Up A Lazy River

One morning I finally managed to make it out of Kololi, after spending over a week relaxing by the beach. I had to go back through Banjul and once more get the chaotic ferry to Barra where I could get a seat on a minibus and finally get to Juffureh. This tiny village shot to fame after American author Alex Haley traced his ancestry back to here, and wrote the novel “Roots” which was made into a hugely popular television series. I arrived late in the afternoon when no more tourists were around and found a cheap and basic guesthouse. That day nursery schools from around the area happened to be having their annual sports-day, and I was lucky to catch the last few hours of the adorable event. The following morning I managed to get a cheap pirogue ride out to Kunta Kinteh Island.

Situated in the middle of the Gambia River this used to be called St James Island, and was another sad testament to the European slave trade, with a crumbling fort and some baobab trees all that was left to show for it. I also visited the small museum in town and played a highly competitive game of football with the village children, leaving my bare feet in blisters. After two nights of getting to know the community I decided to keep moving and got up before the crack of dawn to catch a minibus, once more back to Barra where I could get another one to Janjanbureh. With it’s strategic location in the centre of the country on McCarthy island, this town which used to be called George Town, was once planned to be the country’s capital, but the river was too shallow to accommodate the larger ships that started being constructed and the plans were scrapped. Now it’s a very sleepy town without much to see, but I met the captain of one of the river boats, and as he already had a tour group coming the next day, he let me join for a fraction of the price.

There is something oddly romantic about travelling on a river, the peacefulness takes over. No sound except the birds on the shore and the gentle hum of the engine as you glide slowly through the waters, rivers really are one of favourite environments wherever I am in the world. My main reason for joining this whole day excursion was to see Baboon Island, which despite it’s name is famous for being home to another primate, my favourite animal, the chimpanzee. The chimps on the islands have been rescued by The Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Project which started in 1978, and now more than a hundred of the apes live here. No humans are allowed on the islands (including staff) but they do still rely on being fed, so you can usually see them come out to the shoreline. Just as we were cruising by, and we could hear some noises in the bushes, disaster struck. There was only one other boat on the river, but our captain (who may or may not have been smoking a lot of marijuana that day) somehow didn’t see him, we were headed for a full on collision but at the last second the other boat managed to just steer clear, we narrowly avoided their hull but did hit their small boat which was being towed behind. The rope towing it snapped off and the smaller boat started sinking, some of the guys managed to grab hold of the rope and just about keep the boat from sinking completely. Finally they managed to flip it over and empty it, and strangely no damage seemed to have been done to either of the vehicles, although there was a lot of screaming and unhappy people on both sides.

I was sure this commotion would have scared all the animals away, but once we got back on track, a couple of curious chimps had come to see what was going on, which was a great sight. On the way back home, we also saw some hippos as the sun was setting and it was a great ending to a very good day out. The following morning I had planned on travelling south to Senegal, but when I heard Diego, a Belgian guy I met in Palmarin, was in Kololi, I decided to flip a coin and it landed on me travelling the south bank and returning to the beach once more.