Well, I have been home for almost 2 weeks and largely preoccupied with other things so I have decided the second instalment of my blog will be a bit more of a generalisation of what you might expect if you were to visit The Gambia rather than a day to day account.
I must warn you, not everybody is as fond of the place as I am. In the past it has developed a reputation for many negatives, particularly aggressive "bumsters", the locals who try to latch on to you, befriend you, get you to give them business , money, your email address or just about most things you can think of! In general I noted this time that most genuine beach sellers, fruit sellers, etc were not nearly as pushy as they used to be, They are at last perhaps realising that this can be a negative tactic not just for their business but repeat tourism too.
As a long term tourist I have become pretty immune but I do occasionally fall foul to a "bumster" tactic. Walking along I was approached by three guys and made the mistake of stopping to talk! They told me they were a band and that they needed to raise some money to buy a new skin for their drum. I said I'd come and watch them play if they were performing locally and would put something in their collection pot...the normal practice as they tout their trade around various bars etc. A proffered handshake was accepted by me and in doing so one of them slipped a band on my wrist telling me that I was now a brother and all that crap. Now give us some money! I told them I don't carry money when out with my camera and they said they'd be waiting around when I returned. I didn't as it happened, I took a circular route that meant I didn't pass them again. Next day I went the opposite way and they were on me like a shot telling me I was now their brother they had waited as I'd promised to buy them a new skin and that now we could head to the market to get one( a taxi ride somewhere). I told them that there was no way I had promised them anything and just walked away with them following me, badgering me in public. They told me I had accepted the band on my wrist and I had to honour my promise. I just ignored them and walked in to the hotel where I retrieved the band which I had taken off the day before. Next time I walked past when I reached the ring leader I stopped, looked him in the eye, tossed the band at him and staying nothing , walked on to the forlorn cry of "what about some money for the boys"!
I tell the story in detail just to give an idea of what you may find yourself up against. Some might find it very off putting, I can still get irritated but I'm used to it.
Stay away from the beach, the streets and wander off in to the local fields and no one bothers you.
That's why I keep going back. It's a birding hotspot right on the doorstep if you choose Kotu. I managed to photograph 92 species within a 10 minute walking distance of the hotel and also managed to miss one or two as well!
This year though our visit was later in the season, drier and the Kotu Creek was behaving differently than it has done in the past.
The creek is completely tidal, there isn't any fresh water stream running in to it although as the tide goes out there appears to be a river running out of it as it drains back to the sea. Over the years I have been visiting I have seen this "river" altering course and then seen the efforts to divert it away from undermining an adjacent hotel. This time the problem was that it wasn't draining properly at all.
As the sand piles up the water can no longer escaped and the water becomes polluted with amongst other things, the sewerage that runs in to it. Not nice! A team set about digging a trench to let the water both in and out. It seemed to work anyway and the large mud flat did get a shallow cover of water at high tide.
One of the negatives were that there were less waders than usual until the change was completed then suddenly we had a return of the Senegal thick-knee in bigger numbers
and the Yellow-wattled Lapwings returned from the golf course where they had previously been trying to feed.
There were some usual suspects I didn't spot at all, Grey Plover for example, but perhaps they were already heading north for the breeding season. Osprey was another that might too be on the way north. Where I missed out on some I made up for it with others.
I have never seen so many Pink-backed Pelicans,
Long-Tailed Cormorants
and Black Herons
to say nothing of the Spoonbills, both African
and Eurasian ones,
all feeding together but using individual techniques to catch the fish that seems to be in greater number than ever probably as they were trapped.
It was a brilliant opportunity to get some decent photos, well by my standards anyway.
There was one star of the show though for me, the Yellow-billed Stork.
This a species I had only ever seen one of many years ago, and that a juvenile too, so these were a massive find in more senses than one and right here in the Creek too!
The only problem with all these birds was getting down to their level.
With the thick glutinous stinking mud around the waters edges it was best to stay out of it.
Still I didn't do too badly!
TBC
I must warn you, not everybody is as fond of the place as I am. In the past it has developed a reputation for many negatives, particularly aggressive "bumsters", the locals who try to latch on to you, befriend you, get you to give them business , money, your email address or just about most things you can think of! In general I noted this time that most genuine beach sellers, fruit sellers, etc were not nearly as pushy as they used to be, They are at last perhaps realising that this can be a negative tactic not just for their business but repeat tourism too.
As a long term tourist I have become pretty immune but I do occasionally fall foul to a "bumster" tactic. Walking along I was approached by three guys and made the mistake of stopping to talk! They told me they were a band and that they needed to raise some money to buy a new skin for their drum. I said I'd come and watch them play if they were performing locally and would put something in their collection pot...the normal practice as they tout their trade around various bars etc. A proffered handshake was accepted by me and in doing so one of them slipped a band on my wrist telling me that I was now a brother and all that crap. Now give us some money! I told them I don't carry money when out with my camera and they said they'd be waiting around when I returned. I didn't as it happened, I took a circular route that meant I didn't pass them again. Next day I went the opposite way and they were on me like a shot telling me I was now their brother they had waited as I'd promised to buy them a new skin and that now we could head to the market to get one( a taxi ride somewhere). I told them that there was no way I had promised them anything and just walked away with them following me, badgering me in public. They told me I had accepted the band on my wrist and I had to honour my promise. I just ignored them and walked in to the hotel where I retrieved the band which I had taken off the day before. Next time I walked past when I reached the ring leader I stopped, looked him in the eye, tossed the band at him and staying nothing , walked on to the forlorn cry of "what about some money for the boys"!
I tell the story in detail just to give an idea of what you may find yourself up against. Some might find it very off putting, I can still get irritated but I'm used to it.
Stay away from the beach, the streets and wander off in to the local fields and no one bothers you.
That's why I keep going back. It's a birding hotspot right on the doorstep if you choose Kotu. I managed to photograph 92 species within a 10 minute walking distance of the hotel and also managed to miss one or two as well!
This year though our visit was later in the season, drier and the Kotu Creek was behaving differently than it has done in the past.
The creek is completely tidal, there isn't any fresh water stream running in to it although as the tide goes out there appears to be a river running out of it as it drains back to the sea. Over the years I have been visiting I have seen this "river" altering course and then seen the efforts to divert it away from undermining an adjacent hotel. This time the problem was that it wasn't draining properly at all.
As the sand piles up the water can no longer escaped and the water becomes polluted with amongst other things, the sewerage that runs in to it. Not nice! A team set about digging a trench to let the water both in and out. It seemed to work anyway and the large mud flat did get a shallow cover of water at high tide.
One of the negatives were that there were less waders than usual until the change was completed then suddenly we had a return of the Senegal thick-knee in bigger numbers
and the Yellow-wattled Lapwings returned from the golf course where they had previously been trying to feed.
There were some usual suspects I didn't spot at all, Grey Plover for example, but perhaps they were already heading north for the breeding season. Osprey was another that might too be on the way north. Where I missed out on some I made up for it with others.
I have never seen so many Pink-backed Pelicans,
Long-Tailed Cormorants
and Black Herons
to say nothing of the Spoonbills, both African
and Eurasian ones,
all feeding together but using individual techniques to catch the fish that seems to be in greater number than ever probably as they were trapped.
It was a brilliant opportunity to get some decent photos, well by my standards anyway.
There was one star of the show though for me, the Yellow-billed Stork.
This a species I had only ever seen one of many years ago, and that a juvenile too, so these were a massive find in more senses than one and right here in the Creek too!
The only problem with all these birds was getting down to their level.
With the thick glutinous stinking mud around the waters edges it was best to stay out of it.
Still I didn't do too badly!
TBC
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