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Saved: November 30th 2021
View From Our Room - Tendaba Camp
The Gambia River is tidal at this spot. Photo taken at high tide.We ended up staying in Serekunda one more day, we were lazy and decided to take a lazy day before heading upland. Serekunda was the longest we've stayed anywhere since Mohammedia in Morocco when I was sick. We needed the break, and we enjoyed Serekunda and our little motel. Our plan was thus: we would travel to Tendaba Camp first, then onto to Georgetown (now called Jangjang-Bureh).
Just to explain the transport system a little - to catch a bush taxi (for long journeys) you must get to the right "Garage". Each destination has it's own Garage and they are almost always on the edge of town, so you must take a small or town taxi to the Garage.
For the direction we were headed to, we needed to get to the Soma Garage. Our motel manager was confident we could get on a minibus (cheaper town taxi as there are a lot of passengers) to get to the Soma Garage. We weren't so sure, as we had our big bags with us. We didn't need to worry, as the minibus pulled over, stowed our bags and we were off in an instant. Everyone was very friendly to us
on the bus and one fellow who got off the minibus at our stop took us straight to the Garage and helped us negotiate our fare for our journey to Kwinella (the closest town to Tendaba Camp). Our trip on the bush taxi was fairly uneventful as the first half of the journey was on a well-maintained paved road. The second half was on ... well ... beside ... the non-maintained paved road. The pavement was so badly potholed that we spent most of the time in the ditch/shoulder which is a sandy, washboard, potholed track. We were dropped off in Kwinella at about 2 pm - yes in the prime heat of the day - with the task of walking the 5 km to Tendaba Camp ahead of us. We had weighed the pros and cons, but decided we were interested enough in Tendaba to walk the 5 km from the main road. We stopped to get more water and a Fanta before heading off.
Side note: we are addicted to Orange Fanta in the small glass bottles, which is pretty much sweet, orange coloured water, but it is so refreshing!!!
Side note 2: white people are called
Mangroves
Mangroves along The Gambia River "Toubab" in the local language which I believe is Mandinka.
As we purposefully head off down the road toward Tendaba, we have an entourage of small children following us. "Toubab!!" "Toubab!!" "Toubab!!" "Can I have your watch?" No, it is my only watch. "But I need your watch" But yes, so do I.
Peter was getting the "Do you have any pens for us?" No. "Can I have your watch?" No. "Do you have Dalasi for me?" (Gambian currency) No.
This was a continuing round of questions, no matter how many times we said no. We got about one hot, sweaty and pestered kilometre along the road when a Peace Corps vehicle pulled up and offered us a lift to Tendaba - we were so grateful and so thankful to those two men!!!
When we arrived at the camp it was like a little slice of heaven. Situated right on the river bank, our room opened right up onto the river. There are lots of trees and shade, and lovely little places to sit right out over the river. The staff were very friendly and accommodating. And a POOL!! Now this place should be called "Paradise"!! Okay, so
Our Freshstart Foundation Friends
From left to right: Ashley, Max and Richard the pool was a little green for our liking, we swam anyway, nothing was growing in it and it smelled heavily of chlorine, so we took the plunge. It was pure heaven in the heat of the day after a long, hot, sweaty and very dusty journey. It was here at Tendaba that we met Richard, Max and Ashley of Worster, England (forgive my misspelling please!). Richard is a trustee of a charity organization called The Freshstart Foundation, which is a small grassroots organization helmed by a Gambian, Lamin, who grew up in Tendaba. Max is Richard's son, and Ashley is Max's girlfriend. They have built an additional school house in Kwinella (so twice as many children could attend school) and were waiting upon a container being shipped from England with supplies for the school. Unfortunately the container was still in the Atlantic, and their time in The Gambia was coming to an end. They were however, able to paint the new school house and have it all prepared for the contents of the container, whenever it arrived. All three are wonderful, friendly, lovely people that we feel blessed to have met. We enjoyed two evenings and a pirogue trip
Crocodile
He got up to move to the water as we sat watching him. through the Mangroves with them before we had to take our leave. It always amazes me that you can meet people for such a short time, yet they make such an impression on you, they stay in your memory and heart for a very long time. We wish Richard and Lamin all the best with their Foundation and the work they are doing.
The boat trip through the mangroves was fabulous. Again we saw a ton of birds, and go to know the names of some of them too! It's no longer 'the pretty black and white bird', it's now the Pied Kingfisher! Also, the snakebird is called the African Dada. We saw a rare Black Heron and a very rare Night Heron. I only saw the back of the Night Heron, but Peter got a good look at his head and his large eye. We saw a small crocodile (we were all very glad he was small, considering we were in a small boat in a small waterway). There were tons of Fiddler Crabs on the shore, along with the 'evolution in progreess' Mudskippers (they are fish with two front legs - very strange little creatures).
Earlier
in the day, we were invited to watch a local soccer match between the younger boys and the older boys of Tendaba Village. After the boat journey, we headed straight up to the field to watch our team the 'Tendaba Youngstars'. Unfortunately, they did not win, but the match was fun to watch and I took photos for the team to email to one of the players who has an email account.
Later that evening, after another lovely dinner with Richard, Max and Ashley, one of the local boys requested our time to "chat". It was here that the sell started. We were already asked for our shoes, watches, clothes and for money by the children of the village, but this was the big sell. Without going into too much detail, I just have to say I find it hard to sympathize with a young man in very trendy clothing and his cell phone in hand that life is hard in Tendaba. Maybe I am too judgemental? I think that life in Tendaba is a little easier for the villagers with such easy access to tourists. Anyway, it left me with a slightly bad taste in my mouth and
it shadowed the rest of my stay in Tendaba.
We left the following day to head to Georgetown. We thought that we would perhaps get a ride from the Camp to Kwinella, but we were wrong. We walked the 5 km from Tendaba Camp to Kwinella. It was early but still hot with little shade. We managed it, and I was very proud of us for trekking that distance in the heat with all our bags!
Getting to Soma was easy, and here we had to change to a bus to Georgetown, which seemed easy enough on the surface ... however, after a 2.5 hour wait, we could only get a bus going part of the way, to a village called Brikamaba. We were very confused over the village of Brikamaba because everyone calls it Brikama. The trouble is, there is already a village in The Gambia called Brikama and it is near Serekunda - the wrong direction for us. It took some time and several people to explain to us that Brikamaba is on the way to Georgetown. All I could think was in the smallest country in Africa, they should not need to use the same name
twice!!
The road to Brikamaba takes the prize as the worst road we have travelled on this far. The road is paved, but not maintained, so you drive on either shoulder/ditch depending on which one is less potholed. The potholes are large enough to swallow small cars, so the travel is very slow, bumpy and dusty. We arrived into Brikamaba to be shuttled to another waiting bus to Georgetown. Since Georgetown is situated on an island, we thought the bus would cross the ferry - but no such luck. By this time it is dark and there are no streetlights. We gather our belongings and a fellow from the bus promised to see us right to our accommodation. We board the small, two-car ferry and arrive to the other side in 5 minutes. Although it is only a short distance to the hostel, it is pitch black, so we pay too much for a taxi and get taken to the door. It is with much relief that we have arrived. We were hot, sweaty, tired, dusty and hungry. To our surprise, dinner was set out and we were invited to eat!! A cold beer was raised to toast the
Lizard in The Tree
Peter loved this little fellow's yellow head, so here is a close up shot of it! survival of the South Road in The Gambia!!
Almost everyone we told that we had travelled the South Road shook their heads in disbelief. No one travels the South Road! From Banjul to Georgetown via the North Road is only 3 hours. Ah well, this we did not know, and we had an adventure on the road less travelled.
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cory porterfield
non-member comment
hello!
Wow very cool! Safe travels......