Woken up after a poor nights sleep (too hot) by the lovely sound of birds chirping in the many trees and bamboo within the hotel grounds so we decided to get up for breakfast at this stage not realising it was only 6.30am, no wonder we got some funny looks from the hotel staff. Our breakfast consisted of bread; watermelon and paw paw along with the usual few cups of tea.
Decided to familiarize ourselves with the area so headed out in the direction of the beach, after ten minutes the sea came into view, a lovely long stretch of beach fringed by palm trees and the odd run down building. Had our first dip in the water which was very warm but murky from the pounding waves. It wasn’t long before we were met by our first bumster (Gambian hustler) introducing himself as Lamin which means first born in his tribe however he told us everyone knows him as Jonnie Walker. We were made aware of these types of guys usually offering to show you around and then asking for a small payment, however Mr Jonnie Walker ended up being a lovely guy chatting and joking with us and pointing out interesting facts along the way including the vultures which were around the American ambassador’s beach side home. Abigail interrupted us with crying and on looking about realised she had been stung by a very small jellyfish which had been washed up on the beach, to this Jonnie Walker ran off and came back with what smelt like vinegar and we put it on Abi’s leg, by the time we got back to the hotel the pain had gone.
Decided to familiarize ourselves with the area so headed out in the direction of the beach, after ten minutes the sea came into view, a lovely long stretch of beach fringed by palm trees and the odd run down building. Had our first dip in the water which was very warm but murky from the pounding waves. It wasn’t long before we were met by our first bumster (Gambian hustler) introducing himself as Lamin which means first born in his tribe however he told us everyone knows him as Jonnie Walker. We were made aware of these types of guys usually offering to show you around and then asking for a small payment, however Mr Jonnie Walker ended up being a lovely guy chatting and joking with us and pointing out interesting facts along the way including the vultures which were around the American ambassador’s beach side home. Abigail interrupted us with crying and on looking about realised she had been stung by a very small jellyfish which had been washed up on the beach, to this Jonnie Walker ran off and came back with what smelt like vinegar and we put it on Abi’s leg, by the time we got back to the hotel the pain had gone.
Leybato Beach
Had lunch at the hotel which was very good, then as this is the rainy season with August being the worst month the heavens opened and we got to witness our first Gambian tropical thunderstorm which lasted most of the afternoon, unlucky for Paul he had gone to some shops to pick up a few bits and ended up wading through water which was nearly knee deep. Ended the day with a very pleasant evening, dinner included, we were picked up by VSO and taken to the Senegambia Hotel to meet all the other existing volunteers, a mixed bunch of English, Australian, Philipino and Italian all very nice people who passed on some good advice to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment