Main Diary Page.  France Days 3 - 6.  Spain Days 7 - 17.
Morocco Days 18 - 45.  Mauritania Days 46 - 55.
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Zambia Days 243 - 259   Malawi Days 260 - 266   Tanzania Days 267 - 281   Kenya Day 282 - 292   Uganda Days 293 - 313   Tanzania Days 314 - 326   most recent entry

Day 61 13.03.05

Arrived at the border by 8.30am and just as well!
The Gambian side decided to search the landy so we had to get most of the stuff out and then pile it all back in. It was very tedious and they still asked for pens!
Further down the road we got our ferry tickets and then were stopped by another customs checkpoint who also had a nose in the back.
To get across the River Gambia to Banjul there are not a lot of choices -no bridges just ferries.
We got to the ferry port at Barra at 10am. It was chaos, choc a block with cars, lorries vans people, stalls, and goats etc. and initially we were directed to 3 different queues. Each change of queue involved manoeuvring amongst everything. Eventually in the right queue we sat there. We were nowhere near the ferry. Every time a ferry came in, about once an hour, the queue would move a bit. However some cars appeared to get priority. 'They work for the government' we were told. This of course meant that we moved forward extremely slowly and the hours ticked by as the temperature rose through the 30s.

We were continually pestered each side by lads who variously asked us to pay their school fees (seriously!), give them things e.g. books or anything else we had, sell them things, buy things from them at outrageously inflated prices, give them our address and also marry our daughter!

Lads at the window-1

Lads at the window-2

Initial aim is to get through the dock gates to the more organised queue beyond. Here we met a lorry driver who had been waiting 4 days already. Because the ferries are small they only let the lorries on occasionally.
We also got talking to a doctor from the hospital in Banjul who was returning from a trip up country running a clinic for villagers who have little access to medical facilities. They even have had problems getting an ambulance with critically ill people through the melee to the next ferry.

7 hours after arriving at the ferry port we made it onto the ferry! Hurray.
Everything drove/walked on together, cars, people and livestock.

Barra ferry-1

Barra ferry-2

A one hour trip across the river. Gave our bottle of water to a family with a crying child who gulped it down and then brought it back up again. However it stopped crying! The other children shared the rest. We were just glad we didn't have small children with us for such a long wait in the sun!
When we reached the other side there was another ferry docked. Our ferry cannoned into it and several people jumped from one ferry to the other . We weren't sure if this was a deliberate way of letting some people off the ferry early!
Eventually we docked and drove off amongst a throng of people. We set the GPS for the recommended campsite and followed it's magic finger!

Sukuta camping was a welcome sight (especially the clean toilets!) after a long hot sticky day.

Days 62 - 66 14.03.05 - 17.03.05

Stayed at camp site.
Have had a very sociable few days at Sekuta camping. It is a great meeting up place for overlanders. A very well run campsite where it is possible to spend hours chatting in the bar! Also had time to have another sort out and free up some more space.

We enjoyed some time with Dr Abubacarr Jah the doctor we had met at Barra and his wife who is a paediatrician at the hospital. He took Thorsten (a German doctor also staying at the campsite) and us on a guided tour round The Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital.

Hospital ward balconies and chapel

Royal Victoria Hospital

This was especially interesting for me as my brother Nigel was born in Banjul (Bathurst). I'm not sure if it was in the hospital. The present chief hospital administrator worked here then!

Chief Hospital Administrator

It was great to meet a lot of the enthusiastic staff at the hospital has which has its own medical student programme with the first students due to graduate soon. They also have training for nurses. They work hard to maintain standards and manage to attract sponsorship to help provide good patient care.

We met more of the family including Dr Jahs brother who runs an IT business out of some impressive offices. He was instrumental in bringing access to the Internet to Gambia. Then it was home to meet more of the family including their 3 children.

Thorsten, Steve and the Jah family

A visit to the crocodile pool was fascinating. The crocodiles seem quite docile and at first it seemed that they were in a pit, but further round there was no barrier between them and us. The pool is reputed to have magical properties to aid fertility.

Hope it's docile

It's got big teeth

The day concluded with a very tasty meal of roast lamb at a local restaurant.

They showed us a video of the work they are doing in the villages. This is a foundation set up by the family which relies on volunteer doctors along with some paid staff going out to rural villages for a weekend. The people in the villages have difficulty accessing services as even if they can find money to pay for transport there probably isn't any.

The doctors liaise with the local medical service and hold clinics which can attract 100 people a day. Also they then run education sessions on health topics. If they come across a high incidence of a particular condition they can inform the public health Dept. Only running since last October they seem to be very successful.
They can ask the people who they diagnose with serious conditions to travel to town for follow up or attend their nearest clinic. The patients are given their own records so other health staff can see the diagnosis. They have an ambulance and take some patients straight to the hospital in Banjul. This excellent service is supported by Gambian sponsors.

Altogether it was an extremely interesting day and we are very grateful for the hospitality.

I have spent a lot of time at the site with Malcolm www.the-nomad.com also www.free-wheelin.net who is travelling south on an Aprilia Pegaso 650cc motorbike. He also has an apple Mac laptop and has been extremely helpful in sorting ours out. He is also very entertaining company!

Catching up with the website

We are heading on next week to explore more of Gambia.

Days 67 - 73 18.03.05 - 24.03.05

Staying at Sekuta camping

Sekuta camping

We have had a very relaxing time here.
It was great to meet Mike and Vivienne who run Harrisons café bar (their chef does an amazing English breakfast).

Mike, Boto and Tutti

They have been so hospitable to us.
After a great night out with them and their friends visiting the Ritz and the Plaza (yes really!) we stayed in their guest room. It was a novelty to sleep in a proper bed with no sand in it!

With Viv on their balcony

We wish them well with the café, which is a relatively new venture for them. It has been interesting to have an insight into setting up a business in Gambia.

We got the Land Rover fixed at John and Dave's Land Rover garage.

Recommended

Getting it fixed

It will be good to have the air conditioning working when the temperature reaches over 40 degrees again. They also finished off the service. Steve had already changed the oil in Mauritania after the 2/52 of dune driving but the sedimentor needed cleaning, the fuel filter replacing, and the tappets checking. We also found some play in the offside front and rear wheel bearings so they were adjusted. Brake pads were fine despite all the Moroccan mountain passes. One of the polybushes on the panhard rod needed replacing. This explained the knock we had developed since Mauritania. Greasing and a general check round ready for the next part of the trip by a very experienced team.
We called in to pick up the landy at lunchtime and joined the staff for the bowl of tasty rice and fish.

Mike and Vivs café is just round the corner down the road from the famous Timbuktu bookshop so you can have a great breakfast and cool drink while waiting for the repairs!

The place to visit if you need anything done on your land rover on the west coast run. 4x4 Service and repair centre, N 13deg 27.847 W016 deg 41.491.

Tutti took Michele to Serukunda market to buy a dress. It was illuminating going with her in the taxis and seeing how much cheaper it was for her paying as we get asked tourist prices when we are on our own.

EJ drove us to Banjul where we saw the sights including the arch

With EJ at the presidential arch

Banjul from the arch

Up the coast from Banjul

and to Albert and Serukunda markets where we haggled for various souvenirs and cooler clothes.

We were with Malcolm and Thorsten. Thorsten is a master at bargaining and can put on a real performance! He flew back to Germany yesterday to continue his medical career and we hope he enjoys wearing all the clothes he bought!

Malcolm and Werner

On the beach in Banjul near the market goods are piled onto pirogues which set off across the river as an alternative to waiting hours for the ferry.

Alternative to the ferry

The beaches here are wonderful, miles of sand and relatively warm sea. Away from the main tourist area there is plenty of room!

Crowded Gambian beach

The beach bars are good. We had one of the best meals, so far, of freshly caught fish at White Vision bar, not far from the campsite.

Fish and chips

If you let them know you will want a meal when you arrive they send the boy up the beach to buy the fish fresh from the fishermen.
While we were eating, 2 dogs made the most of the shade of our beach umbrella!

Beach umbrella takeover

It's time for us to move on now so we will be heading up country and then to Senegal. So probably it will be a while before we can update again.

Days 76 & 77 26.03.05 & 27.03.05

We tore ourselves away from the comfort of Camping Sukuta and travelled up country to Tumani Tenda Eco camp having filled up the tanks with Gambian diesel and the cereal container with muesli from Harry's supermarket!

We had been advised to avoid the south road but the alternative was another encounter with the Barra ferry system and that was a step too far! We had heard of an interesting village encampment only some 40k east on the south road. We had then planned to head south into the Casamance region of Senegal as there had been a peace treaty secured the previous month with the separatists but as it happened we decided to follow the Gambian river further as the next few day's diary will explain.

The threatened "tidy up day" never seemed to happen as we had been warned that the supermarkets, petrol station and roads might have been closed till 1pm by decree of the government when the countryside and roads have to be "cleaned up"! One of the traveller's main difficulties in Africa is distilling the wealth of disinformation to the reveal the simple truth!

We were only able to obtain leaded fuel so the Coleman stove and lantern would just have to suffer.

On arrival at Tunami Tenda we were greeted by a pleasant young man by the name of Seedou who continued to be our guide during the time we were in the camp. He proved to be very knowledgeable about birds encountered on the 2 canoe trips we took in a dugout canoe and about the life of the village during our "village tour".

Seedou and Steve canoeing

Pied kingfisher

Oysters on mangrove roots

We saw about 30 different species of birds and 2 sea otters. The water is still tidal and saltwater so no crocs or hippos.

African data

He also taught us some words of Jolla which proved to be a great amusement to the people of the village. It went something like this:

"Saffin" (good morning)
"Kasumi" (How are you?)
"Kasumi kep" (I am fine)
"Katibo" (how are the people?)
"Kokobo" (They are there)

And after this greeting ritual was repeated to about 50 members of the community, we finally got the hang of it! There was an open licence to take photos.

 
Tumani Tenda village

 
Tumani Tenda villagers

 
Tumani Tenda children

Visit the Pictures page for more village pictures

We even played a game with the some of the lads using cashew nuts which grew on trees round the village. The fruit that grows above the nut has a very pleasant dry taste.

Cashew nuts

The village took the decision to develop their own tourist encampment and avoid external investment and control. They have built a large bar/ restaurant in traditional style where Amie, the cook serves superb buffet style meals. Breakfast, lunch and evening meal for 8 Euros per person. All the earnings from the encampment go to the village and are spent under the guidance of the 5 elders. There is much discussion within families and village members about the management decisions.
As well as the staff, we met Heinz and Angelika with their daughter Judith, who were staying for a week from Germany. Coincidentally, Heinz had been in our home town Norfolk only 2 weeks earlier as part of an exchange visit from Germany.

The following day we met Grant and Kate with their children and their friend Katie and her daughter visiting on holiday from England. Apparently there is a direct flight from Bristol to Banjul. Small world indeed!

We stayed an extra day and left on Easter Monday for George Town, now known as Janjangbureh.

Tumani Tenda sunset

Day 78 28.03.05

Journey to Janjangbureh

'This is a BAD road.' They were right! This was an extreme 4x4 course for about 160 km of the 200 km total. As the locals say, a land rover is a "strong car" and good job too! We have a few more squeaks from the suspension but everything seems intact.

Journey to Janjangbureh

Numerous police checks, every large village has a notice in the road "STOP POLICE". Always pleasant and not a hint at a bribe. Customs were more of a mixed bag!

Bumster hassle

Arrived at about 5pm after a short wait at the ferry where we had the usual bumster hassle although not nearly as aggressive as the infamous Barra.

Ferry

Again locals and signs gave us disinformation in order to shepherd us towards their alternative camp site. However, we had the co-ordinates from "Dutch Courage" (thanks guys again) and ploughed straight on to our chosen destination, Bird Safari Camp.

Nest building

We arrived to a very warm welcome and were offered one of their tents by the riverside to use the shower and toilet but it was no problem to sleep in our own tent under the watchful eye of the night watchman. Again we ate at the restaurant washed down with a very welcome cold Julbrew! Quite a popular spot with British and German birdwatchers as it transpired.

There was a lovely spot to sit down by the river watching the sunset. Surprisingly few mosquitoes at this time of year despite being fresh water although still tidal. (Steve writes this as the one whose legs are not covered in bites) The Crocs and hippos could be seen but we wanted to push on so didn't have time for the 3 hr boat ride.

River Gambia

Day 79 29.03.05

Very good road from George Town but at least 3 police checks in less than 70 km! Another warm welcome from campsite manager Sulayman Jallow at Agasimon traditions camp who served us cold drinks on the balcony overlooking the river ferry crossing.
Very entertaining hour! It was interesting to see 5 cows being swum across the croc infested water tied to a boat!

Ferry crossing

Agasimon traditions camp

Agasimon traditions camp

Sulayman explained that during the wet season the whole camp site had to be moved to an alternative site by the main road due to flooding!
They understand what travellers need here! A cold drink, clean toilets, a good shower, somewhere to wash and dry your clothes, some shade and the offer of a good cooked meal for a reasonable price and the company of 2 very entertaining small boys!

Two small boys and Steve

We now consider it not too hot if the temperature is under 40C. As we move further inland it is getting hotter and it is not possible to do much in the afternoons.
Planning to move on to Senegal tomorrow.