The big draw of Outamba-Kilimi National Park are the hippos, specifically the pygmy hippos (though can they be a big draw if they’re so small). In our outline for this safari the plan for the morning had been originally to hike Karangia Hill for the sunrise. But the previous night our intrepid boat captain had told us that the best time to see the hippos was in the morning, so the first part of our full day in the park was instead spent on the river.

It was not a particularly early start. We woke up (for the final time anyway) later than we had expected and then were served a massive breakfast each of us could only really nibble at. Our just-referenced intrepid boat captain Mohamed had said the best time to set out was at 8, and so at the appointed hour we got into the very sturdy fiberglass craft (courtesy of Tacugama) and set off. It reminded me of the boat trip to Aguateca, but much less speedy. It was very pleasant though. We just cruised along the river admiring the sights. Along the way we passed a camp where a local family had set up for a while to fish, and saw some birds and admired the trees.

Eventually we came to the spot where the hippos were and shut off the engine. They looked like hippos I suppose. There were at least five of them, occasionally putting their eyes and ears and nose above the water and giving us a hard look, in the way that hippos do. In return, we stared back. Our guide told us these were regular hippos instead of pygmy hippos. They looked pretty small to me but upon review of various photos online I suppose the pygmy hippos have more rounded and less angular faces.

This was a very peaceful time. Our boat captain shut the engine off so we just drifted in the very slow-moving river, repositioning only occasionally. We stayed for a long time. The most harrowing moment was when it seemed like one of the hippos was moving slightly toward us, but the game of chicken ended still quite some distance away. As we got comfortable with the pod eventually we spotted that there was a baby among them, who would pop up only briefly behind another hippo which I assume was its mother. As we admired the hippos other wildlife would make an appearance, with a pair of I think fish eagles swooping down and the trees along the river bank being shaken by monkeys.

Eventually we turned around and head back up river, puttering back past the fishing village and keeping an eye out for more birds. But like the monkeys the birds eventually came to us. As we were lounging during the afternoon back in camp some green turacos started flitting about the treetops in camp. These are gorgeous birds and were great to admire via binoculars.

Our final scheduled event was another forest walk, with the same ranger that took us on the previous one. Although we hadn’t hiked Karangia Hill in the morning, we were rather wiped from all our relaxing, so at the time I was fine with not hiking it. Looking back, I would have maintained the schedule as outlined on the website, with the Hill hike in the morning and hippo boat ride in the afternoon. Though I have heard of other visitors not seeing any hippos in the afternoon, so perhaps if you stay only two nights hippos and the hill are an either/or thing.

The forest walk though was still pretty great. We didn’t actually do much forest hiking. Instead the ranger took us through the nearby gardens and fields. As we were driving into the park we had passed several rice paddies and other gardens and I had really wanted to get a closer look, and now here we were. After all I love integrated farming and they were integrating this farming in spades (or with spades I guess). Although the garden the ranger took us to was specifically the garden of one of the other rangers, the stretch of land around and outside the park is where the local village does their food production. My super amazing wife was particularly interested in all the goings-on. We saw oil palm seedlings in polypots and rice that was about ready to be transplanted, along with pineapple and sweet potato and cassava. The rice paddies were surrounded by fruit trees and it was entrancing to see the layout of the different food systems, from the rice nurseries down in the “swamp” (the broad and low stream), fruit trees next to that, tree nurseries and sweet potatoes along the banks, and finally highest up the cassava fields and “local beans.” Gorgeous, all of it.

And with that, our last scheduled event was over. Our VSL guide had spent the time while we were on the forest walk buying a fish to replace the one he had bought in Makeni; apparently he had not secured it the night before and a civet had made off with it (I had wondered what that sound was). But dinner was great and the evening spent reading once again by flashlight. The next morning we had breakfast and set off soon after, enjoying the air conditioning in the car as we reversed our journey from two days before, arriving home in the early afternoon.

Overall, it was a good time, despite all the bug bites. As far as safaris go, it was pretty hokey; the boat ride to see the hippos was the best part, though probably not worth the drive from Freetown. The VSL team was pretty great and made everything run smoothly, and all we had to do was try to eat the massive meals they had prepared for us. For OKNP, I think a serious safari-goer would be better served by trying to get a more adventurous tour company to put together some sort of trek into the park itself. The rangers, after all, do treks into the park, and they enthusiastically explained all the great wildlife inside the park which you couldn’t see from just skirting its edges, like we did. Sierra Leone is just a tough place to travel in many ways, and I am very glad to have gotten upcountry to see such a gorgeous place, but luxury it ain’t.