Arrived at dawn this morning at this long and narrow country that barely straddles the Gambia River for 300 miles from its Atlantic mouth and is completely contained within Senegal. Banjul is the 43,000 population capital. The guidebook boasts as well as exaggerates as it says, "Most of the streets are paved."
Some initial experiences from our quick morning shuttle bus visit as a real half day "city tour" will give us a more comprehensive view commencing in an hour from now.
1. A long boat ferry (the fast way to cross the miles wide mouth of the river compared to the "bucket o' rust" car ferry) provides a guy to carry individual passengers on his shoulders into the surf to avoid their getting their clothes wet. We are told that his "fare" is about 20 cents US.
2. The articulate local tourist guy told me that he is from the interior of country about 100 miles up river. He said that is where the real Africa is. "Banjul is really Europe", he said. He certainly has never been to or seen pictures of Europe.
3. There are feral dogs and goats throughout Banjul.
4. Our tour was delayed from this morning to the afternoon due to the "Monthly National Clean-up Day". We saw one lady in town making a small pile of debris. So, I guess the campaign is working.
5. Two Belgian couples from the ship who were on the shuttle bus this morning asked to get a taxi to visit something called, "The crocodile pond". The bus driver said, "You can get a taxi, but the pond is closed and you might be arrested by the police since this morning is clean up day." They chose to allez maintenant au bateau instead. Wise choice.
Now for lunch. More after the city tour....
Sunday, 26 February 2012 - At Sea on westerly course from Banjul to Praia, Cape Verde Islands
Yesterday's half day tour of Banjul and nearby Bakau exceeded the expectations we had after the morning shuttle when the entire country of The Gambia closed for "Clean-Up Day", actually a dictated half day each last Saturday of month when even taxis are banned from operating. By early afternoon, the port area and more than 200,000 population area nearby (10 mile away Bakau is much larger than the capital) was hopping. The Gambia (called "The Gambia" because the country straddles The Gambia River, the somewhat burnt out guide told us) is the English speaking sliver of a dictatorship surrounded by the very much larger Senegal, a perhaps uncontrollable place where French is spoken. More I don't know, even if there actually was pre-election day unrest that was the cause of our rescheduling Banjul instead of Dakar for yesterday's port call. That is the way of cruise ship travel, the life we've chosen to quote a scene from The Godfather.
Speaking of, our drive through the mostly mangrove area around Banjul was marked by a good road (with police check points--not photographed out of courtesy and self preservation) and perhaps a telling juxtaposition of a sign proclaiming the benevolence of the leader of the country and one of the four GSM cell phone companies. The latter, by the way, was worth at least 10 minutes of the guides' discourse. Apparently two of the mobile phone providers are Gambian enterprises, something at least the guide was very proud of.
We visited a couple of museums, a "sacred site" called The Crocodile Pool where a sign invited us (after consultation with the local guide, Lefty, to pet the sad creatures), a batik factory which was actually a batik field where very tall and pretty young people stood around asking for money, candy, or ball point pens, depending on their age group respectively, then the very large and busy local market. We saw fields of vegetables where all the workers are women and returned to the ship. Before sailing, which was supervised by the maitre d', we enjoyed the comings and goings of the local ferries. One carried a small flock of goats and goatherd as well as flatbed trucks with shipping containers, and lots of people. Apparently the largess of the leader of the country does not extend to the refurbishing of the ferry boats or the soccer field that appears only at low tide.
Please don't misunderstand my comments above. The day in The Gambia was fantastic despite the lack of touristic sights and the 98.6 degree (F) heat. The people are very friendly and they have a quiet dignity. Also they dress really colorfully and actually do seem happy. This is what this kind of travel should be all about. It is sad to be leaving sub-Saharan Africa and the smallest mainland African country for the even smaller African island nation of Cape Verde. Will report on this visit in a few days.
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