Good Bye Gambia, Hello Senegal!

Tomorrow we are leaving the Gambia and heading off to Senegal. Sara and Måns are going back to Scandinavia and we are continuing the trip northbound. The last week in the Gambia has been filled with great experiences and funny happenings. It is a very nice country and I guess that we all four agree that we want to come back some time. To avoid the few, but very annoying, hustlers we found out that biking is an excellent way to get around. Apart from getting rid of those annoying people, it is an outstanding way to discover a small country as Gambia.

Among else, we took the bikes to visit the large SOS village here. The SOS village in Gambia is the regional centre for the northwest Africa and covers a large area with different projects. We met the principal for the school who were very friendly and arranged a little tour around the school area for us. This gave us the opportunity to attend a first grade English class and visiting the classrooms, the computer labs and the library. It was amazing to see so many talented children in a country with so small funds and resources. The principal recommended us to visit the place were abandoned and orphaned children are given a new chance in life. Those children come here when they are less than a year and stay until they are 18. Each family consists of a mother and up to ten children in different ages and the mothers live at the village 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We got a guided tour by a man who came here as a baby, lived there until 18, got an education as a teacher and returned to the vilage to work. Even though the stories of the children are sad, the clinic offers them a relatively normal life, far better than being abandoned at the street. All four of us were very impressed by the SOS village, seeing so many happy children with the future in front of them.

The food in Gambia is delicious. One of the first days of our stay here in Bakau we found the Saffie J Restaurant, a newly opened place owned by a local man. On our request, he has been cooking traditional Gambian food for us, mainly fish and chicken dishes with rice, vegetables and different spices, really delicious. Another different food experience was the visit to Lamin Lodge. This is a place located by the river (actually it is build on poles in the river), far away from electricity and other modern facilities. It is built by old lumber (the quality is however questionable:-)). We had dinner at the third floor, where it is possible to watch the sunset and listening to thousands of birds in the mangrove swamp. It is an amazing feeling drinking good beer and eating good food with only candle lights and kerosene lamps around.

Another special day was the trip along the Gambian coast all the way down to boarder to Senegal together with Ousman, our “private” taxi driver. He has a great knowledge of the area and showed us small fishing villages, lovely empty beaches and a snake farm (and more than 20 luxurious hotels, he is very fascinated in them and tells us thousands of stories about the owners and guests :-).)

Now we have to pack the backpacks and buy some water and fruits. The trip to Senegal is not far on the map but the roads are bad and the only way to get there is by taking a ferry over the river and then sharing a bush-taxi with ten locals. It is amazing that these vehicles still are able to transport anybody and the trip will definitely be an unforgettable experience…