Up The River Gambia
Once I get past the barbed wire, I can breathe
Janjanbureh is a small town far in the upper Gambia, known for the nature and the annual kankurang dance festival. The visit is a true shock. We came late in the night. In the morning I inspect my hotel in disbelief that anyone could seriously offer that place for clients, and yet ask them to pay. The hotel promised access to the river, and indeed, the water is not far. Except you’d need to jump over barbed wire.
The place also offers security features, protecting guests from intruders.
Among the piles of garbage, I also find what is supposed to be the 24/7 security post, unfortunately empty.
However, I must say that my arguments were heard, and I quickly got a replacement hotel, much nicer. I set off for a walk and as soon as I leave the ghost town, I can breathe. The nature around is truly beautiful and serene. Unlike many other exotic destinations I’ve seen, I do not see traces of human destruction, or at least they are not obvious. The forest is quiet, full of life, no garbage, no noise of roaring engines of cars or boats. Birds, monkeys, and lizards surround me.
We later find a pier where the local boys take the bath in the Gambia River.
With help of my friend and guide Ebrima, we negotiate a boat that takes us one hour up the river to see the hippos. The hippos are there, and many birds are there. On the trip, we only meet one other engine boat, besides the paddle boats of the locals. It is truly beautiful.
The river Gambia is a true surprise. I expected a busy water corridor full of cargo ships, tourists, development and pollution. Instead, what I observe is nearly a paradise. I wonder how long it will last, with the current level of population growth and commonplace negligence of the environment.
Post Scriptum
I later ask people, whom I meet at the festival, about daily life. Some work at the logging industry. I am told there are not many big trees left in the Gambia. However, there still remain big forests in Casamance, the neighboring province of Senegal, where logging is illegal. The Senegal border is only a few hundred meters from the Gambia waterways, which make transport easy. The rest of the story you can imagine. I am told much of exotic wood in China is imported from The Gambia, a country of no forests.
Nice. I wonder if the Gambia River is already in self-repair mode from earlier destruction? That industrial concrete pier indicates something was worth stealing, back in the day. The Casamance is lovely. I spent an idyllic weekend once in a hotel on a small island in the River, leaving by boat from the Ziguinchor. The hotel stood alone and was run by two African nuns. We would fish from the sandbars all day, and the Sisters would cook up our catch, fire up their generator and serve the fish and frits with cold Julbrew. The Gambia, the country, is as wide as a British gunboat could shoot, right through the middle of the French colony Senegal. A great haven for smugglers into Senegal. Farther up stream, and back into Senegal, you get into gold-mining country. It used to be artizanale and village-based, but gradually, most of the gold mining in W. Africa has been taken over by huge mining consortiums, many U.S. and Canada based.