Getting to the airport
on Freetown Blog (Sierra Leone), 03/Dec/2009 12:13, 34 days ago
Freetown has the third largest natural harbour in the World. The city itself is on one side of the harbour, while the airport is way over on the other (think Penarth to Western Super Mare). This is not great if you need to get to the airport as the transport options are not very inspiring - rusty old car ferry, rusty old helicopter, or small water taxi  (a bit hairy if it is dark or rough). However, things are looking up - a new helicopter has recently come into service, which has glass in the windows and individual seats; and a new foot passenger ferry started three days ago.This is all of particular interest to me today, as I need to get over to the airport tonight to meet Laszlo. I have ruled out the car ferry, as even getting to the terminal at the Freetown end can take hours. The passenger ferry fare is half the cost of the helicopter, so about an hour ago, I phoned the ferry office to find out about their schedule and booking arrangements. They just said I should turn up around 2300 tonight and they should be leaving around 2330. This would probably be fine, but it is such a new service that it is difficult to tell whether it is reliable and  I found myself considering a worst case scenario which involved me stuck at midnight in the City Centre, and Laszlo at Lungi airport, facing the scrum in Arrivals on his own. So I have decided to go by helicopter, which leaves from much nearer to where I live. I just hope that I get the one with the windows, and the seats.