Donkeys/Circles/Wishes & a Ferry

We pack up settle the bill (dinners and drinks only) breakfast is same as yesterday this time by candle light instead of torch light! 

The rain has cleared and the day promises to be a very good one weather wise, First obstacle is the local ferry off the island on to the North side (the south side has a bridge over) 

The ferry,

We head off making a couple of stops on the way down, one of the towns we drive through is having their equivalent of a Sunday morning car boot sale the difference being that the car boots are donkey pulled carts, they seem to be packed with all sort of lovely things and I would rather look round the market than do the birding but the blokes don’t seem to share my enthusiasm so birdwatching it is. 

I didn't take either of the above photos, this isn't the actual market but is shows similar.

The second stop is at the town of Wassu to see the stone circles, these are believed to be the burial sites of kings and courtiers and is a bit like our Stonehenge without the druids and with sun !

The small stones on the top of the pillars are put there by visitors and the idea is you place a stone and make a wish, I noticed our guide Famara placed a stone perhaps he wished for more birding clients, Ken too placed a stone I bet his wish was fish related, mine? well it won’t come true if I tell will it??!!

We carried on with a few more birding stops then it was time for lunch, I wasn’t particularly bothered as the time plan was for us to be back in the hotel about 1800hrs and we would eat in the hotel restaurant (but later I will be glad we did have something to eat at lunchtime), however the guys wanted to eat and took us to a local restaurant where Ken and I ordered steak sandwich I wish I’d taken a picture!  If we’d have known we would have ordered one to share it was a full length French stick filled with pieces of steak! ! I shared mine with Famara,  Buba had the Gambia staple of omelette and chips, we had to wait quite a while for the cold drinks probably because they had to go to another shop to get them, but you get used to waiting (although the main wait was yet to come!!)

We pressed on and visited a couple more birding sites by now we have run out of cold water and I’m getting  very hot so I decide enough is enough and with Ken’s agreement we decide to call it a day and head off down to Barra for the ferry to back to Banjul. 

The word used most to describe the Barra/Banjul ferry is chaos, the world and his mother (and his goats) use it, it is the main route up to Senegal and through to Northern Africa so is used by all the commercial trucks and the tourists coaches etc too. None of the following pictures were taken by me, and did not happen while we were there but they give an idea of what it is like ! 

I did see a man loading goats on to the ferry - they were very well  behaved and probably didn't know they were headed for the meat market the following day.

I don't  think our Health and Safety (or the ELFS as I call them) would be too happy with this !

We arrive at Barra at 16.30 switch off the engine, Famara leaves the car saying “I’m off to talk” at the time we had no idea what he meant by this, Ken goes in search of cold drinks returning with nice cold cans of Fanta, the driver says “now we wait” I replied that in the past we had waited 2 hours for this ferry when returning from Senegal.  I had brought my Kindle so I start reading

Every now and then one of us gets out of the car and goes for a bit of a wander, at one point Ken counts that there are about 20 other vehicles in front of us so we hope we will be able to get the first ferry to arrive.  After about 2 hours Famara returns, the driver starts the car and we hurtle forward and I think 'ok that wasn’t too bad we’ll be back in Banjul by 8ish and I can at last get a proper wash' .

We are herded into a holding area and it became apparent that had we stayed in the previous queue there is no way we would have been on the first ferry, the engine is switched off and we start waiting again, I ask when the ferry will be in and am told ‘about 25-30mins, so we wait, 30 minutes come and go and still no sign of the ferry, by now I am seriously pissed off, I’m filthy, tired, and am waiting in the dark next to what Ken described as the worse toilets in the Gambia and judging by the smell I agree, I ask again and am told again the ferry will be 25-30 minutes, another 30 minutes pass and by now even Ken is getting pissed off.  Famara has again disappeared (probably fed up with my constantly asking what is happening) a  body appears at the car door and dialogue ensues, it turns out that when the ferry turns up Famara, Ken and me will go across as foot passengers and Buba will stay with the car and if he can’t get on the same ferry as us he will stay with the car and get the first ferry the following morning (the last ferry leave Barra at 8pm) I’m not happy with this but see the logic, Ken gives Buba 200 Dalalsi to get some food and drink but anyway the ferry still hasn’t turned up so it may be that we all end up spending the night enjoying the bright lights of Barra.

It is now getting dark and the time the mozzies come alive so we start applying the Jungle Formula and notice that we are both itching we have been bitten all over by flies on the boat trip last night, great, I'm now filthy, tired and itching (and no doubt suffering from wine withdrawal as it has been 3 days since I had a glass!)

At about 8.30pm Famara returns saying that we should head down to the ferry which had finally turned up, we say goodbye to Buba and I feel like we are leaving a comrade in arms on the battlefield.

From our vantage point on the ferry we watch all the vehicles loading but don’t see Buba’s. The ferry eventually leaves and whilst I’m glad to be on the way I feel sad that we’ve left Buba, we are about 2/3 of the way across and Famara shouts that he can see Buba, I feel stupidly pleased to know he had made it (and not because it means we don’t have to take a taxi from Banjul to Cape Point) we make our way over to where Famara saw Buba and when I see just how close to the edge of the ferry Buba’s car is I am nearly poorly -  the tow bar is very nearly overhanging the back of the ferry, I pray that he doesn’t accidentally put the car in reverse when driving off the ferry ! !

10.30pm and  we are back at the hotel I decide it’s too late to shower so we head over to the bar next to the hotel for a restorative Julbrew and glass of wine (or 2 or 3)

I will NEVER EVER use the Barra/BanjulBarra ferry again, any trips in land will be on the South Road from now on.

The next day Ken goes fishing and I spend the day under the shower !