Last night, the Mitsubishi L200 pickup truck died. Seems like the oil level got low / head gasket blew / overheated, we aren't sure what happened. But Dan went back and they towed the pickup into Freetown late at night, around 2am. The next morning (today) we tried to get it sorted out. We found a shop / mechanic who said they could replace the engine quickly, but turns out they were scamming us. Eventually they found another shop with more realistic claims and we left the car with them. Meanwhile, we were trying to find a way to get along with just the van. That meant putting 3 more people in the van while still preserving a way to use the van to rescue a broken bike. The guys went to a market and bought some seats for the van and they found a shop to weld them in. This also required trying to get in touch with the van's owner to inform him / ask for permission. We never did reach the owner, but proceeded to modify the van anyway. By the time this was all done, the day had been used up and we decided to spend another night in Freetown.
Sadly we didn't know we were going to lose the day, so I didn't have a chance to go out and explore Freetown. I just hung out in the hotel being ready to go all day.
Next time I'm in Freetown, I'd like to check out the
Sierra Leone Peace Museum
just a block from our hotel. What a missed opportunity. Sierra Leone has had
a complex and violent history
riddled with coups and a civil war which ended only in 2002. The next day, while riding from Freetown towards Guinea, we would
see signs along the road warning of active mine fields.