The idea for this years holiday was a change of modus opperandi. Stay in one place instead of constantly moving on and take day trips out to view and absorb the surroundings. Keep it low key, a gentle itinerary more suitable for us all.
The Gambia is only 48 kilometres from north to south at the ocean end and 480 kilometres from river mouth to the river end at the border with Senegal. You can see a lot on the coast with little effort. The sea is the Atlantic ocean which means constant ferocious waves that continuously crash down sounding like heavy goods vehicles driving over pot holes. ( just an aside: they put stacks of bricks in the pot holes here , the pile is about a foot high so you have to swerve around them to avoid crashing into them. Could this work in the UK? )
There are bird watching trips, shopping in the famous Seracunda Market , the Roots Island and Jufffre Village where Kunta Kinteh was born and some who "claim"to be his discendents still live and an over night trip to George Town, which would still leave you another 160 odd kilometres to go if you wanted.
We opted for the Roots tour as a taster and enquired about the overnight trip down river.
Alex Hailey the author of Roots and a descendent of Kunta Kinteh has placed this village and the island on the tourist map and given an excuse for a tourist tour .
We caught the ferry from Banjul for a 30 k trip down river, the river is 17 kilometers wide at the start and does narrow a bit but there is very little to see so it is a good chance to chat to other tourist and hear their stories, sitting at the back of the boat as we were we ate mouthfuls of grey fumes spewing out of the engine room.
It was a pretty gruelling trip and I expect everyone would agree that the highlights of the day were getting off our ferry and into the brightly coloured long boat to go ashore on Kunta Kinteh island. It was quite a drop in levels between the ferry and the long boat , we were defineatly one or two too many in the small boat, however we set off towards Kunta Kinteh Island , a distance of approximately 7 or 800 yards.The man sitting opposit me , back to the sea, realised his trousers were getting wet, sure enough there was quite a long narrow crack in the wooden ,I can only describe them as , planks , there is no posh style to the boat building here.It was obvious a previous attempt had been made to repair it with comment!!!! There was quite a steady trickle of water was coming in. The good humoured tourist said it was fine, " I am Dutch, I will just stick my finger in" .
Seeing several bottle nose dolphins swimming near the boat on the homeward run was a free bonus they swam close up to the ferry, so free and joyful.
You might be able to tell the trip, apart from an excellent buffet lunch, left us rather underwhelmed, so for the rest I suggest you shut yourself in a small room, empty the contents of your Hoover bag on the floor , turn a blow heater up high ( facing the dust pile) and look up Kunta Kinte Island on Wikipedia.
Please do not misunderstand me, the slave trade was abhorrent and the small museum did bring it home with the copies of Slave Auction notices and neck irons with 4 pronged cross bars each one about 3 ft long and sticking out at right angles, these were really grim to see. Our guide told us we were not to feel totally responsible for this ugly trade,as the King and other statesmen from here and Senegal were just as much to blame for profiting from a sour and rancid business that caused the death of thousands of West Africans.
The Gambia is only 48 kilometres from north to south at the ocean end and 480 kilometres from river mouth to the river end at the border with Senegal. You can see a lot on the coast with little effort. The sea is the Atlantic ocean which means constant ferocious waves that continuously crash down sounding like heavy goods vehicles driving over pot holes. ( just an aside: they put stacks of bricks in the pot holes here , the pile is about a foot high so you have to swerve around them to avoid crashing into them. Could this work in the UK? )
There are bird watching trips, shopping in the famous Seracunda Market , the Roots Island and Jufffre Village where Kunta Kinteh was born and some who "claim"to be his discendents still live and an over night trip to George Town, which would still leave you another 160 odd kilometres to go if you wanted.
We opted for the Roots tour as a taster and enquired about the overnight trip down river.
Alex Hailey the author of Roots and a descendent of Kunta Kinteh has placed this village and the island on the tourist map and given an excuse for a tourist tour .
We caught the ferry from Banjul for a 30 k trip down river, the river is 17 kilometers wide at the start and does narrow a bit but there is very little to see so it is a good chance to chat to other tourist and hear their stories, sitting at the back of the boat as we were we ate mouthfuls of grey fumes spewing out of the engine room.
It was a pretty gruelling trip and I expect everyone would agree that the highlights of the day were getting off our ferry and into the brightly coloured long boat to go ashore on Kunta Kinteh island. It was quite a drop in levels between the ferry and the long boat , we were defineatly one or two too many in the small boat, however we set off towards Kunta Kinteh Island , a distance of approximately 7 or 800 yards.The man sitting opposit me , back to the sea, realised his trousers were getting wet, sure enough there was quite a long narrow crack in the wooden ,I can only describe them as , planks , there is no posh style to the boat building here.It was obvious a previous attempt had been made to repair it with comment!!!! There was quite a steady trickle of water was coming in. The good humoured tourist said it was fine, " I am Dutch, I will just stick my finger in" .
Seeing several bottle nose dolphins swimming near the boat on the homeward run was a free bonus they swam close up to the ferry, so free and joyful.
You might be able to tell the trip, apart from an excellent buffet lunch, left us rather underwhelmed, so for the rest I suggest you shut yourself in a small room, empty the contents of your Hoover bag on the floor , turn a blow heater up high ( facing the dust pile) and look up Kunta Kinte Island on Wikipedia.
Please do not misunderstand me, the slave trade was abhorrent and the small museum did bring it home with the copies of Slave Auction notices and neck irons with 4 pronged cross bars each one about 3 ft long and sticking out at right angles, these were really grim to see. Our guide told us we were not to feel totally responsible for this ugly trade,as the King and other statesmen from here and Senegal were just as much to blame for profiting from a sour and rancid business that caused the death of thousands of West Africans.
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