Gambia

So here are some of the many fabulous scenes we encountered along the road through Gambia. As any Senegalese person will tell you, "Gambie man is buisness man!" So be careful, some of these guys are smooth talkers if you know what I mean. I was travelling with Shelby, aka "boss lady" as she was referred to there. Here we are on a boat together.

So we waited in Dakar for 4 hours to fill up the bus, because they won't leave unless it is full. Then 5 or 6 hours later we were on a ferry headed towards the capital. There we met David who ended up with a lot of our money with his businessman skills.

The next day, upon discovering that the Southern highway was under construction, we headed back north, and were able to make it to Tendaba Camp (this is next to Kwinella, but doesn't appear on the map). This is where the Peace Corps trains and has no shortage of amenities including a pool. The pictures both above and below were taken during a tour of a river that feeds into the Gambia. The country is famous for its diversity of fowl and they really are remarkable.














Here is the road from Tendaba to Kwinela, where you catch transportation basically out of the middle of no where. The kids here love to chant "Tubab, tubab!"




















This is the market in Farafenni, a border town. We stayed here a night in transit to Georgetown.
















Georgetown was exciting. We stayed in Jan-jan-bury camp. All of the hotel people were extremely nice. There is a family of monkeys that live in the trees there- very funny, very clever.

We took another tour of the mighty river and saw some hippos, though we didn't get any good photos.

Beautiful boss lady next to the magnificent Bow-bob tree.





















So, although the guys at the hotel pleaded with us to stay, we had to make our way back. Here we are waiting for transportation back to Farafenni with some of the locals. Over the course of 3 hours we played tick-tack-toe, discussed which was more poisonous- sour milk or hippo meat, and I enjoyed a brew or two.

















Rice field near Farafenni.














So at the end of the day, although Gambi man is business man, he does know how to take his time with things, and really is very hospitable. Now back in hot humid Dakar, I miss Gambia...