The perfect winter sun destination and an easy first Africa experience (Gambia)

Member Name: lm09

Product:	Gambia
Date:	28/01/09 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Weather, English spoken everywhere, same time zone, great food, great people great wildlife

Disadvantages: Bumsters

I flew to the Gambia in the first week of November 2008, which is the first chartered flight of the season from the UK. For the three months prior to this it is the Gambia's wet season and travel in this time becomes difficult.

For me the Gambia was my first time in Africa and anothe ambition ticked. What struck me first was just how green the Gambia was. Tip for you, if like me you are obsessed with travel and anything to do with travel sit on the left side of the plane as the route flies right down the coast of Morroco, Mauraitania and the Senagal. The view of the Sahara in Mauritania is un-believable and seeing Dakar, Senegal from the air just makes me want to visit this more.

Landing at Gambia airport the airport is tiny but works so efficiently, anyone who has experienced Heathrow or Manchester will be in for a treat getting through an aiport without losing hours or weight...

I stayed in the Seaview Gardens hotel in Kololi which for my budget was as good as I could get. The hotel far exceeded my expectations (perhaps naive into thinking African hotels would be rough). This hotel far surpassed any hotel I stay in in Turkey or Greece. The first benefit of being on the first UK flight of the year was that the hotel was very quiet which was perfect for me. The hotel for me was a place to sleep and was perfect for this and the staff were all brilliant. The only down side for me about thr hotel was the breakfasts. As a vegetarian I struggled in the morning and often just stacked up on bread.

The hotel is built around 100 meters from the sea and the route to the beach means running thr gauntlet of the "bumsters". there I've said it.... No doubt if you are planning to go to the Gambia you have read all about Bumsters. Well the reports in the books paint a picture of constant harrassment this simply didn't happen. Whilst people will almost certainly apporach you to eat in their Aunts restraunt or to take the best taxi ride in the world this is done with a smile and a polite no will end the conversation with no bad feelings on either side. Remember the Gamiba is one of the poorest countries in the World with no welfare state. When the first load of Western travellers arrives you have to expect people will see you as a way to make money.

The best hotel in the area, the Senegambia hotel is around a 15 minute walk away from the Seaview Gardens and my wife and I preferred to use this in the day as our base. The walk to the hotel takes you along a busy road (safe). This gives you a view of "the real Africa". Getting to the Senegambia you will 100% get asked about taxi's a few times but again a polite no does the job. Also on the walk takes you down the Senegambia strip where the best restraunts are (more of that later).

The Senegambia hotel is one of the biggest in the Gambia and one of the best. Non residents can use the poor and private beach paying around £0.8o per day for a sun bed. The hotel has brilliant wildlife too. On the grounds daily at 11am the hotel has feeding sessions ffor the local vultures which allows for supurb photo opportunities. They are used to hotel guests so let you get within metres of them. Tip number two, they stink!!!.

Whilst the vultures were cool the best fauna of the Senegambia has to be the troop of Vervet monkeys. A troop of around 20 monkeys spent their day ambling through the grounds and again being fairly used to humans allow you to get close for great photos. Whilst the hotel staff advise not to feed the monkeys we did and no harm came to us.

The Senegambia beach is supurb and has security to keep tourists safe and un-harrassed. On the beach fisherman still pull in their catches daily and are amazing friendly letting tourists lend a hand and get involed. The amount of effort they put in for 4 or 5 fish is amazing and regardless of the catch they seem so happy just to be.

Whilst it would be easy to spend all the holiday on the beach, with perfect blur skies and 30 degree heat the Gambia has some incredible places to visit. The first and an easy 10 minutes walk from the strip in Bijilo Nature reserve. Tip three on the walk the last building on the strip is GTS. GTS is a charitable restraurant run by a British family who took some bumsters and taught them to cook and run a restraunt. The food, espicially the Domada is superb. Domada is a traditional West African dish kind of like a peanut curry but different in a really good way. The staff in this restaurant are so happy to see you and give the best service you will ever experience.

Anyway back to Bilijo. You pay around £1.40 to get in. The people on the gate will try and push you for a guide, who will expect tipping. Whilst supporting the guides and those who try to make living out of tourism the right way, the park is small enough and safe enough to go on your own. This for my wife and me was so nice to feel like we were the only people on thr park and seeing and spotting monkeys, lizards and birds for ourselves was such a buzz. The park contains three types of monkeys, the vervet, red colombus and patas monkey and on our visit we were lucky enough to see all three. In addition you will see loads of birds and lizards. We spent two hours in the park and loved it.

Slightly further away from the strip in the Abuja National park and reserve. This is a taxi ride away. Tip number 4. Get your taxis from outside the Senegambia hotel where there is a little booth. Here you arrange your prices in hand and pay the office rather than the taxi driver when he drops you back. We used the same driver for the time we were there because he was brilliant as a taxi driver and guide but more than this just a really really nice person. His name was Kabiro and I would 100% recommend asking for him. On one night when my wife felt ill (very slight sickness) we bumped into Kabiro who took us back to our hotel not expecting to be paid. We did pay him but he never asked and we felt sad that we did feel we had to pay him as in our country if we bumped into a friend as Kabiro consider us in the same position we wouldn't even think about paying.

Anyway Abuja is a much bigger park and you will need a guide to get around. Here as the park is bigger and much more wild the fauna are harder to see but we did again see Vervet monkeys and Red Colombus monkeys. The park is also home to Nile Crocs. we did not see the crocs, the only disadvantage of coming so soon after the wet season. The park also houses a kind of mini zoo. A sad place really for animals that either have been kept as pets or a too dangerous to be released. This has baboons and hyienas in sorry looking cages. They also used to have a lion - not a native animal of the Gambia however in 2007 this sadly escaped and had to be destroyed. The Gambians who took massive pride in this animal have re-built the cage and are looking to get another lion so maybe take a big stick if you are visiting in the future you never know what you will meet. If the crocs don't get you the lion might.

Leads me nicely to crocs. we didn't see crocs at the park but one place you are bound to see them is Kachikily crocodile pool in Bakau. The taxi driver to the pool firstly goes past Independance stadium, the Wembley of the Gambia. Gambian football was on a high at the time of our visit having just 2 weeks previous drawn with neighbours and big rivals Senegal in a world cup qualifier. After the stadium the route shows you the real Gambia and shows you really how those not fortunate enough to make a living from tourism live. I won't try to describe it here but please go and see this for yourself to experience the Gambia away from the Western hotels.

At Kachikily the cros are everywhere. The biggest, Charlie is so chilled out with people that you can actually with care touch him. Remember this is still a wild animal and most travel insurnace policies won't pay for stroking croc accidents!!!

Not far from the pool another taxi ride through the real Gambia is Lamin Lodge. Lamin lodge is one of the most beautiful places in the Gambia. The lodge is a wooden restaurant built on a mangrove. The view from the top of Lamin allows you to see all the way to Arch 22 in the capital Banjul. When we arrive however the menu was very reduced as the chef appeared to have had a moment with his stock take. We sat a bought Kabiro dinner and he was happy to talk politics, Obama and about life in the Gamiba espcially football. The lodge is such a beautiful place and feels so so far from the office and the bleak November weather of home.

Back on the strip the restaurants are excellent. Our favourite and best for people watching was Chosaan in the middle of the strip. The food especially the local dishes Yassa and Domada again were supurb. As a veggie I never struggled. The beer at around £0.80 was great and the activity of the strip made good cinema. The staff here like everywhere else in the Gambia gave brilliant service and were happy to go the extra mile.

Sorry for the length. The Gambia nick-named the smiling coast is the perfect winter sun destination. Go and find out why it is known as the smiling coast.

Summary: Magic experience but don't take my word for it