West Africa 2017: "You will definitely cross today." Leaving Senegal and crossing into The Gambia

"I have always loved to sit in ferry and railroad stations and watch the people, to walk on crowded streets, just walk along among the people, and see their faces, to be among people on street cars and trains and boats." Ella R. Bloor

Leaving Dakar, we headed south, making our way down the coast on good roads with few cars. We camped on a deserted beach, chatting with the local shepard boys in the evening who came to watch us make dinner.

The next day saw us passing into the Sine-Saloum river delta, a maze of small and large streams emptying into the sea. We decided to drive on some of the smaller roads we saw on our navigation program. The roads were just paths in fields, crossing streams and sometimes disappearing all together. We passed through tiny villages built around enormously baobab trees, grass roofed round houses with woven stick walls surrounding the villages. Women raced to our car from a field, immediate asking for a cadeaux (present). We were not sure what to think of these situations we encountered in the small towns. We asked names, exchanged greetings, and continued on our way. At night we camped on a river bank among a herd of cows. It rained most of the evening, but we slept well.

Delta camping

Off the beaten path in Senegal

Palm trees in the delta

Camping in the delta

Continuing south, we arrived at Joal-Fadiout, an island made entirely out of shells. The shells were in the streets, as well as in the walls of the buildings. A half muslim, half christian graveyard had large piles of shells covering the graves. Good building material it would seem.

Bridge to the cemetery

Shells everywhere!

Shells covering graves

A few days of exploring the delta later, and we finally crossed into the tiny country of The Gambia. Leaving Senegal was simple, just the usual fixers trying to help and earn some money. Entering The Gambia was equally as easy. We got our visas at the border, and had our carnet filled out for the car entry. Soon after the border, we were pulled over by the Gambian drug agency. They spent about an hour searching our cars and luggage. They were very pleasant and professional, always wanting one of us present to witness what they were doing.

The Gambia is a narrow country, basically only existing a small amount to the north and south of the river Gambia. There are 4 ferry crossings along the river for cars, and no bridges as of yet. We wanted to cross the river to the capital, Banjul, which is just on the south side, where we were planning on applying for the Nigerian and Ghanna visas.

We arrived at Bara, on the north side of the river, where it empties into the sea. The crossing is 7km by boat. We saw cars and trucks backed up, a long line, small shops lining each side of the road, and people everywhere.

Jess and I walked up to the office to purchase tickets. Cars were lined up on both sides of the road, two more lines of cars tried to force their ways in from a 4 way intersection, fixers offered their services. We buy tickets and ask how long to cross, "You are very lucky, you will definitely cross today! We have two of the three ferries working, and one is the new one.". It was 2pm when we first arrived, on Saturday.

We joined the line. Fixers would tell us when to move up in line. Often we would see new Land Cruisers and BMW's cutting the line, having paid more to the correct people. We were determined to pay only the ticketed price. So we waited. Hours passed, we barely moved. I played ukulele, talked to vendors. The fixers stories went from, "You will definitely cross today", to, "You will maybe cross today.". The line stopped moving. One of the ferries, the new one, had broken down. The old ferry took about an hour each way. "You will be on the first boat tomorrow!". At about 11pm, we finally crossed into the gated area were cars would wait to be loaded, but the service was finished for the evening. We slept in the cars next to a herd of goats and the public toilets. It was a hot, mosquito filled evening.

We ended up finally getting onto the third ferry of the morning, about 10:30am. The boat was packed full. Sheep, goats, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and hundreds of people. The ride itself was nice. A cool sea breeze, interesting scenery on the coast and good people watching on the ferry. By the time we arrived in Banjul, it was almost noon. We had spent nearly 24 hours waiting to cross the river. We thought for sure that a country that is basically just a river, would be masters of crossing it, but it was absolute chaos.

We drove to a nearby suburb of Banjul named Bakau, checked into a cheap hotel, and collapsed for the rest of the day.