The Gambia in photos

/ The Book Whisperer

Holiday bliss – reading on the beach

The Gambia in photos

Regular readers of my blog will know that travel is one of my passions (I still have to do part 2 and 3 of my trip to Paris yet – sorry I’ve been off the radar for a while but I will get round to it, I promise). Last month, Mr Whisperer and I went to The Gambia on the west coast of Africa and it was one of my favourite holidays.

What I loved about The Gambia:

1) The people – it’s not nickenamed The Smiling Coast of Africa for no reason – the locals are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They are happy, smiley, chatty and have a great sense of humour.

2) The weather – hot, hot, hot!

3) The animals – we had monkeys and cats on our patio and huge turtles and lizards elsewhere in our hotel grounds. We also went to a crocodile park and I actually got up close and personal with a crocodile (with nothing between me and it). I was expecting its skin to be like armour but it was actually really soft (although as my horrified sister-in-law pointed out, it’s teeth aren’t!)

4) The culture – we went on an open top jeep tour and among other things we visited a local primary school and watched some lessons in progress and also a fishing village in the early evening when the boats were coming back in with the fish. It was crazy and amazing!

5) The relaxation – beaches, palm trees, friendly locals, sun. What more is there?

A holiday to remember

A regular visitor to our patio (usually when there was peanuts or mangos nearby)

The most insane place – the village of Tanje where they bring in the fish each day

Crazy, insane, wonderful!

Trip to see a local primary shcool

Children hanging around the school in the hope of some sweet – luckily we came prepared

Wall art with books – and lots of them 🙂

The fruit ladies on the beach touting for business

The lovely Fatima who adopted us as “her” customer

Trip down the Gambia River and through the mangroves

The oyster ladies in the mangroves

Chilling with one of my books on the beach – bliss

Band on the beach

I’m watching you!!!

Hanmade batik’s

Our hotel

  Have you ever been to Africa? Where else do you recommend that I add to my “travel hist-list”?

NB/ The above photos belong to me and may not be used without my permission. Thank you.

18 thoughts on “The Gambia in photos”

      • I depends what you’re used to, obviously. But the (SA) people I was with kept saying be careful about this and that, and when, on a lonely hill, I wanted to get out of the car to take a picture of the view, they told me better not, as there might be robbers in the bushes, ready to attack. I mean!

        And lots of people live behind gates with guard dogs and guards. These are the rich people of course. I just found it rather unpleasant. While the nature and country side is beautiful.

        Like

  2. Great set of photos, I really enjoyed looking at them. Unfortunately I’ve never been to any country in Africa but one of the girls in my class is from Uganda and her descriptions of it have made me definitely want to visit!

    Like

    Reply

  5. Amazing photos! To me, Africa seems the epitome of exotic locales, so I’m super envious of your trip. On my upcoming round-the-world trip, I’m hoping that I’ll get the chance to visit Egypt and Morocco, but I’d especially love to visit through West Africa at some point. That will probably have to wait for another trip, but your pictures really make the region seem like a wonderful place to vacation!

    Like

    Reply

  7. Looks like you had an amazing holiday Boof! I love your picture of the crocodile! My parents lived in Nairobi for 5 years and I used to visit on holiday from uni. Lovely, lovely place but one where you also see the whole spectrum of humanity.

    Hope you get better soon:)

    Like

    Reply

  10. Oh Boof! That looks like such a great trip! Your photos really made it. I usually prefer to be private and thus would be more attracted to one of those self-serve holiday cottages in Scotland or something and then to go trekking through the hills, but your photos with all those happy people, and all the monkeys and fruit (I’ve been eating mangoes every single day lately, I love them!) made me want to put this on my wish list. There are places in this world, so so many, that I don’t even know exist. I wish I could see the whole world. I would love to travel, but I have never been able to really do it. I’ve been to England for two weeks, and to Malta (where my parents live) once, for three weeks, and when I lived in Paris for a year I did see a couple of other parts of France, and we drove to Switzerland and flew to Rome. Okay, well, that sounds like a lot, but it’s nothing. Nothing!!

    I love that you prioritizing seeing the rest of the world. Together with your love of books, you really get out of your own space and expand your horizon. It’s awesome.

    Thank you for sharing your vacation!

    Like

    Reply

  11. These are lovely. My company is organizing an event in Accra at the end of the year, so I’ll visit Ghana then. Did you try to look for books set there or by local authors? Any recommendations?

    Like

    Reply

  12. So lovely to find a book-lover who loves Afrique! I lived in Ghana for ten years and it was pretty life-changing for many reasons. Some things will just never be the same again, or the way I look at life. Good on you for travelling!

    I love Ghana and think it is a wonderful place to visit. Mali and Burkina have very good roads although I think Mali is not stable now. I think Ethiopia is magical and would go back tomorrow. ‘The Emperor’, written by a Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuschinki about the last days of Haile Selassie, is incredible reading. T. Coraghesson Boyle’s ‘Water Music’ is unbeatable about Mungo Park’s search for the source of the Niger. ‘The Last King of Scotland’ by Giles Foden. So many fab books oh and the best is ‘Sozaboy’ by Ken Saro-wiwa how could I forget that for a lively study of modern war-wrecked West Africa written in pidgin English!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment