Celebrating The Queen's Birthday

The highlight of this week was our invitation to celebrate the queen’s birthday at the commissioner’s house. We arrived at 6.30pm and signed into the visitor’s book and then made our way to the rear of the house. There were already a lot of guests there we shook hands with the commissioner and his wife and had our picture taken, we were then offered a drink. The other volunteers arrived followed by the VSO staff from the office. The local TV station was filming the event as it was to be shown on TV tomorrow evening. There were some important people there Gambian hierarchy all dressed up in their national costume. As before the food and drink was served by waiters who were constantly refreshing there platters with more canapés. The commissioner did his speech and then around 9 o’clock we left for home.

Farefeni Lumo

We were up bright and early unable to sleep as the room was too hot. We dressed and went out for an early morning walk making our way to the river passing some British colonial buildings and seeing some bird life on route. As we were walking back we met up with Marielle and her sister so walked back to Liz and Peter’s compound with them. We ate a breakfast off omelette and tapalapa cooked by Peter which was very good, it made a change from tapalapa and jam. With the accommodation and evening meal finally much more agreeable we settled up and were back in the jeep at 10 o’clock to cross the river and head back to Farafeni.

The journey took about two hours arriving just before midday. Asking directions to the lumo market we were directed to the outskirts of Farafeni close to the Senegalese border. We followed donkey carts either taking the locals to the lumo or piled high with merchandise. The lumo was very busy with people buying or selling their wares and was much bigger than I expected. A lot of the merchants are a mixture of Gambian, Senegalese, Guineans or Mauritanians. The stalls are laid out in the sandy ground under tarpaulins to give shade from the sun. There were household goods, fabric, jewellery, shoes, clothing, live chickens, vegetables and sacks of food sold by the canful. There were also women sat over pans frying sweet dumplings which are very similar to doughnuts. We spent an hour looking around before heading back to the ferry port. On arrival at the port we had just missed a ferry so had a short wait of thirty minutes which was just enough time to drink a much needed cool lager. Once off the ferry we were picked up by a taxi driver who plays rugby with Paul and were home just before 5 o’clock very dusty and very, very tired. Not having much food in the house or much money Paul called at Omar’s for a takeout meal of chicken stew.

Back To Gambia

We were woken in the early hours of the morning by an animal cry we later discovered it to be a hyena. I felt much better and managed to eat a breakfast of tapalapa and jam and plenty of tea. We left the hotel at 8.30am and headed back towards the reserve gates. On route we kept looking for the evasive lion, unfortunately we didn’t spot any only the usual baboon or warthog crossing the road. On dropping off our guide we headed towards Tambacounda. After an hours drive there was a problem with the jeep, lights on the dashboard for the battery were lighting up, we had to pull over. We all got out of the jeep to stretch our legs and find some shade under some trees. This could be quite bad as we were in the middle of no where with no villages close by and few vehicles on the road. Luckily for us the driver was also a mechanic so after a fifteen minute wait the jeep was restarted and we were back on track.

We made good time arriving at Tambacounda just before midday, this was the route we should have taken on Thursday. Crossing the city we picked up the main road and headed towards the village of Koungheul where we would cross the border back into Gambia. The road proved to be very good and we covered the distance in half the time if only we had known this on Thursday. We arrived at Koungheul and asked directions to which we were sent across country to the border post at Maka-Gouye on route passing little villages and children running out to greet us. With our passports stamped we left Senegal entering Gambia and headed for the village of Wassau.

Wassau Stone Circles

We had decided to stop at Wassau to see what are called the stone circles which is a bit like stone henge. The stone circles are laterite pillars which encircle ancient graves from around 750 AD. Locals come to the site to pray depositing a small rock on top of a circle stone for good luck. I was surprised at how large the area covered and how many erected stones there were, they are also found in other sites throughout the Gambia. Before leaving we looked around the small museum and then got back in the jeep for our short drive to Janjanbureh which is where we will be staying this evening.

Janjanbureh Island

We arrived in good time at 5 o’clock with a short ferry trip to the island and booked into our separate hotels. We then met up at Liz and Peter’s compound with the other new volunteer’s Lucy and Kate who are visiting for the weekend from Soma and Phil for a chat and a much needed cold drink. An hour later we left to shower and change as we were all meeting later for a buffet style evening meal at the hotel. The late nights had finally caught up with Abigail and Bradley so after eating they were quickly settled in bed for the night. We had another couple of drinks before asking for the bill. This proved to be an argumentative time with the manager as they had charged us full price for the children’s meals and were also adding on extra money for the three bedroom room much to our disgust. We paid the bill for food and drinks and finally went to bed with things still unsettled hoping to settle the price of the accommodation in the morning.

Niokola Koba National Park

I was glad when it was time to get up as I had had a very sleepless night, suffering with a headache, stomach cramps and dizziness, as I got up I had to make a rush to the bathroom to be sick. Feeling much better we ate a little breakfast of tapalapa with jam and then set off for the reserve gates. At the park gates we paid our entrance fee and also had to pay for a guide to accompany us within the park. The guide only spoke French and turned out to be a waste of money as our driver spotted more animals.

Unlike Fatala game reserve this was much wilder with lots of trees, undergrowth and savannah grassland we found this much harder to spot the wildlife. We were taken down a bumpy track, cutting its way among the trees to our hotel. The plan was to stop on route if we saw any wildlife. Ten minutes into our journey we saw a large warthog at the side of the road this was to be one of many we would see over the next couple of days. Further along a group of baboons ran across the track then sat and watched us from termite mounds. The track opened out to a waterhole where we stopped to look at a variety of animals, bird’s antelopes, baboons and warthogs.

Simenti Hotel

After a couple of hours we reached the Simenti Hotel within the reserve where we would be staying this evening. We checked in and where shown to our rooms we were pleased when we saw the air conditioning unit on the wall as it was so much hotter up country than down on the coast. The Simenti Hotel was in a lovely position nestled overlooking the river Gambia and consisted of a block of apartments which were quite ugly to look at and much quainter round huts which is where we were staying. I was still not feeling well so I laid on the bed for half an hour until we were to meet up again to go further on into the reserve.

Heleen & Marielle

Hippopotami

Back in the jeep we set off travelling for about an hour to another camp where we ordered lunch feeling so unwell I decided not to order anything. The jeep took us further on into the bush, the guide then stopped the jeep and asked us to follow him on foot to the river Gambia. We climbed down a slight incline to the waters edge. At the river there was the remains of a makeshift bridge which was to enable vehicles to cross to the other side. We looked up and down the river for any wildlife. Paul suddenly spotted in the distance up river some movement, we quickly climbed back into the jeep to go further on. Once at the sight we quietly walked towards the river. I was so ill by now and had to stop on route to be sick yet again which was so embarrassing. As we neared the river there was a clearing where we could see down to the waters edge. This is when we got our first sighting of Hippopotami, there were about ten with their heads just above the water. Occasionally they would disappear and you could see their silhouette only to then resurface for air. Unfortunately I just needed to sit down I managed to find a tree stump in the shade. I was sweating, having severe stomach cramps, feeling sick and very thirsty I just wanted to go back to the hotel. Once back in the jeep Marielle gave me some rehydration tablets which we quickly mixed with water for me to drink. We eventually headed back to the camp for lunch. Whilst the others sat and ate I was given one of the cabins to lie down in and rest. I immediately stripped off to my pants to cool down as I felt so hot. All I wanted was a drink of pop which Paul brought me, I drank this straight away and still needed more. I spent the next hour and a half lying on the bed dozing and drinking a litre of water and another bottle of pop and still I wanted more to drink. Whilst dozing monkeys were busy running about the camp and trees, disturbing leaves which were then falling on the roof of my hut. I was glad when we headed back to our hotel, once there I showered and laid on the bed to try and get some sleep as we were booked on a river boat at 4.30pm.

Lion Campment