Misleading Blipfotos (No. 1 in a possible series)

While we are here, a tailor that Izzy knows is going to makes some clothes for the Minx and miniMinx, which meant that our first task on day one was to go down to the market to buy some material from another chap that Izzy knows.

And while I thought we had been fully exposed, last night, to Sierra Leone's traffic, this morning's journey provided a more alarming insight into the unbelievable chaos and mayhem.

Izzy has a keke driver she uses called Dominic, and he picked us up to drive us to the market. The keke is an open-sided three wheeler, with room for the driver in the front, and - just! - three people in the back, and I can testify that one feels fairly exposed as it progresses through the torrent of cars, motorbikes, and other kekes.

And it was liked being in an automotive river, with whirls and eddies of traffic, all sounding their horns and avoiding their brake pedals, but also, thankfully, one another.

The market was amazing, and brought back further memories of Lantau. A tightly packed street, with shops and stalls on either side, and vendors walking up and down, with their goods in baskets balanced on their heads. It was a lot to take in.

So, it was a sensory relief once the material had been purchased from Momoud, and we could make our way to the calm of Crown Bakery for coffee and lunch. After that, Dominic drove us to another market, indoors this time, which, again, was packed with goods and vendors.

Having written all that, I should say that the colours and vibrancy of the markets, combined with the friendliness and cheer of the people, made a discombobulating contrast with the obvious poverty, and Izzy’s details of government corruption, and the difficulties facing aid programmes.

It was quite upsetting, and I was relieved when Izzy and the Minx went off to get their nails done, leaving me to sit and have a beer and a ponder in the bar garden that you can see in my photo, today. (My overall guilt wasn’t helped by the fact that I had access to such a serene setting.)

There were a hundred photos I wanted to take today, including the seafront bar where we had dinner, but it just felt wrong. In the end, this was the only photo I took, all day.