After an embarrassingly long time we finally went up Leicester Peak!

To be clear it only took us like 30 minutes to walk on up to the top. So that was not embarrassing, but given it is just a 30-minute hike my point is why didn’t we do this earlier? Leicester Peak is, by a significant margin, not the tallest mountain in Sierra Leone’s Western Area. I have only just learned that the honor goes to Pickett Hill at 888 meters above sea level. I had thought it was Sugar Loaf mountain, which of course I previously climbed up, but that seems to only be about 735 meters. Leicester Peak is only about 565 meters. However what it lacks in height it makes up for in proximity, looming over Freetown. Elizabeth Melville in A Residence in Sierra Leone described the mountain as “bleak,” though that seems unfair.

A major part of the reason we had not hiked up Leicester Peak during our time in Sierra Leone is that for much of our time it has been a construction site. The World Bank is leading a tourism development project for the mountain, the main focus of which is the construction of a large viewing platform at the top. This Youtube video shows the site under construction (and welcomes potential vendors). As you can see it is going to be really nice when it is done. It would have been exciting to see it finished, but alas we will have left Sierra Leone before that is the case.

Since the viewing platform is still under construction, we couldn’t actually get to the very tippy-top of the mountain but a major advantage of the project already is that they have paved a very nice road that winds it way around the mountain. It’s got a lovely sidewalk which makes for an easy trip. And although you can’t get quite all the way to the top, the views are lovely nonetheless, the trip up providing a view in every beautiful direction of Sierra Leone.

The photos in this post are in altitude-order, starting at the bottom and proceeding to the top. We did the walk/hike just this past August, so still in the midst of the rainy season. It was sunny when we started though as we reached the top a cloud started rolling in, obstructing our view a bit. Oh well. The biggest impact of the cloud rolling in though is we did get misted on a bit. I have been doing all this reading about Victorian explorers with all their opinions about how intense sun or dampness affects their health and maybe it has affected me. After being slightly dampened by this early afternoon mist the rest of the day I felt weak and hot. Not even a good cuppa put me right. Or maybe I am just more out of shape than I thought, who knows.

Anyways, if you are in Freetown hike or at least drive up Leicester Peak, the views are beautiful. And I am excited to see what sorts of things get installed at the viewing platform. It will be a magnificent sight.