Sierra Leone wraps up Budapest Bamako rally in Freetown
Africa’s greatest charity car race, Budapest Bamako rally comes to Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone’s President, Dr Julius Maada Bio has welcomed over 700 tourists who completed the Budapest Bamako charity car race in Freetown.
The event which took place at the National Stadium in Freetown on Sunday, February 16, 2020, was attended by dignitaries from all walks of life.
As they drove through the last 89 kilometres to the finish-line, on-lookers watched in awe. Dusty 4*4 jeeps, SUVs, buses, pick-up vans and
motorbikes rode through in rapid succession.
At Masiaka, they were greeted with cultural performances and traditional rites. The best dancers and drummers from the surrounding villages of Masiaka revealed the most tantalizing moves to the admiration of the guests.
The guests in return did the symbolic planting of 2,000 trees to mitigate the effects of climate change and deforestation. They also shared gifts with the less privileged along their route as part of their charity work.
Driving over 8,000 km from Hungary’s capital, Budapest through Slovenia, Italy, France and Spain in Europe then crossing over to Africa through Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea and ending in Sierra Leone was no mean feat. It was a gruelling 17-day journey into the unknown starting from Budapest on January 31, 2020.
Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, the National Tourist Board, Monuments and Relics Commission and Visit Sierra Leone (VSL Tours) couldn’t have collaborated better to bring that event to fruition.
“I hereby proclaimed you all as ambassadors for Sierra Leone tourism. Please share the good news about this destination when you return” remarked Dr Memunatu Pratt, the Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister.
Arguably Sierra Leone’s most successful tourism minister in the recent past, Dr Pratt has been working assiduously to transform the sector and make the country a preferred tourism destination.
President Julius Maada Bio was elated to host the biggest tourism event since his ascension to the seat of power. His promise of diversifying the nation’s economy through tourism was proving to be propitious.
While welcoming the nearly 700 excursionists from over 80 countries, in 210 cars, 52 motorbikes, and 20 trucks and buses, President Bio used the opportunity to share some of the nation’s most exciting touristic and cultural sites that they could enjoy during their stay.
Founder/Coordinator of Budapest Bamako rally, Andrew Szabo was happy for the warm reception and stressed that they chose Sierra Leone because the country was stable and growing steadily following her ugly past.
Chief Executive of VSL Travel, Bimbola Carol, Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh and a host of others made statements. Certificates of completion were presented to each of the 240 teams.
Dubbed the “last great adventure” the Budapest Bamako rally brings close to a million US dollar in charity to Africa. The 13th edition which ended in Sierra Leone in 2020 is the longest epic journey since its inception. The next rally takes place in 2022.
Exhibiting Sierra Leone at the biggest World Travel Market in London
Sierra Leone is set to participate in one of the World’s biggest gathering of the tourism sector, the World Travel Market, London.
World Travel Market London introduces global travel buyers to countries, the biggest destinations and brands in the world. WTM London prides itself on being the hub of travel ideas.
They aim to give sector players, the global travel trade insight into how the industry will look in the next five years, share innovations, and create endless business opportunities over the course of three days.
Sierra Leone was an attractive destination for tourists from across the world but that changed following a decade of civil strife.
The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) led Government of President Julius Maada Bio campaigned to diversify the economy through tourism by improving the policy and legal environment, developing infrastructure, rehabilitating and developing historic and cultural sites, developing skills in tourism and promoting, marketing and improving the international image of Sierra Leone.
Hence the participation in such Exhibitions.
The advantages of participating in these events are manifold.
It gives Sierra Leone an opportunity to engage and connect with her target audience face-to-face. Participating in an event where over 51,000 international travel professionals, from more than 38 sectors of the travel industry are present is no mean feat. It provides an enviable opportunity to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business with key decision-makers in the travel industry.
Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, the National Tourist Board and Monuments and Relics Commission would use this exhibition to position the country as a must-visit destination. Her presence would ensure that it is seen by the people that matter and offer an opportunity to truly stand out as a brand in a place where the travel industry congregates.
By participating in such events, the nation grows her exposure and position her brand as a destination that worth travellers’ attention – there’s no better place than the hub of travel ideas to present that brand.
The competitive edge of showcasing the ecotourism and adventure tourism potentials of this great nation cannot be overemphasized. Our brand presence at the show is significant but we also get an insight into what other businesses and countries are doing.
With the newly launched Visa-on-Arrival facility, the country needs to launch that new product to Tour Operators. WTM London gives the perfect platform to launch any new products people may have in front of a large engaged audience. Create your hype.
The event which runs from the 4th-6th November 2019 takes place at ExCel Exhibition Centre in London. Around 300,000 new business connections are made each year at these events where over 3,000 journalists from around the world are present.
The Telegraph – Is Sierra Leone about to become African tourism’s next big thing?
Sue Watt, Travel Writer
2 September 2019 • 10:20am
With big ears, brown eyes and a nappy wrapped around him, little Caesar has no idea that he represents his homeland. His mother was killed when he was just eight weeks old (he is now aged seven months) and he has since been cared for by a woman called Mama P.
I watch as she holds the baby chimp in her arms, lulling him with soft “Oooh-ooh-ooh” noises. Tenderly, Caesar strokes her face, pulls down her paper mask and raises his hirsute fingers to her lips to be kissed. Caesar’s home is Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone, a country that has had a rough ride of late. The government recently announced that the chimpanzee is to be its national animal, representing the face of wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism for the future.
With a troubled past, this small West African country doesn’t immediately spring to mind as a tourist destination. Its decade-long civil war, fuelled by the diamond industry, ended in 2002 at the cost of 50,000 lives. In 2014, just as the country was recovering – thanks to remarkable reconciliation efforts and a rejuvenated mining industry – Ebola arrived, killing almost 4,000 people. Sierra Leone went into lockdown for two long and lonely years. Then, in 2017, a horrific mudslide struck the capital Freetown, causing around 1,000 deaths. But Sierra Leone, known locally as Sweet Salone, is shaking off the shackles of its grim past: now peaceful and Ebola-free, it deserves a new narrative. 
The chimpanzee is to become the national animal, representing the face of wildlife conservation Credit: GETTY
“Sierra Leone has changed,” George Balassis tells me. He is the general manager of upmarket Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel where I am staying on Lumley Beach, Freetown’s buzzing nightlife strip. “It’s a country that believes in itself now, that’s growing stronger and more confident by the day.”
The country’s revived focus on tourism reflects that new self-belief. Visitor numbers are gradually increasing and new hotels including the Hilton are opening, Silversea cruises are sailing back, and pioneering holiday companies such as Rainbow Tours are returning.
Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, five hours east of Freetown, exemplifies the country’s potential. An idyllic destination for nature lovers, the uninhabited island on the river Moa measures just 4.6 sq miles yet is home to 135 species of birds, around 80 rare pygmy hippos and 11 primate species, one of the highest concentrations in the world, including chimps and Diana monkeys. We are welcomed with warm smiles by the people of Kambama, one of eight neighbouring communities supported by Tiwai.
That afternoon, we explore by kayak as hornbills whoosh past overhead and palm fronds rattle in the breeze. In the stillness, a guide suddenly calls out “Mah-le” in an excited whisper. “Pygmy hippo” our poler translates, rushing us towards the riverbank. Someone in the first kayak sees a backside scurrying into the forest but it’s vanished before we get there. It seems the monkeys have vanished too, save for shadowy figures cavorting in the canopy at dusk.
Kayaking on the Moa Credit: WILL WHITFORD
We stay at Tiwai’s only camp, sleeping on mattresses in dome tents on sheltered platforms. Damaged by storms in 2015, it looks tired but is clean and comfortable, has a solar-powered dining area, hot showers and flushing lavatories.
Next morning, on a dark, pre-dawn walk, guide Kenewa Korma interprets the noises of nature’s alarm clocks. A rolling cackle, like a cranky car revving up, is “black and white colobus saying good morning to each other”. The quiet gulps are red colobus; rapid grunts are sooty mangabeys. And that pungent smell that hits us now and then is simply “monkey aroma”.
As dawn approaches, the rainforest becomes visible – we are walking through bamboo as high as houses, mahoganies, palms and vines, and finally spot monkeys moving in the canopy to sounds like shrieking babies. “That’s the colobus sexing!” Kenewa explains with the noise ascending to a curdling crescendo as the monkey mating reaches its climax.
In dense rainforest, Tiwai’s monkeys can seem elusive despite their high concentration and you probably won’t see pygmy hippos mooching along the riverbank. But the island’s natural beauty, with honey-coloured beaches and towering trees, is truly special.
The Western Peninsula coastline is special too: jungle-clad mountains meet sandy shores in vivid tiers of green, gold and blue. A three-hour drive takes us to Tokeh, lying between Bureh Beach renowned for surfing and the palm-fringed River No 2 Beach, which evoked “the taste of paradise” in Eighties Bounty ads.
“The island’s natural beauty, with honey-coloured beaches and towering trees, is truly special” Credit: GETTY
Our luxury hotel, The Place, has 54 chic chalets, a swimming pool, and a glass-fronted bar and restaurant overlooking the ocean. We amble along the shore, watching children playing football while women balance baskets of bread on their heads and fishermen sail off in wooden dhows. We swim in the warm Atlantic waters, sip chilled wine on sunbeds and dine on fresh lobster, a world away from what most people imagine Sierra Leone to be.
Freetown, an hour away, brings us back to earth. Despite the poverty here – Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries – it’s a vibrant, frenetic and friendly city squashed between forested hills and the sea. Born of freedom in the late 18th century when slaves returned from England, its name evokes its heritage from slave-trade centre to sanctuary.
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Nowhere is the poignancy of the slave trade more evident than on Bunce Island, 40 minutes by motorboat from Freetown. Between 1668 and 1807, around 50,000 men, women and children were incarcerated in this once-imposing fort before leaving for America’s southern states. Neglected for centuries and smothered by vines and strangler figs, the eerie ruin is finally being restored. Our guide brings the past alive, showing us cannons on the ramparts still pointing out to sea, the graveyard with still-legible tombstones of slave masters, the cells where ordinary people, once sold, were branded with red-hot irons. We walk in silence, immersed in the island’s inhumane brutality and haunting melancholy. 
Ruins on Bunce Island Credit: GETTY
In Freetown, we wander past slatted plantation houses on Pademba Road where freed settlers first lived and stand under the 500-year-old Cotton Tree, more than 100ft tall, where slaves prayed under its boughs. Today, fruit bats dangle surreally from branches, their squeals competing with the din of traffic and tuk tuks. We see the worn stone “slave steps” at King Jimmy Wharf, now a manic market selling everything from grains, vegetables and fruit to plastic pots and flip-flops. The city has mellow moments too: back in Lumley, we sip G&Ts at a beach bar listening to smooth reggae as the sun sets.
On our last day, we visit Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary spanning 100 acres of forest near Freetown. Sharing a deep bond with Freetown’s communities, the sanctuary teaches schoolchildren about conservation, offers scholarships and currently employs 40 local people. Founded in 1995, it has endured war and Ebola and today is home to 89 chimps (including that beautiful baby Caesar) orphaned through the illegal bushmeat trade or rescued from captivity.
“We rescued 10 babies last year,” manager Aram Kazandjian explains. “For each one rescued, it’s estimated poachers have killed up to 10 chimps. Sierra Leone has around 5,500 chimpanzees: if we don’t act, they’ll likely be extinct within 10 years.”
In rural areas where chimps are most threatened, Tacugama educates and works with more than 40 communities. It is planning a national ecolodge circuit taking in Loma for West Africa’s highest mountain, Mobondah for rare manatees and Jaibui Island, Tiwai’s neighbour, for those elusive pygmy hippos. And Tacugama Sanctuary itself has six rustic ecolodges with hiking trails, birding tours, jazz nights and yoga retreats. I wish I’d stayed the night here, waking up to chimps’ squeals and birdsong.
The primates live in huge fenced enclosures. As we walk around, one cheeky chimp throws stones at us, then sits by the pond acting all innocent. Nearby, Mortes and Perry groom each other quietly. “Mortes was the alpha male here but Perry has taken over. They’re still friends,” Aram says. “Chimps share 98.6 per cent of human DNA and they show emotions just like us – joy, happiness, I often see them kissing.”
As we leave, we pass Caesar again, still cuddling Mama P. With chimps symbolising the nation’s future, Tacugama has a starring role in the new Sierra Leone. Much like the sanctuary’s homeland and its people, together they have survived the toughest of times but their soul and indomitable spirit shine through.
“Sierra Leone is shaking off the shackles of its grim past. It deserves a new narrative.” Credit: GETTY
How to do it
Rainbow Tours (020 8131 8473; rainbowtours.co.uk) offers an eight-night trip to Sierra Leone with return international flights on Brussels Airlines from £2,795pp sharing. The price includes two nights in Freetown, two nights at Tacugama, two nights at Tiwai Island, one night at Banana Islands, and one night at Tokeh (all on a B&B basis except at Tiwali island, which is full board), plus all transfers and activities including a trip to Bunce Island.
Link to this article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africa/sierra-leone/articles/sierra-leone-tourism-safari-beaches/