Nomad's Travels: The Gambia

It was an uneventful overnight sail from Dakar, Senegal to Banjul, The Gambia.The best laid plans were again changed by the winds that grew light as Nomad approached the coast and it became another 0130 arrival at the anchorage. Entering the mouth of the Gambia river well after sunset Nomad was brought to an abrupt halt under full sail by an unseen fishing net. It caught on the bobstay shackle and could not be pushed off until all the sail was taken down. After clearing the net and waiting for the wind to blow us away from the net, we resumed sailing towards Half Die at the port of Banjul. With the radar not working again, it was a bit of a challenge working around the fishing gear and numerous wrecks in the harbor. The next afternoon formalities were completed and the diesel was topped off in anticipation of the long trip upriver. Three days was enough time to check out the town of Banjul and pick up some fresh produce at the Prince Albert market. When it was time to go, the anchor came up with old fishing gear and steel cables wrapped around it. Once that mess was cleared off, we sailed an unmarked channel to the more tranquil anchorage in Lamin Bolon. It was a surprise to make the last turn and see quite a number of sailboat masts sticking up above the mangroves. The area near Peter's Lamin Lodge was not only a quiet anchorage but is also a good place to leave the boat with easy access to the airport. The water here was warm enough for swimming and night swims with the phosphorescence became a favorite pastime.
We were only here a few days, eager to begin the journey up the Gambia river. The tidal currents in the river are very strong so all travel is done only with a favorable current. The first day's anchorage was near Lamin Pt., so we could sail by James island the next day. This is a very small island with a fort on it across from the village of Juffere, made famous in Alex Haley's novel "Roots". A few miles beyond James island is Sami Bolon, where we made our next anchorage early enough for some swimming and walking about on shore

Colorful Gambian clothes being made at the Prince Albert Market

Banjul

Inside the Prince Albert Market

Exploring an old wreck in Banjul

Mandori Creek is a special place, the type of anchorage that cruisers dream about: a deepwater creek navigable for miles inland with no weather concerns, interesting scenery, easy shore access and completely uninhabited except for the occasional fishermen. This is the kind of place one can swim ashore ,climb through the mud and walk around the savanna imagining that you are the first human to crawl out of the sea. The mangroves are covered with oysters below the high tide line, best eaten roasted over a fire onshore at sunset. As we moved further inland, it became noticeably warmer the further we went upriver. Thirty six at Mandori creek and over forty degrees by the time we reached Jan Jan Bureh. This was quite a contrast the the chill of the north Atlantic just offshore. Nomad would return here again for nearly a week on the downriver part of the trip.

Mangroves on Mandori creek

Anchored on Mandori creek

James Island

Sami Bolon


Mandori creek

Sailing from Mandori creek withe the tide made for an easy days run to an anchorage on the main river at Madina creek. The next morning we picked up the anchor to move across the river closer to the ferry landing for a shorter dinghy ride ashore. The dinghy was beached among the fishing boats and the fishermen showed us where to tie the line so it would not be underwater when we came back. We took a taxi into Farafenni to the immigration office to renew our Gambian visa. While awaiting the person with the appropriate stamp to arrive we chatted with the immigration officer who invited us to visit his farm on the coast. The hospitality of the Gambian people is amazing everywhere we stopped. They call The Gambia "the smiling coast of Africa". Official business done, it was time to find a cold beer before walking back to the ferry landing. We found the cold refreshments with the help of DJ Scotel, a well known local dj at thelocal radio station. By chance we met him again on the downbound trip and he invited us to his home for lunch.


Kris, DJ Scotel and Lyza

With our visas renewed for another twenty eight days, Nomad continued working upriver with the tides. Seahorse island looked interesting on the chart, so it became the next anchorage that we would explore. The island is covered with mangroves as tall as a four story building and so dense that you could not get into the island. Since exploring the island proved impossible, we decided to row up Dankunko creek where the occasional local boats were coming and going from. This was to lead to the most interesting experience we had in The Gambia. Some distance inland we came to a bridge with a boat tied up to it and a footpath leading away in both directions. We walked several kilometers through the countryside thinking we may find a village. Away from the impenetrable mangrove wall that lined the banks of the saltwater portion of the Gambia river, one can see the actual landscape: ridges, hills, red rocks and dust and the iconic baobob trees. We stopped to check out a particularly large baobob tree and decided to push on a little further before turning back.Soon we came upon a small village far from any road. Not knowing what to expect, we walked towards the village and saw a large group of people resting in the shade of a large mango tree. We greeted them and were promptly invited to join them for attaya, the sweet green tea that is enjoyed everywhere in west Africa. The attaya is brewed three times in a ritual that is part tea drinking and part time to enjoy conversation while it is being brewed. We talked with them for some time and were invited to the Ceesay family compound for dinner, where we were introduced to their father. As the sun went down, we were invited to stay the night at their compound. I expressed concern about the boat being anchored with no light on it and the dinghy tied to a bridge many kilometers away. Everyone assured me that it would be safe there, so we accepted their invitation. We were treated with the typical Gambian hospitality and fed to the point of bursting. Benachin was served in the traditional way by the women who then retired to their own area with the children to eat. As a guest , Lyza sat with Kris and I with the men on mats and we ate with our hands in the traditional style out of a huge bowl of food, and finished up with more baobob juice, sorel and one more round of attaya. There is no electicity service here, so everyone uses flashlights and the light from their cell phones to light the way and to avoid scorpions walking about town at night. We were invited to the local mosque which was having a special holiday where the Koran is read all night and was attended by people from all the nearby villages. The next day we were taken for a walk around town and fed again.I was shown a place by a small creek of the main river where we could anchor much closer to the village if we would stop by again. Not having any visible landmarks and only a general idea of where I was, I memorized what it looked like and the boat that was there and did manage to locate it on our return visit. Asking about the new room being built in their compound, I was told that they always keep a room ready in case anyone who stopped by needed a place to stay the night. The girls in the compound made us bead bracelets before we departed, us promising that we would return to Sambang Nyugh Kunda on our way down river.

Hiking inland

Baobob tree

Sambang Nyugh Kunda


Lyza dancing with the children in Sambang


Lyza with the women's group in Sambang

Leaving Sea Horse island, continued working our way upriver with stops at Balingar Hill where we found the reported abandoned village on to of the hill being rebuilt, Kau Ur, Bantanta creek and Kudang. Coming into Kudang, we passed a line to a fisherman and towed him to the village, saving him a few kilometer of paddling upstream. The next day we were shown around Kudang and visited their school. We walked the path inland to Kudang Tenda on the main road in search of fresh vegetable and were surprised to hear someone call us by name. It was a Peace corp worker that we had met at Lamin Lodge. Seeking some quiet nature time, the anchor was brought in and we sailed upriver to Bird Island, where we saw our first hippos resting in the shallows at the ends of the island.They could be heard swimming nearby at night, unseen.


The Gambia river from one of the few hills along the riverbank

Balingar hill

We were invited to eat everywhere we stopped

Kudang, all the children want to hold hands with the tubop (white person)

Escorted back to the dinghy by nearly all the children in town

One of the rare days the wind was not against us on the river

Nomad was anchored near the ground nut warehouse and dock in Kuntaur, the last village before going through the Baboon Islands which are a national park with special
sailing rules to protect the wildlife. In Kuntaur we made friends with people who worked at the local hospital. The nurse who worked there lived on the hospital
grounds and showed us around the facility explaining that the doctor only came by a few times a month to perform operations.The people here accomplish amazing things
with very little staff and minimal supplies. A short walk brought us to the next village, Wassu, where we visited the pre-historic stone circles there which were
explained to us by the Stoneman, caretaker of the stones for many years and a good storyteller.

The Stoneman telling the story of the stone circles of Wassu

We are always a big attraction with the children in every town.

Nomad anchored in Kuntaur

Carefully following the prescribed route, we went through the Baboon islands the next day enjoying the scenery but were disappointed that we did not see any baboons there, although we did see some further upriver outside the park. Now in fresh water the waterside environment changed, most notably the mangroves were gone allowing us a view inland from the river. The river became narrower and the daytime temperatures were over 40C. We anchored downstream of the ferry landing in Jan Jan Bureh after checking out the overhead power line that sagged to near masthead height in mid river. I checked the depth at low tide on the north bank and it appears that by staying with two meters of the shore there should be safe clearance for my 14 meter mast height.This power line provides electricity to Jan Jan Bureh and several other towns. There is not enough capacity, so each town only gets electricity for a few hours each day. Trying to find an ice cold beer could be challenging at times here. We stayed here several days, making friends with one of the water taxi drivers.We were invited to dinner at his compound where we asked them to show us how to make domoda, a tasty ground nut soup served over rice, and baobob juice. I also got hands on instruction on pouring attaya, which takes some practice to do without spilling it.

From Jan Jan Bureh, we decided to head back downriver instead of pushing further inland. Downbound we stopped and visited the many friends that we made on the journey upriver. Riding the tide downbound, the ebb current lasts a few hours less than the flood making for short travelling days. We eventually found our way back to our favorite anchorage in Mandori creek, where we spent nearly a week before anchoring again in Lamin Bolon. Lamin is a great place to stay for awhile. It is a short walk from the lodge to the village on the main road, where the markets have most things needed.The local cashew wine here is especially good and not very expensive. From Lamin, it is a bus ride to the markets and supermarkets in Westfield and Seerekunda which are much nicer than those in Banjul. Most anything can be found there. In Kanifing, cooking gas(butane) is available and it is no problem to carry your gas bottles in the bus. We renewed our visas in Banjul one more time and stayed nearly a month in Lamin Bolon before deciding it was time to head across the Atlantic while the summer weather was still quiet. On the first day of June, we pulled the anchor up from Lamin Bolon and anchored at Banjul to refuel and clear out. The formalities were completed easily as we now knew where to go. Good clean fuel is available at the end of the fishing dock. We had become friends with the senior bunkering officer from Total fuels, who patiently filled our fuel jugs with his fishing boat sized fuel pump and nozzle with almost no spillage. With all the pre-departure chores done we returned to the boat to make final preparations for the upcoming voyage and get a good nights rest before leaving on the morning's ebb tide for Suriname.