We were all awake early, the donkey, chickens and dogs saw
to that! We got up and arranged with
Sanaba to go to Janjanbureh (Georgetown)
for breakfast and a tour round the old slave market and to see where Annes’
father was stationed in WW11. Steve
drove us to the ferry crossing and we all had breakfast in a local café before
leaving the car and crossing by small boat to the island
of Janjanbureh. Sanaba went to organise a local guide, when
he arrived we knew him from various programs we have attended where he was the
local drummer and griot. The island was
used during the slave trade for keeping slaves in a large house with an
underground prison, and from there they were taken to the market for sale. There are still chains in the walls showing
where they shackled the more troublesome slaves. We listened to the history, visited the Governor’s
house, and then the freedom tree in the centre of the town. It was nearly time for our boat trip, so we
returned to the river and once again crossed in a small boat, this time landing
back on the mainland and then driving back to Kuntaur where we found our
boatman waiting for us. We climbed into
the boat which fortunately had a roof, and set off to see the local
wildlife. We had only been going about
10 minutes when Sanaba spotted a hippopotamus in the water. We could only see his ears and the top of his
head, but we were all excited and taking lots of photographs. Of course these animals are very dangerous
and the boatman would not take us any nearer, so we kept at a safe distance
before moving off into the National Park area where we collected our guide for
the rest of the trip. There are several
islands in the middle of the river Gambia,
some of which have been made into a Chimpanzee sanctuary. Visitors are not allowed on these islands,
but the guide was able to make the sound of the animal and the largest and
oldest of these Chimps came down to the riverbank long enough for us to see him
and take more photographs. More hippos
appeared at a distance and lots of birds and other monkeys were seen on our
journey back. Just before reaching the
landing point we saw our original hippo, and as the tide had gone down we were
able to see more of him this time. Back
on dry land we made our way back to Sanabas’ compound for lunch before loading
the truck and setting off back down to Jamwelly for our second night. The weather is still incredibly hot in this
area and we were all glad to reach Kaur and get a cold drink. We called in at the Lower
Basic School
to see the library which now has a sign painted over the door. “Belle Vue Boys
Proud to Care” On to Jamwelly to be met
once more by Channeh, Musa and Tiger the dog.
We got our sleeping things ready for the night and were able to open
some windows so we all got a breeze to help us sleep.
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