Tacugama and home.

We went back to Freetown by sandtruck. It was full this time, but sadly we were forced to get off at a police check point (there was a recent traffic accident involving white volunteers and I think they were getting paranoid) so the rest of the trip was in a Poda Poda. We were only away for a day in order to go to the chimpanzee sanctuary at Tacugama.

Chimpanzees (Babu, in Krio) are in danger here as the rainforest (must confess, until we went to the sanctuary I had no idea Sierra Leone had rainforests) has been sorely depleted. Not least of all by the American Embassy (largest compound in the country) which we passed on the way. I would never (dare) suggest foul play had taken place but a few weeks before building commenced, the boundaries for protected areas of rainforest shifted dramatically, leading to a large area of ex-rainforest to be cleared which was promptly build upon.

The sanctuary was fascinating, largely because the chimpanzees are fascinating creatures. Part of the Great Ape family they’re one of our closest cousins in species terms. They’re four times stronger than a man, incredibly intelligent for animals, and a dab hand at rock throwing and climbing (I was envious about how casually they could climb and jump from tree to tree). The rock throwing especially was a treat, particularly because it really scared the two Americans with us, but what I really liked (and it actually feels quite wrong to even type this) was the fights. These broke out periodically (the main pen we got to see were nervous about us for ten minutes, watching us closely and throwing the occasional rock, but soon just got on with their day) and were quickly over but were fantastic, even just listening to the angry chimp screaming was a treat. I tried to video a couple of these, however they tended to break out quite unexpectedly so I only ever really caught the tail end.

We saw much of the rest of the sanctuary, including the feeding of some of the older, wilder chimpanzees. At this point a couple of them really took our presence personally, and hurled a large number of rocks through an electric fence, never got us though. The whole thing felt weirdly like Jurassic Park, not least because of how dangerous chimpanzees can actually be. A number of years ago several escaped, and ended up killing several people, they bit the testicles and ripped an arm off one of the men before they killed him. We also went into one of the ricketiest hides I’ve ever seen to try and see some of them in the trees, sadly no joy there.

The sanctuary is small but impressive, and the people there do good work. It seems they were a minor media hit a number of years back when they looked after a very rare, albino chimpanzee who sadly died very young. There were a few tourist / researcher facilities there (I very much liked the research room) but Tacugama is primarily there for the chimps themselves. They only do tours twice a day, at feeding times, for the rest it’s a closed shop to us tourists.

Rather than stay in Freetown (which can be very, unbelievably noisy at night) we retreated back to Lacca to spend what time we had left there. And that was pretty much it, we spent what time we could there, and then Michael came back to Freetown with me and I pretty much made to leave after packing and saying my goodbyes to Aisling, Amy and a few people there. We managed a final lunch at a place called Bliss he had been banging on about, and admittedly it was very good. I even got a takeaway wrap for the airport. We said our good byes and then he returned to Lacca (curse him) and I began my very slow journey home.

I left for the ferry at half seven, arrived at the airport at half eleven and then had to wait until five thirty for my plane to leave. I don’t mind saying at this point I was at the lowest ebb I can remember in a very, very long time. I’ve never felt that bad leaving a holiday before, and I was incredibly morbid for a large part of it. Smoking a solitary cigar over the side of the ferry. Even trying to cheer myself up didn’t help, I never really realised just how utterly depressing most Motown lyrics are before. Even Sugar Pie Honey Bun by the Four Tops left my feeling almost suicidal.

But I slept for pretty much all of my longest flight (Freetown to Casablanca), helped muchly by the fact the plane was almost empty and I had an entire row of seats to lie upon. When I woke I was in better spirits and spent much of the remainder of the journey bored. I got off at Casablanca and immediately noticed how cold it was, now if you’re in Morocco and find it cold, and you’re coming back to Britain, and it’s March, you know bad things are ahead.

I was bored out of my mind at the airport but wide awake. Eventually we boarded, another, thankfully shorter flight and then I was in London. And it was cold, and I had half a day to kill. To make matters better I find Halifax have put a block on my card because I tried to use it abroad, panic is over when I find my credit card will stretch to an Underground pass. I had sent round the usual texts and Gav was free so spent the afternoon with him, drinking Cranberry Juice (which I craved when abroad, and even the western style supermarkets didn’t stock) and eating in one of his locals and then I was off again. 10pm now and a four hour train journey, which I stupidly sleep for most of, and then a taxi home. It’s ridiculously early, and I’m a bit of a mess as I always am after a day and a half of travelling, but I’m back. And that will have to do for now.