A geographical conundrum

The answer is of course Freetown.

Aberdeen is the headland of Freetown itself, Kent is a little town further down the coast (40 minutes) from where you catch a boat to go the the town of Dublin on Banana Island. (A Keke is a hazardous three wheel taxi of which there are many in Freetown).

Every six weeks the ship has a holiday day, a Friday when just essential activities continue and most people have the day off. Both Alice and I were not on duty so we decided to make the most of the weekend and set off to Banana Island.

As you can see from the picture it is a beautiful island, in fact string of islands, covered in rainforest. Boats are the only form of transport around the island save for a footpath that runs the length of the islands including a causeway linking the biggest two. We went Friday morning and returned Sunday. After a very dramatic storm on the Friday night (glad we weren't in a tent as some of our colleagues from the ship were!) we set off for a walk through the rainforest. Sadly the island, as beautiful as it is, has not escaped the trash tragedy and the beaches are generally unusable, unless they get cleared twice daily. However we walked to the causeway (2.5 miles) and found that on the leeward side of the causeway the trash is not a problem (it clearly washes down from Freetown). So we spent a very pleasant day swimming and enjoying our picnic before walking back through the forest.

We saw many birds, millipedes and lizards but sadly only heard the monkeys in the trees. We planned an early walk on Sunday to try to see monkeys but it was seriously rained off! In fact the hotel manager, who also captains the boat, was anxious about the sea state later so we returned at lunchtime on the Sunday.

Anyway a beautiful place to visit, as long as you manage your expectations as to the quality of the best accommodation on the island (maybe we can elaborate on that in a later post), and a great break from the work and the hustle of Freetown. Here are a few more pictures to enjoy:

Our swimming spot at the causeway

One of the many giant "Cotton" Trees on the island