Day 10: The Beach

On our final full day in Sierra Leone, even being awoken in the early hours of the morning (9:00) by music outside our rooms felt bittersweet. We later found out that the source of this was a van equipped with multiple speakers to soundtrack a Sunday run club. Whilst this is a very popular activity among locals, we tend to prefer the 30 minute drive in our minibuses rather than running from Ballanta to Lumley Beach. However, I do think a suggestion to Mr Webley should be made to add a soundtracked run club to the senior games options. Today we headed out of central Freetown towards the beach. Luckily the journey was scenic as it was a little longer than planned due to a mixup over our food and a couple of people feeling unwell on the way (although not as unwell as Ellie May, whose symptoms of cough and headache have led her to believe that she has denghi fever, malaria, and several other deadly diseases which may mean she won’t be returning with us back to England). Upon arrival at the beach, many of us found ourselves transported back to the final day at JTR as we once again met our match: spicy rice. Any unpleasant recollections were soon soothed by the sound of crashing waves, and possibly the biggest culture shock of the trip was having a beach with sand instead of pebbles! During our time on the beach, we played intense games of cricket and football with a couple of the local children. It was also nice to actually have a wade in the water (swimming in the sea not allowed in the risk assessment) after singing about it all week. After a rejuvenating couple of hours, we headed back on a shorter but soggier and sandier journey back to the hotel. Following a quick shower we all headed out to some nearby stalls in a desperate attempt to spend the rest of our Leones, which led to some very interesting impulse purchases. I’m sure everyone will pack tonight and not leave it until tomorrow morning in order to minimise stress on our return journey… written by Susie

It feels surreal to say that today we embarked on our final day in Freetown. After a long sleep thanks to our extended lie in, we headed to the breakfast hall for our penultimate African omelets and deep fried banana balls. After a replenishing breakfast, we headed back to our rooms to get our beach bags ready. We then got on the buses and headed outside of Aberdeen along the coast heading south towards Sussex. Our journey was soon delayed after Milo and Oli felt a bit squiffy and had to be taken back to Family Kingdom. 30 minutes later, we arrived at the beach resort. We were surrounded by golden sand, turquoise waters and palm trees, making a lovely change from our local beach. A quick lunch of spicy rice, sweet potatoes and vegetables saw us fit and ready to indulge ourselves in some beach cricket and football. Despite the uneven ground we got in a good set of innings with Musa taking several wickets with his rapid bowling and Harry nearly breaking several windows of the resort with his impressive batting. We then moved on to football and were joined by two locals between the sticks. Another classic game of Sierra Leonean football with Orlando scoring several and Reuben realising he’s not so tekky in deep sand. We then cooled off by dipping our toes in the water as the ‘risk assessment’ said we weren’t allowed to go swimming. However the East-Atlantic swell and steep beach meant there was a vicious shore break giving us a lovely fresh spray. After drying off we got back into the bus and took a shorter journey back to the hotel before a trip to the seaside traders for some hoping to get rid of their Leones and a quick power nap for overs. This was followed by our final dinner at the wonderful Papaya restaurant with trivial pursuit and guess who games being played. The post-dinner evening was spent ensuring no packing would take place tomorrow morning. Overall, the perfect final day to the most amazing week. written by Orlando