Makeni

Makeni is four hours north of Freetown on the main highway, in Sierra Leone’s Northern Province, and it sits at the junction of several routes going deeper into the country. It’s a city that sees more passing-through than staying, which accounts for the somewhat surprised quality of the welcome I received at my guesthouse — not unwelcome, just genuinely uncertain why anyone would pick Makeni as a destination rather than a waypoint.

I had two reasons: the market, and the hills to the northeast.

The City and Its Market

Makeni’s central market is a proper northern market — groundnuts in particular abundance (the north is groundnut country), kola nuts traded with a seriousness that reflects their social currency, cattle passing through from the Fula herdsmen who move livestock down from Guinea. The poda-poda station at the market edge is controlled chaos in the specific way of West African transport hubs: vehicles going in multiple directions, young men calling out destinations, bags tied to roof racks with a confidence I found inspiring.

I wandered the market for two mornings and was, on the second morning, invited to have tea by a groundnut trader named Sorie who occupied a stall near the fabric section. The tea was ataya — Chinese gunpowder green tea brewed in a small pot and poured from height to produce foam, served in tiny glasses, drunk sweet and strong. Three rounds is the expected number; leaving before the third glass is rude. I did not leave before the third glass. We talked about the price of groundnuts, the university on the hill, and the quality of recent rains with equal thoroughness.

Bintumani and the Loma Mountains

Mount Bintumani, at 1948 meters, is the highest point in Sierra Leone and rises from the Loma Mountains about eighty kilometers northeast of Makeni. It’s a genuine hiking destination requiring a multi-day commitment — three days up and down, camping on the mountain, a guide who knows the forest trails. The Loma Mansa range that Bintumani anchors is cloud forest at altitude: mossy, cool, often mist-wrapped, with a flora and fauna that differs markedly from the lowland forest.

I didn’t summit. I’d come with the wrong footwear and the wrong timeline, which is a familiar condition. I drove to the trailhead village of Sinsakoro and spent a morning hiking the lower slopes with a local guide named Fode, who showed me chimpanzee nests in the forest, a waterfall on a stream that had carved a small gorge, and a viewpoint from which the mountain above disappeared into cloud. Next time I’m bringing boots and an extra week.

Tingi Hills and the Wara Wara Mountains

Closer to Makeni, the Wara Wara Mountains to the northwest offer accessible day hiking on laterite trails through secondary forest and grassland. The landscape in the north has a different character than the south — drier, more open, the savanna pushing through the forest in seasonal patterns. I walked for half a day through an area of mixed habitat, saw an impressive number of raptors working the thermals, and ate lunch at a village where I was given rice from a pot that had been on the fire since morning.

Evening in Makeni

The university gives Makeni a slightly different evening rhythm from purely market-economy towns. Bars near the campus serve cold beer and reasonably good food; the conversations around me were about things beyond price and logistics. I listened to a table of students argue about West African regional politics with the focused intensity of people who will have to live in the consequences of those politics. This felt important and I didn’t interrupt it.

When to go: November to April for the dry season. The laterite roads to trailheads for Bintumani and the Wara Wara Hills become difficult in heavy rains. The Bintumani hiking window runs roughly December to February, when the mountain is coldest at altitude but the trails are at their most reliable. Avoid the September to October peak rains for any hiking ambitions.