Easter weekend

It's not every Easter that you get to go away to a beautiful tropical island with friends. But last weekend that is exactly what we did. Banana Island is situated off the southern coast of the Freetown peninsula, around half an hour by boat from the mainland. The full length of the island itself can be walked in around 2 hours. Below shows where the island is in relation to Freetown:

Friday dawned grey and cloudy with a very choppy sea. My stomach does not hold up very well to sea crossings so the small size of our boat (see below), coupled with large waves meant that I was feeling pretty queasy by the time we arrived. My eyes were very firmly fixed on our destination!

As we neared the island, we moved into calmer waters. We began to see the clearness of the water in the bay and were greeted by a small landing beach with many fishing boats.

Our simple guesthouse was situated a 10 minute walk from the landing point. Set in a small cove, the owner, a Greek guy called Gregory, runs the place with a very relaxed, African style. Most days he sets off in his small boat to catch fish for the evening meal which all the guests eat together. The meal times vary hugely depending on when he arrives back with the catch. We learnt to go with the flow! His friendliness and hilarious sense of humour made up for the basic accommodation - when we arrived, there was no running water because termites had chewed through the wooden structure holding the tank. But soon his friend, an indomitable Russian called Harry arrived from the other guest house to sort out the problem!

Our meals were spent overlooking the cove:

There was also the added bonus of a tree house built up above the cove which created a wonderful cool place to sit, read and doze.

On the Saturday, a few of us decided to walk the length of the island - around 2 hours. It is actually made up of 3 small islands interconnected with paths. After about 1 hour we came to the causeway (a raised path of stones) between the two larger islands. Just off the causeway we found the cove below. Completely calm with crystal clear water. Not going in for a dip was not an option, in fact plans of walking to the end of the second island quickly faded when we saw the water. Bliss after a hot, sticky walk through the jungle!

What a wonderful way to spend Easter Saturday! (Below with my friend Deb, a nurse from Australia)

After a relaxed breakfast on Easter Sunday, we worshiped, prayed and read scripture to celebrate Easter Day in the tree house.

To celebrate Easter I had hollowed out, dyed and filled real eggs with chocolate. Quite a mission bringing them all the way to the island but certainly worth it seeing how delighted everyone was to have a chocolate egg!

Deb and Christoph with their eggs. Below, one of the finished products.

Returning back to the ship with a bump and back to normality is always a little strange especially after such a wonderful, relaxing, reflective weekend with great friends. However we are so lucky to have so many beautiful beaches in Sierra Leone so I hope for many more weekends to come! Happy Easter to you all.