Outamba-Kilimi National Park

In Sierra Leone's northwest, the forest opens into something unexpected: Outamba-Kilimi's rolling savanna and wooded hills, cut by the slow Great and Little Scarcies rivers - a landscape more East African postcard than Upper Guinea, and the country's best chance at classic big wildlife. Forest elephants move through in their seasons, hippos hold the river pools reliably, chimpanzees and colobus work the gallery forests, and the birding runs from bee-eaters to fish eagles. The park's modest camp and pirogue trips keep the visiting simple and close to the ground - a savanna safari at walking-and-paddling scale.

History

The area became a game reserve in 1974, chosen for its many chimpanzees, and was gazetted as a national park in October 1995; it is named after Mount Outamba and the River Kilimi (Wikipedia, Outamba-Kilimi National Park).

Highlights

• The hippo pools - the Scarcies rivers' resident herds.
• The savanna hills - grassland Africa in a forest country.
• River pirogue trips - paddled wildlife watching on the slow green water.
• Elephant seasons - forest herds passing through the corridors.

When to go

November to April for passable roads and concentrated wildlife; early and late hours own the sightings. The rains cut access and scatter everything.

What to expect

Facilities are a basic camp and simpler still beyond - self-sufficiency in food, bedding and patience is the model, and the last road tests vehicles. Wildlife is genuinely wild and unevenly seen; hippos are the bankable stars. It is a park for travellers who like their safaris unpackaged.

Nearby

Kamakwie, Makeni's junction city and the Guinea border country.

Key facts