Sierra Leone: Free at last

On the pristine sands of Freetown's expansive beaches, there's a smattering of bikini-clad Europeans lapping up the African sun. If this were Tunisia, Morocco or even the Ivory Coast there might be little else to say. But in Sierra Leone it is a sight few people thought they would ever witness again. The country's brutal civil war, characterised by the mutilation of the arms and legs of innocent civilians, left 50,000 dead. Millions more have had their lives uprooted as rebel soldiers, high on drugs and alcohol, battled it out with government troops in a conflict many believed would never end. At the height of the killings the Foreign Office warned Britons to stay away.

But now the British government has revised its advice, declaring most of Sierra Leone to be "trouble-free". This has prompted tour operators to start to advertise the country as an adventure holiday destination of a lifetime in the hope of attracting back the 30,000 or so mostly British and French visitors who used to visit Sierra Leone each year before the war. Most of the sun-worshippers lying on the Freetown beach work for the international charities that have been helping to put the country back on its feet. But one or two are genuine holidaymakers taking full advantage of a tropical paradise that is just six hours flying time away from Britain.

There are now scheduled routes operated by Astraeus and Bellview airlines from London to Freetown with flights three times a week. These flights, which cost around £500, have helped to open up the country to people looking for something a bit more challenging than a fortnight in a holiday complex on one of the Canary Islands.

This challenge begins on arrival at the city's Lungi airport, where disembarking passengers must confront the unique geography of the Freetown peninsula. The fastest way to cross the stretch of water that separates the airport from its city is by helicopter - a journey of just 10 minutes. But a conversation with any of the local travellers will tell you that these former Ukrainian naval helicopters were built nearly 40 years ago and have a questionable record of mechanical reliability.

An alternative is a British-built hovercraft, owned by Diamond Airlines, which is equally prone to mechanical failures but takes 42 hours to sink whereas a downed helicopter is only expected to remain afloat for a couple of minutes. The third option is the ferry, the cheapest alternative at just $2 (£1.15); but so unreliable it can take 12 hours to complete the round trip from airport to hotel. Those who choose the helicopter ($40 one-way) will have already embraced the spirit needed to get the best out of Sierra Leone.

Once safely ensconced in Aberdeen, the unlikely name of the most affluent part of the city, tourists can begin to explore Freetown. First stop should be the famous cotton tree that dominates the square in the city centre. No one knows how old the tree is, but the first reference to it is in 1787, when the first group of settlers from Britain, mostly former slaves, established themselves on the peninsula. It was mentioned again in 1792 when a group of former American slaves, who had gained their freedom by fighting with the British in the American War of Independence, joined the settlement and gave it the name Freetown. They gathered under the cotton tree, praising God for their liberation. Today the tree is home to a colony of fruit bats whose protection is guaranteed because the people believe they represent the souls of the dead citizens of Freetown. Even during the recent civil war when the rebel soldiers entered the city and blew up the government building they were careful not to harm a single bat.

The steep mountainsides surrounding the city mean that most of the commerce and trading activities are funnelled into the flat-lying area of the peninsula. By mid-afternoon the main roads in and around Freetown are usually gridlocked, adding to the visitor's sense of claustrophobia. The best way to escape the city's bustling heat is to head out to one of the many islands that lie scattered off Sierra Leone's 502km of coastline.

The nearest to Freetown is Banana Island, once home to a group of British missionaries, and now a favourite with adventurous tourists who are prepared to negotiate a price for a one-hour canoe trip. It is an excellent base for scuba diving and snorkelling among the dolphins and rich variety of brightly coloured fish. You can also catch a glimpse ofone of the world's most endangered creatures, the leatherback sea turtle.

Banana Island's churches and well-kept graves are all that remain of the Victorian missionary presence, a reminder of how this country came into being. British philanthropists chose this part of West Africa to realise their dream of providing freed slaves with a safe homeland. By agreement with a local chief of the Temne tribe, known to the British as King Tom, 32km of hilly coast were secured for this purpose. Between the mouths of two notorious slaving rivers, the Sierra Leone and the Sherbro, the first naval ships arrived carrying 331 freed slaves and, with less philanthropic purpose, 60 white London prostitutes. The experiment got off to a disastrous start. Half the settlers died in the first year. Several of the freed slaves opted for a prosperous new life working for local slave traders. And King Tom's successor, King Jemmy, attacked and burned the settlement in 1789. But it was later rebuilt on a new site and given the name Freetown. Over the next 50 years, the British landed some 70,000 freed slaves.

Sierra Leone remained a British colony until it won independence in 1961. Even today there are 50,000 Sierra Leoneans living in London and UK visitors will find the * * country strangely familiar. The clocks are set to Greenwich Mean Time so there is no need to adjust your watch on arrival. Red postboxes bearing the Regina insignia pop up all over Freetown and even in the bigger regional towns hundreds of kilometres away. The electrical sockets rely on the same three-pin plugs as in Britain.

Many of the capital's roads are named after London streets, while the towns outside the capital - Wellington, Waterloo, Hastings - have a very familiar historical ring to them. Unsurprisingly, the official language is English but most people speak a Creole dialect that is impossible to understand unless spoken very slowly.

Freetown is also the setting of Graham Greene's famous novel, The Heart of the Matter. He travelled to Sierra Leone in 1942 and was stationed there for most of the war, working for British intelligence. The novel, published in 1948, explores the moral downfall of an adulterous British diplomat. Some of the themes developed by Greene are evident in Sierra Leone today. The profiteers from the country's diamond industry still hold sway in many parts of the country, while corruption among the ruling elite remains a problem: western countries have pumped £300m of aid into the country in the past three years and British civil servants working with the government acknowledge that a proportion of this has moved "sideways".

For the holidaymaker this is of little concern as the pound, even with a tourist surcharge, goes a lot further than in any other country. Until last year, when it moved up a ranking, Sierra Leone was officially the poorest country on the planet. It means eating out can be very cheap indeed. Freetown has many basic cafés that for 5,000 leones (about £2) offer a meat or fish stew served on a bed of cassava leaves or roots. A smattering of more exclusive - and much more expensive - restaurants, mostly in the Aberdeen district, cater for richer tourists and NGO workers. One such is Alex's Bar on the harbourfront of Man O'War Bay. The eponymous Alex died four years ago but the restaurant continues to be run by his widow Nadia Mileris, who maintains its high standards of service and cuisine. But don't expect to see any black faces eating here. Most days it is full of westerners.

Paddy's Bar, also in Aberdeen, is very popular with western workers. During the civil war it was used as a refuge for diamond smugglers, politicians and rebel commanders who all respected its neutrality. A reminder of Paddy's seedy past are a dozen or so Freetown prostitutes propping up the bar and still making a profitable living from their dealings with western visitors.

Freetown also has a lively nightclub scene. Old Skool, near the President's palace, is a dance venue owned by the country's most famous footballer. Back in Aberdeen, Lagoonda could be any London nightclub. On the beach along Lumley Road, the youth of Freetown gather outside the bars to pose and chat to the competing sounds of their thumping sports-car stereos. It's hard to believe that just three years ago the night sounds that dominated the city were the bangs of rocket-propelled grenades and bursts of Kalashnikov rifle fire.

TRAVELLER'S GUIDE

GETTING THERE

Astraeus Airlines (01293 568666; www.flyastraeus.com) and Bellview Airlines (020-7372 3770; www.flybellviewair.com) offer direct flights.

STAYING THERE

Hotel Cabenda, 14 Signal Hill Road, Freetown (00 232 22 230 544; www.hotelcabenda.com).

EATING & DRINKING THERE

Alex's Bar (00 232 22 272 957), 64 Cape Road and Paddy's Bar (00 232 22 272 962) Sir Samuel Lewis Road, Aberdeen, Freetown.

FURTHER INFORMATION

British passport-holders require a visa from the Sierra Leone High Commission, 41 Eagle Street, London WC1 4TL (020-7404 0140; www.slhc-uk.org.uk). Sierra Leone Tourist Board, 00 232 22 236 620; www.welcometosierraleone.org

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