A tale of two cities: My Gambian experience

by Maureen Ndak (Nigeria)

I didn't expect to find Nigeria

One of the finest and most satisfied adventures of my life so far was trip to Gambia, where I explored the capital city of Banjul and the historical city of Georgetown. My adventure started on our arrival at the Banjul international airport Gambia, the weather was hot compared to the Birmingham (UK) where we departed from. It took about one hour to get cleared by the immigration officer and another 45 minutes to get to Senegambia beach hotel, where we will be staying while in Banjul. After checking in, i decided to explore city. First i headed to the Albert market, the livest street market in the country. Its origin dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, The market featured vibrant foreign and local textile, shoes, handcraft produce and all kinds of souvenir you can think of. For ladies like me, it was like stepping into a candy store, So many good things to buy but with less time to do it. As an African, I immediately unleashed my negotiating skills to make sure I got the best deals. After spending 3 hours shopping i left for georgetown starting with a bus ride, then a ferry ride to the north bank town of barra, then another 45 minutes drive to farafenni, the town which links Gambia and Senegal. The town was colorful and busy which was not exactly what I expected from a village, farafenni village path lead me to wassu village where I saw the magnificent stone circles. The locals say these stones are believed to be the burial grounds for past kings and their belongings; it is also one of UNESCO historic sites. After another 30 minutes drive, I arrived at the formal British historical trading post used during the colonials days called kaur, we got off the bus and joined the double decked West African pirogue for another 5 hours cruise along the fresh water path of Gambia River which led us to the river Gambia national park. The park consists of 5 islands (585 hectares) and it’s surrounded mainly by forest and swampy areas. Among these islands is the baboon and elephants island. These two islands have numerous species of baboons and elephants living in their natural habitat. The cruise lasted about 3 hours which allowed me see different species of birds, monkeys, my most feared animal snakes. And also uninhabitated islands and villages along the river bank to Georgetown. Finally we arrived at Georgetown, a beautiful island locally called Janjanbureh. After getting off the ship, I took a van to Janjanbureh Eco camp which has no electricity, just local round huts with beds and solar fans. I was so happy to be surrounded by nature that I didn’t notice the comfort I was used too. During dinner that night all the tourist like myself were entertained by the local mandika traditional group, with music, dance, drumming and local palm wine (I love palm wine) and it felt like home. I danced to every song played and spoke to some to understand more about each tribe, to my greatest surprise I realized that Yoruba and Fulani which are languages spoken in my home country are also spoken in Georgetown. I couldn’t help but show my excitement by exchanging greetings in Yoruba. Immediately I said ba wo ni ma? ( meaning "how you doing") And they replied mo wa dada ( meaning "we are doing great") . I was filled with pride and joy to know that Africa is truly one, although their dialect was a bit complicated than what I was used to, it was still relatable. The next day, I started my day with breakfast at the river side restaurant before crossing over to the main island to visit the old slave trading post, the colonial governor’s office, slave market and cannons of colonist. After hours of the city tour on foot, I joined a van to cross over the sulayman junking jammey bridge to drive to the binta bolong village for lunch, after lunch I drove back to the hotel, packed my bags and headed to the south river where I took a ferry ride back to the banjul city where i spent the next 2 days relaxing.