The Gambia Part Two- Tendaba Camp

The morning after our epic wild boar roast, we woke up and got ready to head to Tendaba Camp. Tendaba is located farther west along The Gambia River. It is close to two national parks- Kiang West National Park and Baobolong Wetland Reserve. It is also the only place to stay in the area and is, therefore really expensive. Bass drove us from Jangjangbureh to Tendaba and all we had to pay for was fuel. The trip was long and really dusty. In The Gambia, there are police and military checkpoints roughly every 10 minutes. We didn't have any problems at most of them, since there were 3 white American girls in the car for the armed officers to flirt with. The one time that there was a problem was when we encountered a female cop. Eventually, Bass gave her a bribe and we continued on our way.

Finally, we arrived at the camp and Bass helped us get settled. We could tell as soon as we got there that there was going to be a problem with money. We had started running out of money at this point, and this was a really nice camp. It had a big restaurant, two bars, and a swimming pool! Eventually, Bass convinced them to give us a 10% discount, since we are students, and we started to get settled in. We were all exhausted from traveling all day, and I crashed pretty early.

The next day, Wednesday, the plan was to explore the village. However, it's a tiny town with not a whole lot to see, so we ended up spending a good portion of our day figuring out our budget. Then, we went for a dip in the pool. This was the day we met Faye, who offers cheaper tours than the hotel and cheap(er) food. We made a pretty good deal with him for lunch Wednesday and Thursday and two boat tours on Thursday. We also decided to head home one day early, on Friday morning, because of our lack of funds.

The people in Tendaba were so different from everyone we met in Jangjangbureh. In Jangjangbureh, we made friends with tons of young kids. In Tendaba it was impossible to be friendly with the kids. As soon as they saw white people they started yelling "Hello! Minty!" Minty is how they say candy. Even the adults would immediately start asking you for money. The men were absolutely intolerable, although this was common in both towns. We are used to encountering sexual and romantic advances in Dakar, but the men in The Gambia were much more physical and persistent. It was really frustrating to be seen only as a sex object for a week.

Thursday was, by far, our most exciting day in Tendaba. We woke up at 6 am, while it was still dark, to meet Faye for a 7 am boat trip. We watched the sunrise from the boat on our way to Kiang West National Park. Once we arrived at the park, we got out of our boat and spent the next few hours walking. The landscape was beautiful. We walked through salt flats, forests, and fields. Eventually, we came across an entire herd of baboons. There must have been 40 or 50 of them, and they crossed the path right in front of us. A few of them started menacingly walking towards us, but we held our ground and they moved on. We also saw lots of bird. Birds were definitely the theme in The Gambia. It's a huge bird-watching destination, and there were lots of fat, European bird-watchers around, especially at Tendaba.

In the afternoon, after a nap and a dip in the pool, we met Faye again for a boat tour through Baobolong Wetland Reserve. On our way out to the reserve, we saw a whole bunch of dolphins! They were so cool. They follow the sound of the motor, so we got to watch them through most of the ride out there. One we got to the reserve, we spend the next couple of hours driving through the mangroves, looking for crocodiles. Unfortunately, we didn't see any. It's, apparently, a bad time of year to see crocodiles since it's so hot out. We did, however, so a whole ton of birds. We also had a lovely argument with Faye about whether or not all Americans are rich. It's really hard to convince people here that just because your are American, it does not mean that you have an endless supply of money. This argument was especially frustrating this time, as we were pretty broke at the moment.

After watching the sunset from the boat on the way back to Tendaba, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. We had heard that Jaliba Kuyateh, the most famous mbalax musician in The Gambia, was playing in a village 2 kilometers away from the camp. We decided that this would be an excellent way to spend our last night in The Gambia, especially since admission was only 100 Dalasi (less than $4). Lamin, a guy we had met at the hotel, offered to drive us to and from the concert for free. After Ana and Jenna argued with the Tendaba Camp management about how much our bill was, we headed out to the village in Lamin's lime green jeep. We got to drive right into the venue, instead of waiting outside, since Lamin thought we would get hassled, being the only toubabs there. We got to sit right up front, and Jaliba was awesome. However, the concert didn't start until around 11:30, and we had been up since 6 am, so we were thoroughly exhausted. By 1:30, we decided it was time to call it a night.

In the morning, we woke up at 6 am so that we could leave Tendaba by 7. It took us way longer than it should have to get back to Dakar thanks to full buses, problems with the ferry, and a miscommunication with our sept-place driver. We didn't get back until about 7:30. By the time we got home, we were all so dirty. I can honestly say that this was the first time I enjoyed my cold shower. As much fun as The Gambia was, I am really happy to be back in Dakar, sleeping in my own bed, and hanging out with my brothers.