Venturing out

Although I am really enjoying not having to drive more than 10mins in any direction on a daily basis, it has been nice over the past few weeks to venture slightly further afield.

Our first trip out (outside of the more touristy coastal area) took us south along the coast towards the border with Senegal. Between the last two villages on the Gambian side (Gunjur and Kartong) is a reptile farm run by a Frenchmen. By farm we mean someone’s garden off the main road filled with a series of pits, and some larger cages, cement or glasshouses containing a variety of snakes, tortoises and lizards. Although it was slightly disconcerting that the puff adders (very poisonous) were kept in the same sized pits as the more benign snakes with only a loose wire covering, this didn’t hold Amelie back. She went with the intention of emulating her friend, Jean Maurice, who had a picture of himself with a snake round his neck from the same farm and came away having had a python hung round her neck and having caressed a very large, but sleeping rock python (these are enormous). Elise was a little more suspicious, or some might say sensible, only daring to touch the tortoises. Still we learned a thing or two about when to run and when not to worry too much – at least in terms of snakes. Gambians are terrified of snakes so the farm actually has the aim of serving as a valuable educational resource for children trying to lift some of the ingrained myths, though part of me thinks that being scared of snakes is not always a bad thing.

Yesterday we headed towards the River Gambia, which runs through the middle of the country, to visit Matasutu. Makasutu, or “holy forest” is a mangrove forest sitting on a tributary of the river Gambia. Makasutu is called a “culture forest” as the daily tour involves traditional dancing, fortune telling with a traditional healer and a visit to the in-house craft market. However, as high season is not yet here we did not get the full cultural experience. We were the only people there which meant 1) it was incredibly peaceful, a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the coast and 2) the more touristy activities (craft market, dancing etc.) were stripped away leaving us more time to just enjoy the surroundings. We definitely adapted the Makasutu experience from the norm – shortened canoe trip as Amelie was petrified in the boat, shortened forest walk for the girls plus the poor guide ended up carrying the huge lump that is Amelie back to the camp, and lunch at the exclusive Mandina lodge attached to Makasutu. Usually the day tourists get a buffet at base camp, but as we were the only people visiting we were allowed to drive up to the lodge, which only houses 16 people at a time in floating river houses. We therefore got to enjoy some very salubrious surroundings that we think may usually be out of bounds to children. Despite, the abundance of nature with baboons roaming with their babies, kingfishers swooping down from the mangroves, crabs scuttling around in the mud at low tide; the girls were most excited by the pet dog, Yassa, who followed us around for a lot of the day. The cats at lunch were also much appreciated so from now on we are sticking to the local streets where it is never difficult to pick up a stray dog or cat!

In between these trips Amelie had her half term. This mainly involved lots of swimming, but was wisely used as she learned to swim underwater low enough and for long enough to swim through my legs. Unfortunately, she has developed expensive tastes and managed three trips to Coco Ocean which is one of the nicest hotels on the coast with spa, 5 star restaurant. She has shrewdly made some good contacts at school and her friends Tiguara is in turn friends with the hotel owner’s niece which means it is never a problem to use one of the three very nice pools. It wasn’t too much of a chore to take her there several times, but I am thinking it will be hard to come back home to the Finchley Lido!

This week is Elise’s half term – I am now acclimatised enough not to be surprised that schools do not co-ordinate their holidays. At least it means more time to prepare for the Halloween extravaganza that is belonging to an American school community – pictures of costumes and much pumpkin paraphernalia to follow.

My half term by Amelie

I have just had my half term holiday. My favourite thing in half term was our visit to Makasutu. Makasutu is a safari park (mummy says a forest park). They had a pet dog there called Yassa. Yassa and I played a lot together. There were also cats that we fed at lunchtime. We went on a boat trip at Makasutu (as it is a mangrove forest on the banks of the river Gambia). The boat was a hollowed out tree trunk, but it wobbled a lot and I didn’t like it. We saw mud skippers, which were like little tadpoles that shot away into the mud, and lots of crabs at low tide. There were also lots of baboons. They were big, but not scary and had lots of babies with them riding on their backs.

Half term was a good week as I went swimming a lot with my friend Tiguara from school. Tiguara’s dad is from Brazil and her name means bird of the water. It is a good name for her as she is very good at swimming. My mum even took me to have my nails painted, but the pink colour came off as I went swimming straight afterwards.

We are planning a big Halloween party this Friday at my school. My mum and I are helping with some of the stalls – the slime one is going to be the best: you have to put your hand in slime and pull out a scary prize! I am very excited about Halloween and have been making a skeleton costume with my dad. My sister is going to dress up as a pumpkin.