Lofa & the North-West region of Liberia

Bold red is the journey to Foya which is the farthest point away & then the detour into the Wologisi mountains

Over the past weekends, I have had a mild case of restlessness. I cannot attribute this feeling to any particular reason but it could be the fact that it had been almost three months since my last home leave and there was still a month and a half more to go before the next one. Shuttling between Harbel and Monrovia has also become mundane so perhaps it was a combination of these factors that made me feel as though I wanted to get out of Harbel as well as Monrovia for a bit. The initial plan was to visit a county to the north of Margibi but as I found out later, it did not quite pan out that way.

The taxi driver splashed mud on a motorcycle driver...
at a bridge the motocycle got his revenge by smaking him

Charles Taylor's wife's house

As per the plan we would leave on Friday evening after work and be back before the week begins and the thought was that while we were in Bong, explore the county as much as possible and possibly hike around. Stocking supplies before any visit to the interiors of Liberia is a must since; for save a few towns here and there most of Liberia and especially the interiors don’t have ready availability of basic supplies. We loaded our pickup with all essentials for the trip like food, fuel, water, cutlass (machete), heavy duty torch and a sleeping bag just in case.

Abu, Me & Augustin

My statement to the Commissioner

The destination was Gbarnga, the capital of Bong County and along the way we passed the small town of Gbatala where Charles Taylor’s son, Chuckie Taylor trained his militia and a little further along the road we passed his wife’s mansion where she was reported to have a private zoo. Infact, Gbarnga was the base of Charles Taylor’s operations during the conflict years in Liberia. Upon reaching Gbarnga, I quickly found out that Bong County did not have a great deal to offer. It did have a waterfall but May being the start of the rainy season; it was not the best time to see it with low water levels. Additionally, it could be done in a day so I looked up at other options including the bordering counties.

Climbing the hill

Bong is surrounded by the counties of Margibi, Grand Bassa, Gbarpolu, Nimba and Lofa. I had recently been to Grand Bassa so it along with Margibi it was not an option. Having already driven through Nimba, it was less appealing. Perhaps someday I will go back there again but not this time. That left Gbarpolu and Lofa as the two remaining options. Gbarpolu as a county was oblivious to me until then so I discounted it not because it was less appealing but probably because I didn’t know a lot about it. That left Lofa as the only viable option. Additional, one of the drivers, Abu, is from the Mandingo tribe which has a significant presence in Lofa so we had someone who knew the county and its people. A quick call to check-in with our Security Operations Manager and we were off.

Tasted like cloves

Some fruit...unique taste and texture

We wanted to cover most of Lofa in a short amount of time which meant that we headed to a small town called as Foya which is at the North-Western tip of the country surrounded by Guinea to the North and Sierra Leone to the West. Before we got there we passed through the towns of Zorzor which looked similar to several of Liberia’s interior towns…a small center with a big Ecobank billboard, a fuel station in its central location and few cheap eateries that transform into bars at night.

Glad we did not encounter any snakes :)

Processing Palm Oil

The road from Gbarnga to Zorzor though not paved with coal tar, was in decent condition. The possible reason for this could be that the President was scheduled to visit Voinjama, the capital of Lofa, for her Independence Day celebration on July 26th. Interestingly, her policy of celebrating each year’s independence day in a different county not only allows her to interact with her subjects personally but also brings some infrastructure improvements such and these roads, the quality and durability of them notwithstanding.

Slashing my way through the bush

This is how the hunters get their water in the forest

The road from Voinjama towards Foya however was in a pretty bad shape and unlike the road to Maryland where the wetness of the road was an issue, this time the road was extremely bumpy and bone jarring since the mud layer was long eroded exposing chucks of uneven laterite. It seemed as though a lot of time had passed since the road was last graded.

Something to remember the long grass by

No...its not blood. Just a medicinal plant with that color

My main intention of going to Foya was to see the Foya Forest Reserve which is proposed to become a Trans-boundary National Forest between the Foya forest in Liberia and the Gola forest in Sierra Leone but, accessing it was not as easy as I thought…perhaps I was too naïve to think that I could just go there like that.

Another medicinal plant...lotus shaped

Unknown (to me) species of Butterfly

To visit anywhere in Foya, I had to get the necessary permissions, first from the Permanent Chief who is the leader of all the tribal chiefs in that region, then I had to meet the Superintendent of that region and finally had to pay a visit to the Commissioner. Interestingly the Superintendent and the Commissioner are appointed by the government but the Permanent Chief is elected by the various tribes in the region. To all these respected gentlemen I had to clearly explain my purpose of visit.

I also had to write a formal statement describing my purpose of visit and what and how I intend to give back to the region. Time consuming as it was, I believe it was a novel experience and consider it totally acceptable that I had to get their permissions as I was visiting their land. Had I visited any place there without the necessary permissions, the word would have spread around and I could have been in trouble as it could be considered a serious case of intrusion on their lands and properties.

Market in Foya

The Commissioner also requested that an amateur reporter from the local radio station accompany me along with 3 guides so they could document my visit. I got a feeling that not a lot of people visited this place and even though they were protective (rightly so as a lot of people could come to exploit their land under the guise of mining, etc) of their land they wanted the outside world to know about them.

Kissi woman...notice the tatoo on lower lip, forehead & cheeks

We first climbed a hill seemingly made of a single gigantic rock on the outskirts of the town and then proceeded to hike around in the thick bush where I was introduced to several medicinal plants, sacred sacrificial sites of the Kissi tribe, and witnessing palm oil processing in the bush. The bush was so dense that we had to clear it with our machete along the way and had to be careful to avoid cuts and lacerations since it seemed as though every other plant was designed to prevent humans from walking through it. The most notorious of all the plants was the long grass as even the locals preferred to by-pass a thicket of this grass rather than slash their way through it. As flimsy as the grass looked, it was razor sharp and could easily cut through human skin (I still have a scar on my foot as a testament).

A downpour on way from Foya to Voinjama

Even though it was a fantastic experience to hike that day, in hindsight I think I barely scratched the surface. We probably did not even enter the Foya forest reserve and there were several logistical issues we faced. If this region really is to be explored then we needed a lot more time and planning. Moreover, it’s not a typical national park (neither are any of the other parks in Liberia) where one could get a 4 wheel drive and just drive around. Time, planning, camping gear, finding someone who truly knows the jungle, and ability to walk for several hours a day for atleast a couple days is probably a must as this region in my opinion is fairly unexplored. But, it’s that what is so enchanting about it. I really hope one day I can return with better planning and explore this region.