Visits to Africa never go according to plan and our problems started in Heathrow, the plane was delayed by a couple of hours.  Eventually we landed in Freetown, Sierra Leone to be met by two Commissioners from the Scout HQ. We were taken to the ferry terminal and midnight was seen in the middle of the estuary being serenaded by a minstrel. Eventually we made to Freetown and a taxi took us to a Scout campsite our base for the next few days. The next stop was Kambia on the border and close to the former Base for the West Side Boys. The local Scouts were camping there and this proved good fun. Soon it was time to cross over in to Guinea and its capital Conakry. We were met again by two National Commissioners who helped us get ready for the expedition.

The town of Faranah was chosen as the launch point as this led to the remotest part of the voyage with very few people for many miles. We paid for the construction of a traditional plank canoe by a team of local boat builders, this took only four days before the official launching ceremony. This was attended by about half the town and the Scout Brass Band. 

Although a plank canoe was never going to be fast, it was long enough to go well, after each night on the water we camped on a suitable beach. Either sleeping in mosquito nets or at times just under the stars if conditions allowed.  Almost at once we came across signs of hippo, footprints the size of dinner plates, then the first unmistakable hippo - a large bull, (four ton) all but submerged at a distance of about 400 metres. We looked at each other and the hippo dived, we “tiptoed” past where he had been seen and on to the campsite for the night. 

Just after midnight we were woken by the unmistakable grunt of the hippo – I assume the one we had seen the previous afternoon – it was sitting in the river looking at us. We knew that hippo come ashore at night to graze the Elephant Grass and also that were possibly camped on his get out point! Mike chucked more wood on the fire and he kept his distance although worryingly close at times.

The river was mostly easy to paddle although at times there were rapids and difficult running lines to work out. On one rapid reccy a large Rock Python was seen, it moved off at high speed and the thrown skin of a smaller snake was also found.

After one long stretch of easy water we started to relax although we maintained full hippo watch. All of a sudden we came to a halt – must have hit a rock, I thought, and this was reinforced by the sight of a black shape below the canoe just where I was sitting. Then the back flipped up and Geoff went flying into the water. An unseen hippo had hit us like a submarine launched missile, I turned round to help Geoff back into the canoe and it was clear we were sinking fast. Bailing was ineffective and we had to swim, Mike was looking over my shoulder and spotted the hippo just a few feet away looking at us!  He then swam to the bank to help us get ashore and as we landed I looked over my shoulder to see for the first time the hippo some 50 metres back looking at the problem he had caused. To my mind he represented a malevolent evil destroying, in seconds, years of planning. While we were off loading the canoe I heard a crashing on the riverbank – the hippo had landed a few metres upstream, fortunately he trotted off smartly away from us and into the jungle.

Repair was impossible and we had lost the bailer, so going on was out of the question, therefore should we set off the EPERB rescue beacon or walk out back to the nearest village? Elephant Grass is considered all but impenetrable as it is between 1.5 and 2 metres in height and edged with glass razors, however Geoff and Mike worked out a way based on the fact that both are well over six feet tall. The terrain consisted of Elephant Grass meadows crossed with hippo trails and small copses of trees that were easy to walk between and were good campsites. Naturally we nearly walked into a couple of hippo…. Underfoot the route was crossed by water run off channels that were easy to fall down, the punting poles that came with the canoe were essential to check the ground we were about to put our weight on – although we all fell more than once were remained unhurt and the First Aid Kit unopened.

After four days walking in 100 degrees F and carrying full kit we found a local canoe moored up and then a trail leading to the interior – this was civilisation - six mud huts and a family farm, the worst was over.

Overall although the river part of the expedition was too short at 10 days it packed enough incident to last for months and the month in West Africa enough excitement to last a life time, mind you I am eyeing up a visit to Mali later this year.

There is no doubt that we will be remembered in both countries and we will be maintaining our links into the future. I want to take this opportunity to thanks the county’s Scout Trust and County Team for help, support and encouragement, before, during, and after the expedition. There will be opportunities for the story to be told around the county, in part in support of the Trust for Scouting and in memory of Martin Compton who paddle the 1980 River Niger Expedition.