More ‘Crossing the River’ (see article in April)

Over the last 6 months your chance of crossing the river from the national airport to Freetown without incident was less than 50% in our experience.

This week some friends arrived in the evening from UK on the BMI flight. They took a taxi two miles and boarded the 500 man ferry. They waited over two hours and then the captain announced that there were still spaces for 15 cars in the ferry, and so “it would not leave till the next morning…..unless someone was willing to pay the fares of the empty spaces!” Indeed there was someone with the money and a sick child who couldn’t wait, so my friend was spared the night on a ferry seat.

Two weeks ago other friends who were travelling on to USA, one of them to his wedding in 7 days’ time. They bought tickets for the hovercraft and waited 3 hours to board. After 3 hours, under pressure from 20 passengers the captain announced that “the hovercraft had been damaged in a collision and would not be going.”

So the 20 got into taxis and crossed Freetown to the ferry port. At the port they heard that a president had chartered the ferry. No motor boats were available that night and the only remaining way was a large canoe with an outboard. The waves were rough and it was late, so they came back home. They waited two more days with us until the next available flight.