Sierra Leone

After some relaxing days in Sierra Leone visiting villages, beach hopping and enjoying the capital, Freetown, I thought it was time to make way to by country number 116, Liberia.

The Slow Way To Liberia

I prefered to move slowly from Sierra Leone to Liberia in order to see some new places on the way. I wanted to take my time in Sierra Leone and there were several reasons why. First of all because it’s a pretty relaxed English speaking country in this region, which is rare to find. Secondly because when I entered Sierra Leone from the north, I was almost not allowed to enter. I had to be creative and my quick way of thinking saved me in the last second, otherwise it would have been NO Sierra Leone!

Read ‘2 Seconds From Rejection To Sierra Leone!’

After having a fun time in the north of Sierra Leone in Makeni, I went to Freetown and the area around there for some days. After having seen the beaches in Conakry, Guinea, I was stunned to see the difference in the beauty of the beaches in Sierra Leone in such relatively small distance.

Dirty Beach in Conakry, Guinea

Most beaches in Sierra Leone

Hard to leave Sierra Leone

It was honestly nice to relax a bit in Sierra Leone, especially to get out of the capital Freetown and enjoy the small villages and lovely beaches. Also enjoyed to eat some of my favourite West African food, the ‘Sierra Leonean attiéké’, with fermented and grated cassava and a blend of various ingredients. Definitely a different supplement to the rice and fish you’ll get most places here, which can get boring in the long run.

Too late for Liberia

I wasn’t too far from the border to Liberia and wanted to do some more exploring before crossing the border from Sierra Leone to Liberia. What I didn’t think about was that the border from Sierra Leone to Liberia would close at 6.30 pm. I found out of this randomly mid day and thought it was maybe the right time to head down to the border. I had a strong belief I would make it in time, still with plenty hours to go!

I found a shared car going to the border and negotiated a fair (cheap) price with the driver. There was just one thing wrong. I quickly found out this could be a big problem in order to reach the border in time. Something was wrong with the driver. Me and the other passengers were in deep sh*t literally!

The Driver’s Diarrhea (Mr. Poo Poo)

I sat next to a very funny guy in the shared taxi, who said he was the black Cristiano Ronaldo!

We had several stops on the way there and in the beginning we didn’t understand why we stopped the car all the time, because we were in a bit of a rush. The driver kept running away from the car every time he stopped the car. We quickly found out something wasn’t as it should be with him. After a few stops the driver pointed to his stomach and signaled something was wrong. The black Cristiano Ronaldo said: “We have to drive now Mr. Poo Poo” and every one in the car laughed, including the driver, even though he was in pain. Really a shitty situation for all of us, most of all for the driver!

The clock was 5 pm. Only 1,5 hour to the border would close…

We had to keep on going!

The Liberian Border Would Close Soon

The minutes were counting down. Time was now 6 pm, which meant we only had 30 minutes to go, before the border would close!

I talked to the black Cristiano Ronaldo about the possibility of the border still being open, when we arrived, but I could see on my offline Maps.Me that we had at least 40 minutes to go. Time on a map in West Africa is never correct and that’s a fact. We arrived 7.09 pm. 39 min after the border closed!

Border closed 18.30 sharp. We didn’t make it!

Mr. Poo Poo was off to a little home made African toilet immediately at the border, but it didn’t take away the shit we were all in right now!

It was getting dark and I was there with the black Cristiano Ronaldo, the Liberian guy and Mr. Poo Poo and we discussed where we could sleep and none of us had any clue. We really didn’t want to sleep in the car after an exhausting ride. We were out in nowhere and the heavy rain could come anytime.

The driver called someone and the black Cristiano Ronaldo said we could maybe go on some muddy roads through the forest at night to a village. The roads were really muddy, maybe not as muddy as the driver’s underpants, but indeed muddy!

The Right Track

Mr. Poo Poo drove us the right way. We were now in this village the black Cristiano Ronaldo mentioned to him and me and the Black Cristiano Ronaldo and the Liberian guy went out to search for a place to sleep. It was really hard to find anything and there weren’t many people we could ask during the night, but we found a place with a small ‘Motel’ sign, which looked really creepy. They had two rooms available.

What to do!?

We all agreed that I took the single room. Sounded good to me at first, until I found out the lights went on and off every 1 second, the window was open and couldn’t close (would someone jump in or would the mosquitoes bite me like crazy?!), no mosquito net, no toilet. Anyway it was time to sleep.. We were all too exhausted to thing about anything late at night now!

Good Morning And Hello Liberia

The border crossing went pretty okay, besides a lot of police check points when we entered Liberia, but I was happy to be with the black Cristiano Ronaldo all the way to Monrovia, Liberia. It went a lot smoother with him, because he small-talked to all the police officers and they seemed to like him.

He is honestly a guy I’ll never forget. He was so excited to go home to his wife in Monrovia, Liberia to have a special dish she would make for him. But he came 1 day too late and I saw his girlfriend was texting angry messages to him about him sleeping with his side chick in Sierra Leone. Ouch!

I can confirm he slept with a Liberian guy and I hope for him he had his favourite dish today in Monrovia, Liberia! Top guy!

Will never forget my crossing to Liberia. What a crazy ride it was with great friends! I still can’t believe I had a Near-Death Experience When I Arrived To Monrovia, Liberia.

Liberia. My country number 116.

Take care!

Gustav

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