Holiday within a holiday

25^th Jan 2013

We are halfway through now and have decided to make a trip in land to Georgetown.  This was discussed with Famara on our first trip out with him, the cost was agreed at £400.00 this covers the cost of car and driver,  accommodation and breakfast for two nights, boat trip up the creek to see (hopefully – see below!) hippos, and the birdwatching trips.

We gave Famara £200.00 in advance so he could arrange the driver & car and it was only as we were sitting outside the hotel at 06.30am on the morning of our agreed departure that we questioned whether we trusted him, of course our fears were unfounded and he duly turned up in a 4 x 4 car and with Buba as our driver for the trip and we were off.

Buba, our driver for the trip to Georgetown

(this photo was taken later - at 0630 it is was still dark)

Georgetown (now named Janjanburgh) is about 300km inland and sits on an island (McCarthy Island) on the Gambia river it was a slave trading post and is the town in the start of Alex Haley's book Roots, today it houses Gambia’s main prison.There are basically two roads ‘in land’ the north road or the south road, as the name suggests the north road is above the river and you cross at Banjul to Barra on the ferry,  we were to take the south road going and the north road back thus leaving the ‘joys’ of the Barra ferry crossing for our return journey. The roads have been upgraded considerably over the years and  it was a pleasant surprise that the road was tarmac all the way to Georgetown with the exception of a few Kms between the towns of Tendaba and Soma (about an hour’s drive)

 Tarmac Road!

We made a few stops on the way and birdwatching including spotting Carmine bee eaters, marabou storks nesting on top of buildings the young were visible too and a pair of Abysinnian Ground Hornbillls prehistoric looking creatures.  Lunch stop was in Soma a very busy town, Ken went off to see what ‘street food’ was available and came back with what we would call a steak baguette but was probably filled with goat rather than beef it cost 25 Dalasi (approx. 50p)  I decided on a cold drink instead and watched a passing sheep/goat devour a hand of bananas that the market trader hadn’t put high enough out of the reach of the animal!

Soma - I didn't take this picture, and it was much much busier when we were there

I Slept in a tent! 

We arrived at the camp at about 5.30pm and were shown to our ‘rooms’ there now follows  words I never thought I would write . .  I was to sleep in a TENT ! The rooms were tents,  however they were semi-rigid structures  not the sort you roll up put in a back pack and head off to a music festival in a muddy field,  ours had a double and single bed, decent pillows, clean sheets and a blanket.  The bathroom was fine, containing sink, shower and compost toilet -  you put sawdust down instead of flushing.  The tent opening has a mosquito net - we weren't bitten at all while in the room.

Tented accommodation, photo from Bird Safari Camp website,

After being on the road for nearly 12 hours Ken was in serious need of a Julbrew (lager brewed in Banjul) so we headed in the direction of the bar only to be told that Julbrew had run out but  not to worry because someone had been sent to fetch  more from the village shop (this is back of beyond in Africa so they don’t have wholesalers etc) so it was Sprite or nothing.  We sat on the pontoon me writing up some diary notes and doing the daily bird list and Ken moaning about the lack of Julbrew (I remind him that during our previous trip to Tendaba a couple of years ago I had NO WINE for FOUR days but this doesn't seem to register) it starts to get dark so we go inside where dinner was to be served, dinner was chicken in sauce with a big mound of rice, some (cold) chips, coleslaw and fried onions with green peppers,  nice enough but far too much for me. Julbrew arrived so a couple were consumed, then it was time for bed.

The view from the Pontoon - it's about 6pm,

The plan for Saturday was that we were to do the boat trip in the morning, then back to the camp for lunch and relax then out to a nearby bird site in the afternoon for birdwatching, however we were going to be thwarted by the weather and the president !

I had woken during the night to sounds of what I thought were insects on the tent roof (still can’t believe I slept in a tent!) however as the noise got heavier and heavier I realised it was RAIN !!! and it continued all night long and into the morning too. Even though the boat had a roof – more usually used as protection from the sun I presume,  we still weren’t happy about taking the trip in the rain so reluctantly (and we’ll come to why later) our guide and driver agreed that we would go to the bird site after breakfast – which was coffee, omelettes and bread and jam served in the dark because lack of sunlight had meant the solar panels weren't working.

We took a walk round the camp grounds first as we could all hear a pearl spotted owlet calling, we didn’t find it but we’ve seen them before anyway, so off we go day 2 of our trip and we get to the main road going towards Basse and have to stop at a police check point, these are regular in Gambia usually the driver is waved on or is asked to produce his licence and documentation then all is ok and off you go, this time however there was quite a bit of dialogue in native language, the outcome being that the last Saturday in each month is Operation Clean The Nation, and means that no vehicles whatsoever are allowed on the roads between the hours of 9am and 1pm (it was nearly 10am) and we had no choice but to turn round back towards the camp.  Buba parked the car up and Famara led us to some scrub land and did some birding, spots included Tawny Eagle, Greater Painted Snipe, Blue breasted kingfisher, Blue cheeked bee eater and little bee eater.

We then headed into  Georgetown itself as Ken wanted to see the slave museum.  We found the museum without much trouble and unearthed the ‘guide’ the museum was the original slave prison where the more troublesome slaves were kept prior to despatching overseas (not going to write anything about slavery there is enough on the web about it sufficient to say the dungeon was not pleasant), a donation to the upkeep was given and we then went on to the bird site we had planned to visit earlier.

It had been raining on and off all morning and I'm wet, dirty and not looking forward to dinner in the dark because there has been no sunlight and the camp runs on solar, and I know the camp has no wine to ease the pain !  The continuing rain and overcast weather  had also put paid to seeing many raptors too, so it was back to the camp for a rest and Julbrew (Sprite for me) before we were to take the boat trip.  We made a MAJOR mistake here, it was still warm so we didn’t bother changing into long trousers which we do every evening so the mozzies can’t get in and nibble, I had lathered on the Jungle formua but Ken didn’t. The boat trip was very nice and lots of birds were spotted but no hippos. There was something that I found odd - because Ken had partaken of  Julbrew he needed to "get rid of it" and went forward to pee over the side of the boat (this isn't what I found unusual!) a couple of minutes later Famara our bird guide does the same, a minute or two later I turn round to speak to the guys 'driving' the boat to see one of them scooping water out of the river and drinking it, I make a comment about "you are drinking that knowing what they just did in it ??!!"  

Then it was back to the camp for dinner which was more chicken, rice, cold chips and coleslaw repetitive but fine by me, and the electric had lasted so no need for the torch. Bed and early start for the trip home tomorrow

African fish eagle taken on the boat trip.

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Next instalment - the journey back to Cape Point - I get annoyed,