This black and white image is a scan of a photo I took in Liberia in 1984. I have loads more from Liberia up in the loft... somewhere amongst all the boxes!

The photo is of a bus station on the outskirts of Monrovia. I had just returned from a trip to Buchanan where we had loaded a car (VW Beetle) onto a LAMCO freight train bound for Yekepa.

The journey was taken just before I was due to return to Switzerland. I had returned to Monrovia from the isolated station near River Cess to prepare for my journey back to Switzerland.

I was happy to make it to Monrovia unscathed. There had been an attempted coup in Liberia during my stay and lawlessness had ensued. There were gruesome stories of kidnapping, imprisonment and torture.

So I was not happy (to say the least) when June Jackson asked me if I could accompany her husband Tom to Buchanan in his VW. Tom had a heart condition and June was worried for him. She was unable to go as she was clearly very ill herself.

I must have have looked doubtful when she asked me because she pleaded with me. I agreed, but I think I must have hesitated.

Anyway, Tom was a nice chap. On the journey to Buchanan he treated me to a meal in a restaurant... it was very nice. Up at River Cess I had gone to bed very hungry most nights and had lost en enormous amount of weight.

We put the car onto the train (which is actually a story itself) and took the bus back to Monrovia.

Tom and June were killed a few years later whilst driving this car up in Nimba County. (see here also here).

Many of the people I new from Liberia are now dead... killed in that country's civil war.

I'll have to search through my loft for the other photos.