Banjul, The Gambia

We docked in Banjul at 7:00am since it is only short distance from the previous port in Dakar, Senegal.

Banjul is the capital city of the Gambia, a small West African country completely surrounded by Senegal. The city sits on an island where the Gambia River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

I booked a private tour and we were joined by our friends, Pat and Norm.
Erin and Mui booked the same tour, but their group had 6 people.
We were on the pier at 8:00am waiting for our guide, but they went to the dock where another ship was docked.
Then finally we saw them running and few minutes later they came.
Erin’s group got an open air pick up truck and we got closed old minivan.
Both cars were traveling together.

Our first stop was Catholic Church. There was very brightly dressed women coming out of the church.

Our second stop was Albert Market where locals sell colourful textiles and local produce. The produce market, especially fish market, was mildly said “disgusting”.
Dirty, fish was completely covered with black flys. Hard to describe. Could not wait to get out of this place.

On the way to the Kachikally and Crocodile Pool and Museum we stopped few times to see place where women harvest and processed clams, drying fish, piles of peanut shells used as fertilisers.

We visited museum with the display of different costumes used during ceremony, musical instruments. Then we visited a crocodile pool where we could pet a large male crocodile.

After driving some more, we came back on our ship, glad to take a shower…

Last two ports gave us a good taste of west African countries. More to come.Read more