Climbing the highest mountain in West Africa

Mountain Bintunami is the highest peak in Sierra Leone and highest between Morroco and Cameroon. The whole surrounding region is mountainous and worth visiting.

If you want to conquer the peak, you would find this page useful.

To take list

Mosquito net. It’s difficult to find one in the village
Water purification tablets. Locals drink water from a stream but you might as well purify it
Warmer clothes. Sleeping at camp 2 at 1,300 m above sea level might be chilly
Power-bank and pre-charged batteries. There is no electricity in the village

Logistics – get in

Take a bus to Kabala from where ever you are in Sierra Leone.
Find motorbike mafia guys who are usually hanging around a central roundabout with a Big Ben like a tower. The spot is next to final stop of your bus from Freetown.
Ask motorcycle drivers for a lift to Sinekoro because you want to climb mountain Bintunami. It’s a 3 hours motorcycle ride so it would cost about 20 USD one way.
Arrange transportation back with motorbike mafia. If you don’t it’s not a disaster. There’s actually mobile connection 30 mins on foot away from the village but you’d need Orange mobile provider. If you don’t, there’s SUV coming to the village to transport goods at unreliable times offering cheaper commute prices compared to bike mafia.

Permits

When you reach Sinekoro village you will be directed to a chief. Talk to him, explain your intentions to climb the mountain and he would charge you about 10 USD. You can negotiate the price, you always get a reply “there is no fixed price, everyone pays differently”.
You would also recommend arranging a guide who would cost about 9 USD per day.
Allow two full days to complete the hike. The guide charges you per night so ideally you have to start in an early morning, sleep at camp 2 and get down next day. Guides are fit, on a daily basis they do manual labour in the heat.
There’s camp 1 and camp 2 on the way to the peak. Both have streams of water running down the hill. There should be a waterfall too.

Prices

Negation is a must. Prices are always higher than they actually are especially for non-material things like permissions.

Here is a summary of asked and paid prices for this trek. In total, we’d reduced prices by 65% compared to asked ones.

	Initially asked price		Paid price
	local leones	GBP	local leones	GBP
Motorbike per person on way in	200000	19.20	180000	17.28
Motorbikes on way out	300000	28.80	200000	19.20
By passing village fee	400000	38.40	150000	14.40
Chief fee	400000	38.40	50000	4.80
Guide per 2 days	800000	76.80	160000	15.36

The Hike

Total hike from Sinekoro village to the peak and back is 29 km. You’d start at 400m above sea level at the village and finish at 1,945m so hike itself is challenging and few parts are very steep.
Parts of the hike are very steep
Your guide might bring a gun to hunt even if a park is called “no hunting park”
Sinekoro village is remote. There’s no running water, electricity and even mobile connection.
Accommodation is free. You could camp anywhere or ask school principal to let you sleep in school.
Other signs worth visiting
- Visit local school
- Visit people working in a fields
- Visit mosque and church
- Shop at a local shop