19^th January 2013

It has been many days since our last

confession.

We are still in Senegal but now we are on the southern side which is really a completely different place.  It is a strange arrangement to have a French speaking state that has an English speaking state (The Gambia) running right down the centre. It would seem that it was at one time  a very significant slave port for the colonial traders of all flags. However once Slavery was abolished in Britain, the British bought the port at the mouth of the Gambia River and established it as a haven for freed slaves.

The Gambia is heavily dependent on the tourist industry which is gradually developing with many business’s being owned by Europeans.

As we said in our last blog we were rather crestfallen to find so few fellow overlanders as we move down into rather less developed areas of West Africa. Some of the challenges will be greater and occasionally we would have to travel in areas where civil strife and other hostilities are going on.  We are very happy that we have now linked up with a very pleasant Belgian Couple, Helga and Wautar, who will go as far as Ghana with us, or that is the plan just now.

The area of Senegal that we are in is particularly beautiful. We are currently close to a beautiful beach with a peaceful river leading down to the shore.  It even has the wreck of a ship lying just on the shoreline. And we learn that it may be possible to make the next short leg of our journey by driving along the beach.

Dinners!

While in the Gambia we decided to eat out on occasion. Each was memorable in its own way.

Chez Leo. 

Well we heard a lot about the new hotel that had just opened so we decided to go an give it a try.  We had to drive several km along sandy tracks.  Mmmmm my favourite! Several sets of directions later we found it down near its own bit of beach. We were hungry and Leo’s evidently had aspirations to be posh.  The problem with posh places is that they tend to give small portions. Actually it was very tastefully decorated with no expense spared and the staff were well coached. It turned out that it had been open just 4 days. There were no customers. It had a lovely pool and a beautiful garden leading down to the beach.

We ordered and the staff gave very little information about what was on the menu I think they feared deviating from their script. To say that our waiter was attentive is to say something similar about fly paper. We found ourselves speaking very quietly as he was never more than about 14 inches (330 cm) away. As predicted we had a very well presented meal but we left still hungry and significantly poorer. I forgot to mention that while we were eating Le patron appeared in his swimming trunks as he wandered through the restaurant to take a swim.

Mamas.

This is a well-established restaurant run by a Swiss woman who has a highly recommended pork dinner on Sundays. We turned up with our two new chums from Belgium expecting this to be Sunday lunch The place look great and we went in and sat down to be told that they didn’t serve food until 7pm. This of course meant that we had to go and get something to eat until the evening. So we went and had coffee and cake. This was expensive but it was unreservedly the nicest coffee I have had in weeks, nay months! And the cake was pretty nice too.

Eventually we returned to Mama o find that they had kept our table for us and the pork was actually a spit roast pig that cooked to perfection and served as a buffet with all manner of good stuff. Wow what a meal! Really good!  Memorable, good company and great food,  Ah yes the penny has dropped we had great Pork with some ‘sprouts’.

Jambo Chinese Restaurant.

As we drove down the main street of this district Ping said “There’s a Chinese restaurant!” actually she did this every time we drove past over a period of several days.

So there it was decided we would have a meal there. As we were about to set off another of our friends said you really must go to the restaurant I had dinner at last night it was really fantastic  great food great wine and not expensive. So we said “Nah, its ok we are going to the Chinese restaurant”.

So off we set.  The place was really nice. Pleasant Gambian staff, lots of Chinese coming in to a private Karaoke party. The owners were very pleased to meet us and spoke Chinese with Ping they were charming to us and we were charming to them.  We were introduced to the people in the party and were mercifully not invited to take part in the karaoke. We ordered our food and waited and waited and waited then after about an hour, from time to time someone brought a bowl of soup or a plate of food,  none of which bore any resemblance to what we ordered . The food was truly terrible and came in such a random order that it was really baffling. Finally a plate of steamed greens arrived, but by this time we had lost the will to live but still found it a real struggle to complain as we had been in turn charmed and were charming to the owners. We paid up and went. Oh, I forgot to mention but the food at the party looked wonderful and at intervals The African staff would very pleasantly and politely enquire, “Was your food was lovely?

So there you have it. Eating out in The Gambia.

At the time of departing from the tourist centre of Gambia, we received an email from our friend Emma who told us of a friend of hers who is living in The Gambia. We made contact and set off to visit. However, we really had no idea how far into the country side she lives.  It took us hours to find her place and by the time we arrived there was barely time to be shown around her delightful rural homestead and enjoyed a delicious  Senegalese lunch before we had to set off again.

Snakes

The next day we went to a place that was very highly recommended as an important place to visit. It is known as the ‘Snake Farm’ in fact it is a project run by European whose mission is to protect endangered reptiles and to educate people  about the increasingly rare snakes and reptiles in The Gambia.  To this end, whilst he charges admission, Gambians can visit free.

Many Gambians have poor knowledge of the different types of snake in their country and treat them all as dangerous and will often kill any that show their face. In fact many of the snakes are not venomous even those that are generally very shy.  The Snake farm allows people to handle some of the snakes and teaches about the venomous ones in order to debunk many of the myths.  Some Gambians are also very afraid of  ordinary geckoes  which are of course completely harmless, unless you happen to be a mosquito in which case they are seriously bad news.

Do not disturb

At the snake farm we saw huge monitor lizards, chameleons, we got to handle some smaller snakes, as well as a huge Royal Python  who was about 3 meters long and was really almost too heavy to lift. Quite an experience!  I can now tell the difference between a Python and a Puff Adder. However I hope I never have to.  I have been wrong before. Then on to the border that takes us back into Senegal but this time on the Southern side (Casamance). At last we had a border crossing that was easy, speedy and very pleasant. We went to stay at a very interesting ‘Campement’ deep in the bush. It’s runned by a couple from The Netherlands. This place is particularly interesting as they have made some informal but well established links with the village. It was really possible to walk in the village without feeling that either they or we are being ‘paraded’ in some way. It was really very interesting. As we passed by the tiny school we were invited into the class of 7-10 year olds who it seems were quite excited at having visitors.

My new friend Monty

A short Cycle ride in the bush.......  Taxi!

We also took a couple of bikes along the sandy track to a neighbouring town. Only about 4 km but very hot and hard to ride as the sand was so loose.   We went to the ‘internet café’ which was neither a café,  nor as it turned out did it have internet!  A tiny room with a couple of computers and one plastic chair. We wanted to download our long overdue blog but it turned out that this was just too much for their system  and even replying to emails proved too difficult. Using a French keyboard  on an unspeakably uncomfortable chair in a tiny room covered in dust using a French keyboard that has all the letters jumbled up. In the end Ping decided that she was tired  that we should return with the bikes by taxi.

Ha! The taxis here are called Jakartas as they are motorbikes which are built in Indonesia. So with our bikes strapped across the motor bike and with Ping having never sat on a motorbike before, and with the tracks so sandy it is hard to say upright, off we went. It was an interesting experience.  The riders were remarkably skilled riding often only at walking pace on unstable sand  with a passenger and a bike with absolute confidence.

This really is the frist time Ping has been on a motor bike

The next day we took a long and exhausting walk over the midday period over the field to the coast. It was seriously hot!

On our return we packed up and left Bram and Monique’s Campement and moved further down the coast.  The drive was a bit shorter than some but the temperature outside was 43c and both fans were working hard to circulate the hot air in the cab.

The Joola Disaster

This Location is very important because as we were to learn, The beach  here was the location of the secod worst peacetime Maritime disaster.

We had noticed  as we left The Gambia that there was a small walled cemetery with a sign stating(in French) that it was to commemorate a ship that went down in 2002. We then crossed and travelled to the village where we were to stay. As we approached the village we found another similar cemetery. It stirred a memory in me and I made enquiries and found that this was the wreck of the ferry  ‘JOOLA’  which sank while overloaded taking with her a staggering 1830 souls. Possibly more as many passengers had no tickets and there is no record. So few of the bodies were recovered  that they number about 50 in the two cemeteries. I found this had quite an effect on me this really took place just a few yards from where we were.

Perhaps more important it emegerged that the police and navy  from both The Gambia and Senegal were hopelessly inadequate to respond in a meaningful way to this disaster. In fact local fishermen carried out the rescue in canoes and the official rescue began the next morning.

I suppose that my passion for promoting organised emergency services in developing countries is simply this;  In the west and other developed areas the fact is that if you need help generally help will come. However in areas like this there is often no help for you. For me that is the difference between the rich and poorer nations.   

Joola Disaster 2002

The Esperanto Lodge

We arrived at this most beautiful hotel but were dismayed to find that the only way in for trucks of our size was completely overgrown. So one of the staff cut it back! We are talking about 100 meters of road, one guy with a cutlass / machete in the intense heat. I have never before seen one man work so hard without any comment. When after about two hours we got to the gate we found the roadway was so unstable that we had to use 4x4 low gears and everything we had just to get in.

I had a major sense of humour failure I was tired overheated and cross that I may expect this kind of an adventure as an overlander but surely not just to get into a hotel.  However it was pointed out to me that it is truly beautiful, and it is. I have to say that I was simply unable to see that until the next day when I finally calmed down and cooled down. Lovely place lovely people and superb food. Would absolutely recommend it to anyone who just wants to get away.