Fathala, Senegal

I heard mixed reports about this trip before we went. One chap said it was a 5 hours journey including the crush of the ferry for 1 hour in the park and in his opinion an awful experience. He was correct about the journey length but wow what a journey. Into the capital Banjul to cross the river that splits Gambia in half. Gambia is surrounded by Senegal and is a strip of land that runs north and south of the Gambia river. The ferry, the bit he’d hated was my favourite. An old boat that looked like it would sink at anytime was loaded with vehicles of every kind. As the gates were opened the flood of brightly dressed people surged down the slipway, with the vehicles loading amongst them. The horn sounded and the ferry rope unhooked at one side and still they came. The hand carts standing on the quay throwing the bags of goods onto the boat, people leaping the gap and a taxi, skidding sideways, over the ever widening gap. The second rope was unhooked and we were off at a rate of knots, that a swimmer could easily have outswum. The decks are patrolled by the peddlars, food of course being the main item on sale but lots of other things including swimwear. We disembarked and walked through the market, past cooking meat, household goods, clothes all the things you would expect from the market to get on our truck. We climbed the bent ladder onto the open topped truck and set off through northern Gambia to the border town. Here in the market square we joined the queues, first for passport control and finger printing, then to have the passport stamped, then to Senegal passport control, and after each queue returning to the market square hustle. We walked through the border check and rejoined our truck. The trip was to a safari park, 6000 acres containing mainly grazing animals. We spend nearly 2 hours stopping at rhino, giraffes , antelope and of course birds. Very enjoyable. The lunch and finally a repeat of the journey. We got the ferry but next to us were smaller boats laden with goods and people, all of which are unloaded by hand, carrying goods off the boats stacked on heads, or in the case of people on the shoulders of porters.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day.