Wednesday 26th November

Canon Coker’s voice outside our door woke us early on Wednesday.....we were less than pleased.
We leapt out of bed and were soon walking, for there are no cars on Bonthe my friends, south to the local port to witness the morning catch! After this exercise we plodded over to the prison and radio station where we met some of the local bad-boy prisoners, one wielding a machete! A quick stop later and we’d met the local enigmatic DJ, let’s call him DJ cool, and we were off for some late breakfast. By 11 we were off on a boat trip to Manya, a local rural village to the west of Bonthe. A serene boat journey later, and a quick stop to collect some all important duvui and we were in Manya itself. And this was “really” a complete insight into African culture. A village completely isolated from Westernisation. We greeted the local chief, handing over 20 pence to grant us safe passage across his village and then set off across it to reach one of the only beaches on Sherbro Island (where Bonthe is capital.) The journey through the bush under the beating sun took its toll on Parksy’s shoulders, now without a shirt on, his red arms and white chest gave the illusion of him actually wearing a white wife-beater....he wasn’t though....just very burnt. The beach itself was idyllic, but lacking fresh water supply due to the obstruction of an offshore bar, a LOT of manky waste had collected along the water-line. Walking home, our driver, Monsieur Jalloh, leapt a mile at the sight of a snake in the bush, the rest of us being manly just looked on with interest. We spent some further time with the town chief and his coconuts, before setting sail for our temporary home at Bonthe. Once there, the day being late, we felt it was only right to take the time to talk on the Canon’s balcony and before long, some duvui, chat and duvui later and it was that dark time again, time to sleep and prepare for the trip to York Island on Thursday!