Week 6, Gambia and back in Senegal again

November, 29th:

Rose at 7.30, breakfasted, Uma cut my hair (it hasn't been that short in 50 years!!) ...

By 10.00h, we (= US Dave, Rashjrhee, Ben, Garry, Marc and I) went to the main road to get money and had our Guinea visas printed out.

All went smoothly and by 11 it was done.

Dave, Ben, Rashjrhee and I decided to make a long walk to monkey park, and so we did...

First some refreshments

Not always easily accessible ...

We walked back along the beach and by 3.00 we were back at camp. Belated lunch (leftovers from yesterday), and a lovely swim in the sea... what a refresher...

Drank a beer next doors (the is a very nice beach bar 10 meters to the left. They serve Beck beer, a very nice German beer), showered and now updating blog, while waiting for diner!!

After diner we (50% of the group) visited the reggae bar 100 yards away. Nice, but loud and two beers later i decided to go to my tent.

Lovely moonshine ...

Tried to watch an episode of star trek, but fell asleep during the opening titles.

Slept like a ehh... what's it called again?

November 30th:

Rose at 7.30, breakfasted.

The rest of my core-group took a cab to see the old city of Banjul (uit de biertent ... little inside joke for the dutch readers), but i decided to stay to do laundry and have a nice relaxing day at the beach ...

So... washed all my clothes ... and took a long walk along the beach (opposite direction of yesterdays).

"Found" a dead sea-elephant (i think) ... it smelled awful ...

Walked a bit further and decided to have a coffee at a very tiny, local coffee shop. The lady who served me made it clear that she was ready for marriage ... with me!! (35 years younger than me). I explained that i was very happy with my current relationship.

We had a good conversation though and she explained to me that the little coffee-shop, that she and her brother Billy run on this part of the beach was a pretty hard life, but they managed.

I'm afraid that all the new hotels and fancy restaurants, that are being build here now (it will be the new "costa del sol" here in a few years i think), will push them out of business, which is a shame, because i like these little local shops a lot.

I left a big tip as sign of support.

Walked back to our campsite. My core-group had returned from the old city (not that special i seemed) and we went for lunch.

It took 15 minutes to order and 1.15 hours before delivery.

Took a dip in the sea, walked up to the dead sea-elephant again with Ben (but it had been buried (the sea-elephant, not Ben) ...)

Another dip in the sea... and some of our group members made a human pyramid ...

A Beck beer at the next door restaurant, a final shower to wash of the salt and updating the blog with an rum-apple-juice cocktail (thx Gretchen!) ...

After diner Rashjree, Ben and I shared a bottle of (very good!) red wine (Ben's belated birthday present) on the beach and then there was a campfire, with lots of local musicians. Lynn went wild on the yambee's ;-)

Went to my tent at 10(-ish), tried to see a star trek episode, but fell asleep again during the opening titles...

December 1st:

Rose at 7, breakfast, walked back to the little coffee shop to say a proper goodbye. We decided to become fb friends, so you may see them around some day.

Walked back and had lunch, took down the tent and sleep-gear, and at 13.00h we left for a eco-touristic place, Tumani Tenda, where we arrived at 16.00h

It is on the river.

I shared a hut with Wolfgang, an 81 (!!) yrs old traveler, who's main goal is collecting the coins of all the countries we go.

We wifi-ed (too slow with some many users) the afternoon away, got a local diner round 7 (very nice) and chatted and beered the early night away.

Tried another time the ST episode. Failed miserably again.

December 2nd:

Woke up at 7, showered (very cold), and updated my blog. There is some cultural activities to be done, but have not decided which ones to do.

Will attempt another publish.

Took my guitar from the truck and played some soft, latin(-ish) themes to gently wake up every body ...

At 10.30 a few of us went for a walk to the village nearby.

It gave an insight of the daily lives of the locals up here.

Making funny faces with the kids from the village. They loved it!

Also visited the local school and talked to the teachers ...

Came back to the huts by 1.00 pm.

Lunched a little, and chatted, gamed, guitar-played and slept the afternoon away

At 17.00 we went for a peddled boat trip on the nearby river ...

Diner, and a local cultural dance demonstration. Some of us joined (I did not).

Slept like a log.

December, 3rd:

Rose at 7, showered, went to the central gathering place to try and publish week 5 and ... yay!! done. it worked, because there not many users yet...

Waiting for breakfast now.

After breakfast i used the wifi to update and re-organize my fotos ...

Going to play some guitar, since there is nobody here ... experimenting time!

Later that day James showed up. He is one of the teachers of the school we visited yesterday. We became fb friends, so who knows, you may see him one day.