Robertsport - Part II

Cartwheel with a Liberian sunset

A dugout canoe on the beach

Next day I woke up amid the whole town talking about the pageant from last night. After checking around I found out that the one that I though was the best among them all won. The locals were however sure that the voting was rigged while some suggested that she won due to a wardrobe malfunction (which I managed to catch a glimpse of even with my tired eyes).

Idyllic beach of Robertsport

Giving a shot at surfing

After breakfast I headed to the beach to try surfing. Robertsport is reputed to have the best waves for surfing in the whole of North-West Africa. The waves move sideways which is great for surfing. Personally, it is the most difficult sport I have tried yet. Skiing is fun and it took me a couple times of doing it to be half decent but for surfing I was not able to balance sitting on the board let alone standing on it.

Trying to catch the wave

Paddling is tougher than it looks

With Alfred Lomax

I also struggled mightily catching a wave (the exact moment of being in a wave where the kinetic force of the wave is transferred to your board which in turn propels you). The name of the guy in one of the pictures in Alfred Lomax. He is the 1st professional surfer of Liberia and he featured heavily in a documentary that was made on surfing and Liberia. Here’s more detail on Sliding Liberia. I have not seen it but evidently it’s a fairly decent documentary on Liberia.

Pristine

Before we headed of off Robertsport there were 3 spots that I wanted to check out. One, the actual place where the ocean and the lake meet;

Two, the view of the whole town from a hill top which would have the panoramic view of the junction of the lake and the ocean and finally the drive through the local village center as we exit Robertsport.

At the point where Lake Piso (R) meets the
Atlantic Ocean (L)

We got back home at a decent hour on Sunday but not before a very curious incident. About 20 minutes after leaving Robertsport, we drove past a man carrying a monkey in his hand. I though I was dreaming or something but it soon seemed real as our driver, Alfonso, turned around and we caught up with the guy. I had seen what I had seen…the man carrying a monkey in his hand. The monkey was dead and apparently the man had caught the monkey from the wild with help from his dogs.

Robertsport market beside Lake Piso

Upon further goading, he even showed to us the ground hog that he had caught. Meantime, our driver was in pretty advanced stages of bargaining to buy the monkey from him. He was hoping to present the monkey to his wife and reckoned that she would be very happy and that they would have a feast that night. The last thing I want to do here is stereotype Africa by showing this but for me who loves nature and wildlife, I was left with a very sad but a very sobering feeling.

Thristy

Its very easy for us to see Discovery Channel and National Geography and see how the wildlife is disappearing all around us and have self pity and wonder why people kill wildlife but, the fact of the matter is that people here don’t have the privilege of walking into a store and buying meat either because something like that does not exist here or simply the fact that they cannot afford it domesticated meat.

View of Robertsport from the hill overlooking the town.
The junction of the ocean and the lake can also be seen in background 

At the end of the day, its survival of the fittest and as long as there is poverty and inequality in the world, we will continue to devastate wildlife. But then again, if i only add world peace to the above 2 idealistic scenarios, then i might just come off sounding like a Miss World contestant!

Switching back to reality, I feel the trip was great since we checked out a nice little place which is still relatively untouched by commercialism and not very touristy but there were some sober moments too.

Since visiting Robertsport, I get a better feeling of actually living and experiencing Liberia which now is more to me that just Harbel and Monrovia. Hopefully, with a few more vacation coming up later this year, I hope to check out other places.

The next day, I returned back to office to learn that my friend and colleague that I visited Robertsport had decided to leave the company in search of something better. I wish him the best.

Alphonso and his dinner along
with the hunter who is also selling a cane rat 

Trying to get a closer look. A little cruel to tie the
animal's tail around its own neck so it can be carried easily

Lastly, in about a weeks time I am finally leaving for South Africa (yep…got everything in order) to see the world cup. I hope Diego Maradona does not embarrass Argentina and I get to see them play atleast till the 2nd round. See ya all when I get back at the end of this month.