Salone: A Journey Through Sierra Leone

by Seán Ó Floinn

Sierra Leone is synonymous with civil war, child soldiers, blood diamonds and most recently the Ebola virus. Few travellers venture here. Yet there is another side to this West African country and Seán goes off in search of it. His backpack is initially lost, he soon becomes entangled in a public lynching and travels into former rebel territory to wild camp in the jungle, home to monkeys and Africa’s deadliest beast, the hippo.

Seán also visits Chimpanzees undergoing rehabilitation and discovers almost-secluded beaches on the south coast. He meets former combatants, watches amputee footballers, meets ‘Prince William’, sleeps amongst cannibals and discovers the practices of secret societies.

116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2016

Reviews

[Jamie B · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a decent introduction to Sierra Leone, and I liked the travel angle. Some interesting, but brief travel anecdotes. It lacked depth though, and would work better as a blog with pictures rather than a text-only book.

[cat ⋆*｡☆˚ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Left a lot to be desired for a travel journey type of book.
I felt no structure in the text (e.g.: sometimes the story jumps inexplicably through time without notice).
It was funny that the author uses different and chic words to be interpreted as smart but it's too evident the repetition of situations and/or sentences.
Not to mention the use of weird wording that rubbed me off the wrong way. Plus: the coincidence everytime they meet someone that speaks English that character is mostly described as smart/smarter as others.