Tags: beach, tourism, Add more tags...,

or Close

Six years ago, a holiday in Sierra Leone would have been unthinkable. But with the civil war behind it and new flights and hotels on the horizon, the West African country is starting to attract adventurous travellers. Clemency Burton-Hill takes an island-hopping tour and falls under the country's spell

Bunce Island

More than 70 years later, Greene's words remain true in many ways. On reaching Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, it is still invariably the squalor that the first-time visitor notices - the poverty, the scarcity of paved roads, the absence of infrastructure - all the unfortunate things that earn the country its place at the bottom of the UN's Human Development Index.

And yet, before long, anybody who ventures to this blighted land will also begin to sense the magic that Greene recalls - a magic borne of light and history and some ineffable, inexplicable beauty of place. With sweeping stretches of perfect white sand nudging the sparkling warm waters of the equatorial Atlantic, and dramatic topography stretching up to Mount Bintumani, it is not hard to see why Sierra Leone was considered the jewel in colonial Britain's West African crown, and why foreign dignitaries and tourists alike once holidayed here in their droves.

But after a brutal civil war sparked by years of misgovernment and economic decline in 1991, it is also easy to see why those same tourists abandoned 'Sweet Salone' when things turned nasty, diverting north to the Gambia or rejecting the restless West African coast altogether. Even now, six years after the long decade of chaos wrought by the Revolutionary United Front ended and Sierra Leone emerged into a peace that holds ever stronger, many people assume it must still be a lawless place where hands are chopped off and AK-toting rebels hang out on street corners.

In fact, Sierra Leone is a tranquil and beautiful place. A mere five-hour flight from London, Freetown is one of Africa's safest capitals: the country recently underwent peaceful, free and fair democratic elections which resulted in the smooth transition to power of the opposition party. The main hazard now facing any tourist is probably malaria rather than crazed machete-wielding child soldiers.

So convinced is the airline BMI of Sierra Leone's potential as a holiday destination that it will shortly take over the non-stop London-Freetown route from UK carrier Astraeus, boosting its schedule to four flights a week.

Bradt Guides will soon release a comprehensive guide to the country (at present, you can only find short chapters within larger West Africa volumes). And along the Sierra Leone peninsula, construction and development is taking place - a sure sign of a hopeful future.

If I were writing of Freetown now, how unnaturally rosy would my picture be, for I begin to remember mainly the sunsets when all the laterite paths turned suddenly for a few minutes the colour of a rose, the old slavers' fort with the cannon lying in the grass, the abandoned railway track with the chickens pecking in and out of the little rotting station, the taste of the first pink gin at six o'clock. I have begun to forget what the visitor noticed so clearly - the squalor...'
Graham Greene, Preface to Second Edition: Journey Without Maps (1946).

Having visited Freetown a number of times for work and been struck by its beauty and its disarmingly friendly people, I was tempted into holidaying there when a friend invited me to go island-hopping off the coast - more exciting, he promised (rightly), than anything that I might find around the Mediterranean.

Sierra Leone's 400km of pristine coastline is dotted with islands: Sherbro is the biggest; the three Banana Islands lie just across from Freetown; Bunce Island, in Freetown's massive natural harbour, is the most developed; and the Turtle Islands are the most unspoilt and also home to several fishing communities. 

Although travelling in Sierra Leone is not for the faint-hearted, it is an experience I would recommend - and repeat - in a heartbeat. Where else in the world can you stroll along 5km of deserted, beautiful beach in the middle of a capital city? Where else can you pitch up on a totally unspoilt tropical island and ask the chief for a bed, waking at sunrise the next morning to fish for black marlin or tarpon? Where else can you canoe alongside pygmy hippos in lush forest with the sounds of endangered Gola Malimbe birds in your ears? Where else can you sit around of an evening and talk to people in the world's poorest country who, beaming at you, will shake their heads and insist: 'Sierra Leone isn't poor.' In these moments - sun setting, waves crashing, fish grilling, hospitality extended - it's hard not to agree with them. In these moments, Sierra Leone feels rich indeed.

Although there will one day be much to see of interest across the country, from the Outamba-Kilimi National Park in the north-west to the diamond regions of the south-east, for the time being, the best way to start exploring the country is to base yourself in the capital and head out to the islands. Getting into Freetown itself is part of the adventure. Commercial airlines fly into the town of Lungi, which is separated from the capital by a grand swathe of the Sierra Leone river, and the options for crossing are by ferry, which is very cheap but takes about an hour, or by helicopter, which will set you back $70 but takes seven minutes and is well worth the extra cost in terms of speed and convenience.