The walk started in deep dark jungle, and then rose up onto grassy plains. Accompanied by a guide and 3 porters (because it's rude not to hire guys to carry your bags. And because we are awfully colonial)
Big cotton tree at camp one. The night before we had unknowingly slept 10 minutes away from camp one. We pitched camp on the path when the forest became too dark to know where we were at 9:30ish.
Our guide, Ali, with the peak of Mt Bintumani in the background. Ali called me John, and he liked that I was from South Africa. Think he liked my beard too. He had big respect for the hard South African men that had been around and defended their village during the war. A common sentiment in Sierra Leone. Go Ex Co. There is some serious irony in those guys earning a good name for white South Africans in West Africa.
Tom, Grant, Jacob, Caleb and Libby at the beacon on the peak.
The beautiful view at the end of the camp two's stream. The site where we shared bread and whiskey on Easter Sunday morning. Have a look at the "Salone Sundays" page to read more about that one: http://grantbridgman.blogspot.com/p/salone.html
I had to throw this picture in. The butterfly's on this mountain were mind-blowing. My favourite was a little white one that had loose ribbon like tassels on the ends of its wings.
Our one porter, Abdul.
The last ascent before the peak. Very cloudy, but not cold. The flora around here had some similarities to the mountain tops in the Western Cape. I even saw some proteas! Was really happy about that.
When we made it to our car at the bottom of the mountain, we couldn't get it to start. So we had to spend an extra night in the village. Here's John looking after us by our fire. While we camped, Caleb missioned back to Kabala and brought back a new battery via motorbike taxi.
We asked for dinner at the village. Here is John's sister cleaning the rice. The groundnuts are nearby ready to be beaten into groundnut stew.
Some awesome kids.
