great
to be back in the land of communique and good to see that some people were
missing me and my blog updates with messages asking if I was okay and where in
the world I was. The BEST thing was
there were a few messages and pictures from Shelly and the girls and how
excited that I am home next month. I
can’t believe it and haven’t had a lot of time to think about as I have been so
busy and having fun on this trip, which is great as and I like the idea that I
am not counting down, like I have done on previous trips, and it is a
refreshing change, really-I’m finally not wishing my life away, but it in no
means I am less excited about coming back to Australia, but I am now more
living in the moment and I like that fact.
Some of the rooms were not ready, but as
it worked out, mine was, so with the help of 2 hotel staff and myself I we got
my bevvy of bags to the second floor of the hotel and my oh my what a great
room I had. Not only was I in the lap of
luxury, I was IN the lap of luxury with a lounge room and a flat screen TV, a
kitchenette, a massive balcony that overlooked the lake and then the bedroom
had an air-conditioner, a fan, another flatscreen TV and the bathroom that had
TWO taps and the promise of possible hot water, but I won’t get my hopes up on
that AND after the staff left, I was still able to get Wi-Fi in the lounge
room. Oh yes, I was going to enjoy my
time in Freetown. I met with the guys
back downstairs for lunch and then it was time to hit the net, ALL
AFTERNOON. I was very productive and I
was able to load 12 blogs before dinner.
It was good to have a break and give Facebook a break and with another
full day tomorrow, I felt that 12 was a good start. Some of the blogs still needed some more
information in them that I could only get when I had internet, so I had to
finish them off properly before they could be loaded and then it also takes
time to find a photo that portrays the day to also load. So 12 was making real progress and I had 10
more to load which I was confident that it wouldn’t be an issue. Also if I was lucky and depending on the
internet I might be able to load some photos as well.
Dinner was at 7.30pm and when I came
downstairs there were lots of new faces talking to ‘my’ old (not in the true
sense) friends and it was a lot to take in with so many more people around
after our small groups. After finding a
seat and meeting Clem and Karl, we all moved on to go and eat at an Irish Pub
just across the road from the hotel.
When we had a peak, it was all locked up tight and we were recommended
and LP (Lonely Planet) to also check out Indochine just further along, and as
the name implies, was Asian cuisine. The
second we stepped into the restaurant, we were hit by a blast of cool air and
after Sam had examined the menu, he said the prices were a little high, and the
place reflected the fanciness of the joint, but I figured we needed to have a
good feed that didn’t involve a chicken and for the oldies, this was an
opportunity to have a good feed before we hit the road and start consuming the
staples of tuna, onion, tinned meat and of course chicken. I was happy to have a great meal at whatever
the cost. So we were seated after the consensus
was that we stayed at the expensive place and it was an opportunity to get to
know the newbies. After a very long wait
for the meal, that was TOTALLY worth it and even after I saw that my
contribution came to 120,000 leones (25AUD) , I had a great vibe from the
table, the new and the old and I am making an early call that we are all going
to get on famously. So a MASSIVE welcome
to Karl, Clem, Ollie, Sian, Cathy, Helen and Roger into our family and look
forward to also sharing the next section with you guys as well.
We were back to the hotel just after
10pm and after lots of goodnights that I am not used to saying I retired back
to my ‘suite’ to use and abuse the internet for the next few hours. Well the next few hours turned into the wee
hours of the morning and I ended up, well making myself go to bed at 3.45am,
and even then I wasn’t super tired, but we were heading into town tomorrow and
I didn’t want to be dead on my feet, especially in the heat. So it is great to be back in communication,
in contact with everyone and loading my long overdue blogs.
The new section begins tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment