The Tiwai Trilogy Part 2: On the Island
By David Krueger
The second part of the Tiwai Trilogy talks about the 20 hours we spent on the beautiful Tiwai Island.
Looking back I wish I would have paid more attention to the walk from the river to the Tiwai Island campsite more. It was pretty much the most exploring I would get to do on the Island and the best I would feel (at least after we ate a snack).
After getting off the boat we hurried to the Tiwai Island visitor’s center and met the staff. They were some of the best and nicest people I’ve met in Sierra Leone. They explained the area to us, some activities we could participate in and told us what would be the best time to go exploring for pygmy hippopotamuses.
They told us to discuss our options among ourselves and let them know what we decided we wanted to do. While having a group discussion to plan our next two days we quickly realized we had one big problem: we didn’t have enough money.
We had overshot our estimated budget for the trip pretty much by Sunday night. That wasn’t too bad if we wanted to sleep in the grass that evening and not be able to afford to get home on Monday. We didn’t really want either of those things to happen.
So we were able to negotiate with the staff of Tiwai Island to get a lower price for the campsite for the second night, which saved our trip and made us fall in love with the island even more.
Tiwai Island is incredible. Seriously. Go right now. Well, finish reading the newspaper, then go.
There are nature paths to walk along, a shower and toilette to use and a covered area to cook, eat and hang out under. For sleeping there are tents grouped into campsites. The tents include mattresses and are a lot cleaner than you might expect for being outdoors.
The people working on the island made us feel welcome and at home. We spend our first hour eating (which we hadn’t done for hours) and cautiously walking around a few of the paths.
Before we get too far into this I want to stress something: I’m not really big on camping.
I don’t hate it or anything, I just didn’t do a lot of it growing up. I know how to start a fire, as long as I have a lighter. I also know first aid! I’m really good at putting band aids on bleeding wounds, as long as they’re relatively small.
Fortunately, the tents were already set up for us. I thanked God for this because had the tents not already been erected, we probably wouldn’t have spent that night in them. None of us trusted our abilities to adequately pitch a tent, least of all me.
There were so many options, but our first activity on Tiwai Island was pretty easy to agree upon: eating. We were all very hungry and whipped out some bread, cheese and jam that we had brought with us.
This is another funny story. For some reason we thought we had to bring everything with us to the Island, from water to whisky. We bought hot dogs and pasta for our two dinners, and enough bread to feed the entire YMCA breakfast.
It turns out Tiwai Island has a restaurant somewhere (I didn’t see it) that also serves pasta, as well as favorites like Cassava Leaf. They also have cold beverages, including soft drinks and Star beer. I felt foolish because half of the weight on my back was food and drink-related.
We laughed and decided it was better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. I agree. I’d rather have my choice between the whisky we brought and Star, then have nothing to drink at all. Of course, we had water too. Don’t worry.
After the snack we wandered along some of the trails, careful not to go too far into the forest and get lost. While walking we heard rustling in the bushes which made me a bit uneasy. I had heard there were monkeys, birds and bugs in the forest and I wasn’t sure if they liked Americans and Germans.
On this particular trip I found myself travelling with three Germans, as well as a Sierra Leonean that speaks fluent German. I speak no German but hoped that my last name (Krueger) would make me an honorary German.
Our group explored for a while and then came back to the main center of Tiwai Island, where I got my first ever juggling lesson.
I want that last sentence to really sink in. I came all the way to Salone, and the then travelled all the way to Tiwai Island, where I spent a good ten minutes of my life trying to learn how to juggle. This proves that sometimes you just don’t know what life has planned for you.
It became very apparent that I wasn’t going to be good at juggling, but I was good at one thing: shuffling playing cards. After wowing the group with my skills, we played a few hands before an all too familiar feeling hit.
After a game the two girls with us began to look uneasy. I turned around and there it was: the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. This spider could have eaten the spiders in Kambia and not even been full. I’m not sure “spider” sufficiently describes the creature. Maybe “super spider.”
Just then the power went out, as if on cue. We put one flashlight toward the entrance and another on the super spider, careful to track its movements. One by one we bolted out of the covered area (and right by the spider). Only one of us fell down while this occurred (me).
We decided this would be a good time to eat, and cooked the hot dogs we bought from the supermarket. They were horrible. I mentioned before that one of us (again, me) got very sick during this trip, and I still blame those awful hot dogs for it. The best way to describe the taste is dirt, hot dirt, old dirt and a dirty wind all combined.
I don’t remember what brand the hot dogs were, but if I did rest assured I would warn you all against them forever, because I care (and because nobody should have to eat something like that).
Determined not to let the world’s worst hot dogs ruin our night, we headed back to the tents and got ready for bed. We sat around, sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and I told a bedtime story eerily similar to “The Lion King.”
Eventually, the tent emptied out and one by one we fell asleep.
Well, most of us. I remained awake for most of the night with a stuffed and runny nose. I’m not sure how those two seemingly opposite symptoms occurred at the same time either, but it tends to work that way.
The next day my nose would be the least of my problems.
To be continued…
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