Tiwai Sanctuary

We had only been back in Makeni for 2 weeks but it felt like soooooooooo much longer. One night, when we were sweltering instead of sleeping at our old house, I reminded Gearoid that only one week ago we were in London and only two weeks ago he was returning to the Netherlands from San Diego. Time is different here. It is slower. A whole lot slower.

So after only two weeks back, we (mainly me) jumped on an offer to take a trip out of town. When you have an offer for a ride, you take it. Along with 4 other people, we got into a van and made the 5 ½ hour trip to Tiwai. Luckily most of it was paved and the part that wasn’t paved wasn’t as bad as it could have been. After the van trip, we waited patiently in a village and entertained the local kids with our whiteness. I don’t mean to come off as racist or anything but the truth is that some people here- mostly children-are entertained by what we foreigners do. For example- I got quite a few hoots and hollers when I was brushing my teeth one morning.

After serving as public entertainment, we made our way down to a motor boat and took the 5 minute river trip up to the island. It was beautiful. The trees loomed high and green over the light brown water. Small sandy islands dotted the river as we made our way to the sanctuary. We pulled up on a beach and were told that it was a safe place to swim. The entire boat trip, I had drilled our guide about the presence of crocodiles and with a laugh and a big grin he semi-assured me that we would be safe swimming at this little beach place. We unloaded the little boat and made a quick trek along a narrow path to the camp of the sanctuary. We were hot and thirsty after the trip but our hosts were determined to give us the required spiel.-This is not a zoo. The animals are wild. Do not wander past certain points without a guide. The guide costs this much. Don’t sleep with food in your tents. We have cold drinks.-After 20 minutes or so we were freed and quickly came to the conclusion that Tiwai was guilty of false advertising. The “raised platforms in treetop canopies” that we would be sleeping in were really tents outfitted with damp mattresses in a concrete structure. The “cold drinks” were lukewarm. The delicious menu with plenty of choices was pretty limited to what the cook wanted to make. Whatever, TIA (this is Africa) and we were here for an adventure.

Gearoid in front of a GIANT and ancient tree

Just a little aside, the cook- I mean the chef, was really entertaining to me. As a group we decided to pay for meals at the sanctuary instead of carting in food. The chef asked us what we wanted to eat and our only requests were cassava leaf one night and that everything be vegetarian. He asked what we wanted for lunch- cassava leaf- no I’ll make beans. What do you want for breakfast? Fruit and bread? No, I don’t have that. Gearoid eventually asked- what can you make for us?- I mean why give us a choice if you’ve already decided?-The chef then very passionately described what he would make for us. He listed and described each ingredient indicating with his thumb and forefinger how wonderful everything would be. It was as if we were in a proper restaurant with a French trained chef describing escargot instead of in a bug infested jungle describing beans and rice. Our tomato sauce for some Salonean pancakes was literally onions, salt, and ketchup cooked together but was described with such delight and precision that we smiled and dug in. In all fairness, although the food was simple, it was delicious and we had no complaints.

After our welcome lecture, I lathered on the sunscreen and decided to brave the river. Let me say that I know African rivers are a risk. There are the obvious things- snakes and crocodiles- but also the unseen ones such as invisible parasites and bugs. However, when the choices are a cool refreshing risky river or sitting sweating in the heat battling crawling and flying bugs, I will always choose the risky river. Admittedly, it was scary at first. Fish jumping out of the water made me scream and jump, things that go bump in the water freaked me out, and it took a good half hour for me to get comfortable. But once I reached an appropriate comfort level, I was all in. I was swimming out farther, floating, climbing on river rocks, having mock battles with the current, and was in a general state of bliss. The other members of our group only briefly braved the river before returning to the riverside hammocks, while I literally spent hours in it and was properly wrinkled when I got out. I spent most of the next day in the river as well. At one point, something nipped my foot and scared me out but two hours later I was back in the river until an epic rainstorm moved in.

Along with lounging in the river, we did take a few walks through the jungle. Our first walk was hilarious because we all thought the primates would jump from the trees revealing themselves to us. We quietly tiptoed along a narrow path making hand signals to each other to stop and stare at the leaves above us whenever we heard the slightest noise. In the end we saw one bird. It was pretty exciting though. The next morning we took a guided tour and saw three types of monkeys, tons of termites, a bird that sounds like a helicopter, and a giant ancient tree that’s roots we had to literally climb over. Our walk soon finished after a conversation about snakes in the forest. Are there snakes here? “Oh, yes. Black mambos, boa constrictors…..” Me- Do any of them go in the water? Bo Bo (our guide) No- a few.  Well thanks for answering so clearly!

Sleeping in the tents was an experience in itself. The first night it was hot and humid. We all literally laid in our separate tents exclaiming how hot it was and how it generally sucked. One member of our group, quietly left our moaning to go drink whiskey with some Polish visitors so he could fall asleep more easily. Another woman in our group, started exclaiming that she had a hornet in her tent, but her epi-pen was outside of the tent, and she was in the process of changing and didn’t have any underwear on. Despite her plight, the rest of us started laughing hysterically. The entire situation: the heat, the bugs thumping against the outside of our tent, the blood stains on my own tent, unknown animals howling in the not so far distance, the fact that we weren’t on raised platforms in the trees, and this worried underwearless woman with a hornet in her tent cracked us up. I looked at the preying mantis staring at me through the mesh of my tent and tried and failed to suppress the inappropriate laughter. (By the way, the woman with the hornet is ok and her epi-pen was not needed).

On our last day, we all woke up after a cooler night of sleep. Everything in our tents was slightly damp from the previous’ day’s rainstorm. The plan was one more boat ride on the river and a breakfast of bananas and sweet potatoes (with the awesome ketchup sauce) and we would be on our way. I was definitely ready to leave after breakfast. I am a two day camper at best and I had reached the capacity of my patience. I was tired of the bugs that traveled by all means possible to land on me (especially the one I found in my underwear!). I was tired of jumping with fear anytime something caused the bushes and trees near me to rustle. I desperately needed a shower and wanted to use a toilet that didn’t require me do battle with spiders to use the toilet paper. I was done done as they say here. Of course, we had to sit and wait for mysterious actions to take place before we were able to make our way back to the van. A lot of time is spent in Sierra Leone sitting and waiting for things to happen. Eventually we crossed the river for the last time and made the long hot dry trip back to Makeni. Despite all that did and didn’t happen, it was a worthy adventure.

Later in the week, examining pictures of the river boat ride, we discovered a crocodile. He hid when our boat came by but his place on the river was close enough to the spot where I had been swimming the entire weekend for me to forsake all African rivers in the future.