Gambia holiday

Bore alert ! !

Preparing for the journey,

Once the holiday has been booked preparations as to what needs to be taken are made in the form of The List, The List is created on a Excel spreadsheet, I carry The List in my purse and update it as and when I purchase the necessary items – holidaying in a hot place in our winter means that sun protection etc needs to be purchased during our summer, once purchased they go in The Holiday Drawer,  also on The List is enough medical items to stock a small chemist shop – these include : Jungle formula insect repellent, we find the roll-on type is best, Eurax anti itching creams (I’ve tried homeopathic ones and they don’t work quick enough this one works almost instantly) Savlon in case of any scraped legs due to bird watching in forests etc or if  any bites get infected,  Imodium (we call it Bung Up Stuff) to ease any dose of the Banjul Belly, and most importantly Anti Malaria tablets, Gambian mosquitoes carry Malaria and medication must be taken, usually you start taking a couple of days before hand and continue for about a week after returning home, thankfully we only had a couple of mozzie bites but we did get ferociously bitten by ants – the following photo is not for the faint hearted, 

these bites were the result of not applying the Jungle formula before taking an evening boat trip.

We are not the type of people who take a holiday and spend 14 days laying by the pool – each to their own but we like to get out and about and also we are quite keen birdwatchers and of course Ken enjoys fishing, so The List also includes all the stuff in the house that need to take too such as binoculars, cameras (and the chargers), bird guide book, so towards the day of departure armed with The List I have a ‘treasure hunt’ and round up all the items needed and these too go in The Holiday Drawer, finally there may be room for some clothes ! !

Race against the snow

Departure day was approaching and we had two problems, firstly my car was suffering from the need to have a new head gasket and the garage couldn’t fit the repairs in before we went so we were going to have to take the van that Ken uses for transporting his fishing stuff – at least space for the suitcases etc wouldn’t be a issue!

The second problem was that all day on the day before we were due to fly the weather reports were warning of widespread heavy snow, with a 5 ½ hour drive to Gatwick airport we decided to leave early Thursday night.  Because we don’t own a Sat Nav I printed out the directions and became the Co Driver – although I think Ken would have been ok without but at least it gave me something to do. We had got to about Wiltshire on the A303 when the snow started, not very heavy but snow none the less. We got to the offsite car park we use and thankfully the snow had stopped. We now have 6 hours to fill at Gatwick Airport.  Ken went in search of food and coffee I settled down with my Kindle – I had previously loaded about 15 books on to it so I could be sure of having something decent to read. Eventually we were able to check in and head through to the departure area – this excites me because there are Nice Things to buy in the shops, my first purchase was this

  J for no other reason than I like it, also purchased some magazines and a plug  in mosquito repellent thing for in the hotel bedroom.

We are called to go to the departure gate and that is the first time we can see outside and it’s snowing not too heavy though so we are optimistic that we should be able to get off on time, however by the time we are seated on the plane you can hardly see outside and there is a man who appears to be cleaning the wing of the plane with a large hose – the captain told us he was in fact de-icing it then he had to do the other side and finally we could get under way however by the time we had reached the end /start? of the runway the captain came on again and said that the runway needed to be cleared of the snow, about 1 ¼ hours late the plane was finally in the sky and we were saying goodbye to UK and looking forward to a couple of weeks of sun (hmmm will come to that later)

About 6 hours later and nearly 24 hours since we left our house in Cornwall we arrive at the hotel

This is not the best or even one of the best hotels in Gambia, we chose to spend less on the hotel giving us more money to spend on the things we like doing such as fishing in his case and buying stuff in mine, this is a 2.5* hotel by Gambian standards but probably not even 2* by ours, however the rooms are spacious, comfortable and they (most of the time) have hot running water - this bit will be explained in a later blog !

More to follow later (sorry ! )