VACATIONING IN GAMBIA AND SENEGAL

    BEACHES, BUMSTERS AND BIRDS

         

 THE GAMBIA



Gambia Birders

In the 24 hours it took me to travel from my doorstep to the resort hotel in Banjul, Gambia, I had touched into seven African countries.  Not only was my departing flight out of Douala, Cameroon three hours late, but an extra stop in Lagos, Nigeria was thrown in for unexplained reasons.  I managed to see the airports of Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Liberia and finally Gambia.  Luckily the airline held the connecting flight for 2 hours so that the dozen of us that needed this flight were able to get on.  The flight over the coastline of West Africa was impressive in that I was viewing hours and hours of white sand beaches.  Along the way were huge rivers creating large deltas dumping into the Atlantic Ocean.  It was green verdant territory, seemingly endless and full of life’s potential.

The Gambia, the smallest continental country in Africa and completely surrounded by Senegal (previously a French colony), is well-touristed by the Brits who had previously been its colonizers.  The country’s borders run up the Gambia River, and the Lonely Planet explains that the borders were determined by how far the British ships could fire cannons onto either side of the shoreline. The short coast-line is made of beautiful white sand beaches and many resorts and hotels, fitting for anyone’s budget.  During the tourist season (dry season), Oct-April, plane loads of tourists are dropped-in every day.  During the rainy season, many places close down, and the local economy goes into scarcity mode for six months.  The people around the tourist industry are well-spoken, friendly, service-oriented, and…hungry.  All of this makes the perfect environment for the culture of the “Bumsters”.

These are the youthful, fit and friendly guys on the beach who are initially offering friendly advice and guidance, to a suggestion for a nightclub, to a proclamation of never-ending love.  It is a kind of industry, with every Local having a story of some friend actually marrying a European woman.  The nightclub/tourist scene is filled with middle-aged white women having the time of their lives with handsome younger Gambian men. Minimally a Gambian man can have a good time dancing and drinking, but the jackpot would be to find a woman who would like to get married and support him (and his immediate and extended family).   It was a scene fraught both with playfulness and desperation.     

Although Gambia is a peaceful country, there is a pall of cautiousness and powerlessness when it comes to politics.  Their current president has been in power since 1994 and he has ruled as an authoritarian during that time. Journalists live in fear and the secret service dampens any type of free speech.  Taxi drivers complain about the rapidly inflated tax rates on gasoline and the ever shrinking income they are able to take home.                                                           

The next leg of my vacation was 5 days and nights up-river on the Gambia.  It was with an organized group and included an entourage of British bird-photographers who had camera lenses longer than my arm – in contrast to pitiful me who had just broken my little Canon Sureshot.  We lived the river life, sleeping in rather large and luxurious tents (complete with shower and flush toilet).  Our days involved excursions on the river to see the 6 hippos, or the multitudes of monkeys and baboons inhabiting the magnificent trees, or the countless extraordinary birds, or a visit to the local village for a “circumcision” ceremony or a drumming lesson.  We were surrounded in peace, birdsongs, timelessness, river-life and stars.  It was truly a get-away.

SENEGAL

Moving from tents back into luxury, I now headed into the Delta of the Saloum River just north over the border into Senegal.  After doing much reading in Lonely Planet and searching on the internet, I chose a hotel with a gorgeous view over the salt-water delta, filled with Mangrove trees and vast blue skies.  I can’t describe it better than the Lonely Planet: “Endless salt and sand plains stretch into the distance and singular baobabs rise from the glistening lands like watchful giants. This gateway to the Sine-Saloum Delta is a zone of shimmering flats, small palm groves, mangrove creeks and lagoons where the river spills artfully into the Atlantic.” There were little day excursions out of the resort, either involving boat trips into the mangroves, or visits to nearby villages. In one village, I saw the compound of a current Peace Corps volunteer – it looked like a pretty ideal set-up. One of the highlights for me was a visit to a 1000 year old Kapok tree (or silk-cotton tree in English).  It was a huge, magnificent, gnarly old Master that could only inspire awe.  The countryside was filled with trees dripping with cashews, avocados, and mangoes. Senegal is noted for its music and one of the traditional stringed instruments is the “kora” (a gourd-like instrument) usually accompanied by a lilting, haunting male voice that “flows like a fluid which irrigates the whole body of society from top to bottom and from ancient history up until the present day.”  As a single woman enjoying a solitary dinner, the kora musician at the resort gave me extra serenades which I was able to soak into every pore. In spite of being surrounded in the luxury of nature, culture and music, it was easy to see that Senegal is quite poor.  Most of the roads were atrocious, the people were in little mud huts, and away from the water, the land was dry and dusty.

After leaving the bubble of beautiful delta and resort life, I made a quickie trip by car to Dakar, the capital city of Senegal and the western most point of continental Africa.  The moment I arrived I met-up with a pre-arranged guide who pushed me onto the ferry just as it was departing for Goree Island.  This is a beautiful island with colonial brick buildings, bougainvillea, narrow alleyways and no cars. Currently the island is a hot-spot of tourism with shops and artists displaying their wares at every turn.  But the most impressive aspect of the island is its history from the Atlantic slave trade. A tour of one of the buildings is led by a guide with heartbreaking stories of the horrors the prisoners endured before they were sent onto the ships that took them on the deadly journey to Brazil and the Caribbean.

Dakar is a city of 2.4 million people and at times it felt like I was in traffic with each one of them.  I booked myself into a B&B outside of town center, run by an American woman who is very helpful in organizing day tours.  But all travels are organized around the traffic (which seems to be pretty much most of the day). I was able to get in a city tour of Dakar, have a visit to Lac Rose (supposedly a rose-hued lake??) and visit a few African art galleries.  I was happy to have seen the city which has many extremely sophisticated aspects including beautiful mosques (90% of the population is Muslim), a magnificent brass statue pointing over the Atlantic, beautiful hotels and large arteries of highways.  Dakar is surrounded by water, so from every hilltop is another astounding view.  My experience of Senegal is mirrored in the words from Lonely Planet, “Senegal presents the paradoxical picture of a nation aiming for the skies yet troubled by severe economic problems. Dakar radiates new prosperity as well as deepening poverty and despair.  While massive infrastructural investment is in progress, global price hikes have pushed large parts of the population deeper into poverty.” 

A BANJUL BIRTHDAY

After three nights in Dakar I returned to Banjul by car and ferry- boat to my now familiar resort hotel.  I was looking forward to a couple more days of doing nothing but walking, swimming and resting on those gorgeous beaches. The time now was close enough to my 60^th birthday that I decided to start celebrating.  It was also full-moon time, so each night was spent on the beach at a delightful restaurant with African drummers setting the mood for a most memorable birthday.  My actual birthday was spent en-route back to Cameroon in Lome, Togo at a wonderful French restaurant where the waiter sang me “Happy Birthday” in two languages.  This was a birthday week never to be forgotten.

Gambia River Life


 



 

Keur Saloum Resort















Banjul Market



Dakar Views

River Taxis