Sunday drive to Robertsport

Today we got out of the city and took a Sunday drive three hours north to Robertsport and its surfing beach.  The roads are washed out from the rainy season, so our 4 wheel-drive was necessary to maneuver through the holes and ruts.  The only problems we had were 'checkpoints' on the way.  One was legitimate, manned by real policemen who wanted to see our passports.  The other two were groups of six or seven young men with logs and rocks in the road to stop traffic.  They wave and motion the cars to stop, they ask for money, then the logs are removed from the road.  At least that's what I imagine they are doing, because we didn't stop.  We were in a 4 wheel drive, remember, so we just gunned it and ran right over their barricades.  It gives one a great thrill to wave at angry youths while running over their money-making venture at 30 mph.

We drove through abandoned rubber plantations, where the jungle has reclaimed the plantation, and rubber trees and vines and palms mix.   New palm oil plantations are going in, where the rubber trees and wild vegetation has been burned and cleared and young palm trees are now planted in rows for miles around.

I first heard of Robertsport from a video on You Tube.  It is a film called Sliding Liberia, and it is about surfing kids that travel around the world looking for the perfect waves.  Check out the trailer on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0eru45CK5Y&feature=related

Before the war, Robertsport was a bigger tourist town than it is now.  Large hotels and public buildings now stand stripped and molding in the vegetation that has reclaimed the sites, but the location of the town is beautiful.

Note the clothes drying on the road

What they have now for tourists are makeshift tent shelters on the beach for the surfers and guests. 

The beach bar is just a lean-to with plastic tables and umbrellas on the beach.  The don't have a menu.  It's water, beer, and whatever they cook that day.  Today was fish, rice and beans.  

The view was fantastic

There were only five or six Westerners surfing and about the same number of local kids surfing with them.  I was the only one on the whole beach who didn't have a swim suit.  My bad.