Got up before dawn, and got to the gare routière (bus station) as soon as we could. Thought we were being smart starting so early, but I think les gares start even earlier! It was already heaving once we arrived, and as soon as people saw three white backpackers we were swamped. Determined to not pay the finders fee, we ignored all the shouts and ended up on a bus to Kaolack - halfway to the border. As we'd missed breakfast we thought we'd break up the journey and have lunch there.
Traffic out of Dakar, minivan pulls over for about half an hour, long drive to Kaolack, arrive about lunchtime. Got a taxi to the main street and collapsed in a French-run chop-house (diner). We ordered three 'plats du jour' and were really impressed with them - rice (always short rice in Africa, more like couscous than Uncle Ben's) with various pieces of veg and some gorgeous tender beef. Really filled the hole in what turned out to be a very long and arduous journey.
Koalack was really hot, dusty and busy. I took my camera out to get a picture of the gare routière (which may go some way to explain exactly how busy they are!) but felt instantly uneasy, all eyes on me. Camera safely away, Dree took the lead and tried bartering with about ten people. Everyone was shouting at once, pulling us in different directions, and Dree ended up shouting "Arrettè!!!" Did the trick though.
Got on the world's most fly-infested minivan (due to huge spillage of oranges), with horrendously painful seats - I was behind the driver and there were sharp, rusty bits of metal jutting into me from all directions. Add two hours driving and I was in agony! Got transferred off that bus on to a smaller, but padded, van that was going to take us to the border. Apparently. We were told that a random town five or so miles from the border was the end of the line. So we got a shared taxi to the border.
The border caused absolutely no problems, with the Gambian side being exceptionally friendly. The Gambia was part of the British Empire and as such speaks English - a welcome break from broken French! One of the border guards (a cycloptic lady called Neni- cataracts) even took our names and address' and said she'd cook for us if we were ever in Farafeni, the border town, again!
Another taxi took us to Farafeni centre and we had to organise ANOTHER minivan to take us parallel along the river to Janjanburreh (previously known as Georgetown), in the heart of The Gambia. This van must've won some award for being the most cramped - 30+ people as well as about five kids and luggage. Not very comfortable, but we were pleased to be in the twilight of our day's journey (3pm). Then the van broke down. Barney was nearest the door and got out to help push - quoting Cool Runnings; "One for the rythym" etc.
Then it broke down again, as dusk was coming in, for about half an hour. The driver tried the 'hit-the-broken-piece-against-the-road' trick. Seemed to work, after a giant push from most of us in the van! Good laugh in the end; lots of handshakes and smiles all round. Night fell and we ended up ten miles from the river, getting transferred to the back of a pick-up truck(Janjanburreh is an island in the middle of the River Gambia). Mosquito hell anytime we'd stopped, and these were big buggers too; must be something in the water!
Saying that, once we got going, boy did we get going! Hitting about 80 down the highway - the majority of roads in The Gambia are all well paved and in great condition - there was no lights in any direction and this made for a breathtaking view of the stars and also the clearest Milky Way I've ever seen. Good time for a bit of the Foo's on the iPod. Great fun on the back, wind in the hair, but if any insect hit you it felt like a BB pellet!
Made it to the river bank, but the ferry which takes people across obviously wasn't expecting people this late (9pm), and it took quarter of an hour of shouting over the river before some lights flickered on, and we heard the engine start up. This was followed by applause from our bank and shouts of "Open your eyes man!" As we'd stopped though, these beastly mozzies attacked, taking chunks from our legs, the only thing we could do was DEET up!
Got across and the nice man in the pick-up drove us to our encampment, where we had to share two single beds between three. Cosy! Played cards for the person sleeping alone, guess who got the wall side of a crowded bed... Worst night's sleep in ages. Possibly to do with the cat/monkey/monster jumping around on our tin roof all night! But glad to have come to a standstill at last!
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