Life's a beach

Libassa Ecolodge outside Monrovia is a popular weekend hangout. This is Mary, our boss lady, and her husband, after we had a day of loafing on a picnic bench munching on chicken shawarma and letting work stress drain away.

Libassa has a network of pools, terraces and a lazy river to rival any water park. Wealthy Liberians commandeer the poolside and by sunset are behaving boisterously. It could be because the pina coladas are sublime. Best she's ever had, claimed Michelle. Even as a food and drink luddite, I had to agree.

The over-consumption continued over dinner, as Michelle and I chatted for hours before retiring to our wooden cabin. With so much travel and periods of unhealthy eating, sometimes I think the only thing that prevents me getting gout is that I'm more of a turkey twizzler and Fanta over foie gras and port kind-of-guy.

Talking to Michelle is never dull. Dinner topics were the benefits of domestic cats (she wildly pro, me largely against), sexting, photography, water retention and receiving death threats in the Central African Republic.