I had known before arriving that Freetown airport is one of the most remote capital airports in the World. When I got there I was told that the hovercraft and local ferries were not running that day, so I was down to either taking a 10 dollar, 4-6 hour bus ride around or jump in a 40 dollar, one hour speed boat water taxi. With some tough negotiation I thought that I had managed to get a ten dollar discount and a free taxi picking me up at the other side, but when they had taken my bags and I was paying in the end, I was only given one dollar discount and there was noone to pick me up on the other side-I had been fooled and that really made me feel that I was back in West Africa!
Getting in a day before my Dragoman trip was going to start was great, so that I could get to know the group over dinner and drinks in the evening and having a full day to see Freetown the next day.
The nightlife was quite lively, but there was not much more to be seen in town than we managed to do on that day. We had a trip to the national museum and got to see the most famous landmark, the cotton tree that made up a roundabout in the city center. Other than that it was just another West African city with friendly people, lots of noise, smells and impressions. If I had another day I probably would have visited the National Railway Museum and taken a taxi one hour out to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Rehablititation Center.
Some masks of the Kamajors were actually used when thery were fighting the rebels in the 1991-2002 civil war.
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