Gambia..Disgusting guide behaviour (1 Viewer)

Thought I would share my experiences of a week in The Gambia, 10th-17th November.
We met up with a friend, who has lived in The Gambia for 6 years, on the morning of the 11th outside the Bakotu hotel where we were staying. We had agreed to go for a walk in the local area to photograph the birds there so headed up the road to the bridge.
Upon arriving one of the guides comes storming out of the hut and starts shouting and being verbally aggressive towards our friend. A lot of accusations were thrown around as more guides became involved and the situation became far more heated. Bare in mind this was myself and my girlfriends first morning in The Gambia and you can image how perplexed we both were.

Our friend told us to walk on so we continued through the mangroves and rice areas behind the golf course. Walking up towards the sewage ponds we see 4 guides coming towards us with 2 local policeman. They stormed up to us and begin the headed conversation again. Our friend is accused of illegal guiding and of provoking the local guides, both completely untrue. We are then made to walk to the police station over the road from the Bakotu hotel.

While in there up to 12 guides join in the debate aimed at our friend. There was also very aggressive behaviour towards myself and especially my girlfriend, with a few guides getting close up to her face and basically shouting straight at her. Both myself and our friend try to calm the situation but the police chief decides that our friend is under arrest and is to be taken to Senegambia for questioning. The chief policeman there even had the audacity to make perverse eye movements towards my girlfriend while this was all going on.
Fortunately our friend was able to contact a friend in security at the MRC who was able to sort the situation out which meant he avoided arrest. Unfortunately our first day was ruined and this event has left a completely bitter taste in the mouth about a country which I had waited 10 years to visit.

This was just the start of a week of disruptive and obtrusive behaviour by most of the guides in the area. As someone who likes taking photographs I need time to myself without guides constantly hassling me for money or "business". It seems they have totally lost the concept to understand when someone is not interested.

Obviously with the Ebola situation they are most desperate than ever but I found their behaviour to be counter productive to achieving business from tourists, with numerous comments throughout the week from other guests at Bakotu about how infuriating their behaviour could be.

This all said there is one guide I would like to whole heatedly recommend. His name is Ebrima Korita and he proved an excellent guide and a good friend to have around during the week, a star.
His email is his name (as one word) at hotmail.com and I would thoroughly recommend using him if you are visiting The Gambia.

Overall the holiday was excellent but sadly I feel this will be my only visit to the country. I loved the photography and birding but not being able to go for a walk around the area with a friend without fearing arrest is something I cannot tolerate.

Short-termism to say the least - who is going to want to employ rent-a-thug types. If guides act like this, birders should just boycott them.

Maybe better would be to try and encourage some of the more responsible to form, if it not already in place, some sort of guiding association with certain ethics, etc. Then birders could just use these, and behaviour of the others perhaps controlled. Maybe wishful thinking.

Jos Stratford said:

Short-termism to say the least - who is going to want to employ rent-a-thug types. If guides act like this, birders should just boycott them.

Maybe better would be to try and encourage some of the more responsible to form, if it not already in place, some sort of guiding association with certain ethics, etc. Then birders could just use these, and behaviour of the others perhaps controlled. Maybe wishful thinking.

Click to expand...

They all have to have a license to be part of the Gambian bird guides group (or something of similar name). I totally and completely understand desperation when it comes to money (By British standards i'm hardly well off myself and had been saving for this trip for a long time) but when they are charging £80 a person for say 6 hours work then its not exactly a small fee. A group of 4 could make them over £50 an hour!

Obviously at the moment that group of 4 may be fewer and more far between but there was still a lot of birders there during the week we were, a lot using guides.

Makes creating a situation like this and risking bad publicity all the stranger.

unfortunately round the tourist strip in the gambia, "unescorted" tourists are seen as fair game for constant harassment by the multitude of locals trying to make a quick buck by offering services of varying quality. This is as Jos says quite short-termist and shows a lack of understanding of the mentality of the potential customers, but i guess it's inevitable that people in one of the poorest regions on earth see (by comparison) extremely wealthy western tourists as a rich vein of money-making opportunity to be exploited to the max.
I'm guessing (although perhaps i'm way off) that Oliver's Gambian-based friend is white? in which case it's perhaps understandable (if not justified) that local bird guides see him as taking business off them.
It is disappointing that at least some bird guides are not better attuned to the need for professionalism although perhaps unsurprising in a country with quite poor governance and endemic corruption.
However a good practical way to avoid these kind of problems is to employ a local guide; this should ensure you will not be hassled. Unfortunately from my experience, opportunities for unmolested solo birding in the tourist area of western gambia were quite limited (senegambia, bijilo, abuko), while areas away from this part of the country tend to be rather difficult to access as an independent, unguided traveller.
but it's still a fascinating place with great birds
cheers,
James

Sounds shocking. As James says , I assume they thought your friend was charging you for guiding.That's no excuse for their response ,of course.
I've not experienced hassle to any degree by the guides there, and we have wandered about the Kotu area on our own a few times. They will approach you of course to tout for business but have left us alone when they see we know what we're looking at for ourselves !
We always hire a guide for some day or half day trips but £80 each ? We paid £70 for both of us for a day trip last year without any haggling. We're back in Jan hopefully andwill contact our usual guide when we arrive.For anyone who is going for the first time ,you will easily find recommended guides in the Gambia by searching Birdforum.
Regards, Bill.

James Lowther said:

unfortunately round the tourist strip in the gambia, "unescorted" tourists are seen as fair game for constant harassment by the multitude of locals trying to make a quick buck by offering services of varying quality. This is as Jos says quite short-termist and shows a lack of understanding of the mentality of the potential customers, but i guess it's inevitable that people in one of the poorest regions on earth see (by comparison) extremely wealthy western tourists as a rich vein of money-making opportunity to be exploited to the max.
I'm guessing (although perhaps i'm way off) that Oliver's Gambian-based friend is white? in which case it's perhaps understandable (if not justified) that local bird guides see him as taking business off them.
It is disappointing that at least some bird guides are not better attuned to the need for professionalism although perhaps unsurprising in a country with quite poor governance and endemic corruption.
However a good practical way to avoid these kind of problems is to employ a local guide; this should ensure you will not be hassled. Unfortunately from my experience, opportunities for unmolested solo birding in the tourist area of western gambia were quite limited (senegambia, bijilo, abuko), while areas away from this part of the country tend to be rather difficult to access as an independent, unguided traveller.
but it's still a fascinating place with great birds
cheers,
James

Click to expand...

Hi James

Yes indeed our friend is a white Canadian who's wife works at the MRC. Their arguments were nothing to do with thinking that he was taking business off them. It was based purely around, in their opinion, a god given right that we MUST use guides to even walk around the Kotu area.

Fortunately I now have a contact as a result of my trip for a driver should I wise to return and head up river. I will not be paying the extortionate prices charged by the guides.

I loved the country as soon as I was away from Kotu but a week of having my early morning/late afternoon birding/photography walks ruined by guides who would consistently follow me and flush my targets got far too much to grin and bare by the end.

Even if the first days event hadn't of occurred I would still feel a real sense of annoyance at how many good photographic situations I lost because the guides simply would not get the message.

cheshirebirder said:

Sounds shocking. As James says , I assume they thought your friend was charging you for guiding.That's no excuse for their response ,of course.
I've not experienced hassle to any degree by the guides there, and we have wandered about the Kotu area on our own a few times. They will approach you of course to tout for business but have left us alone when they see we know what we're looking at for ourselves !
We always hire a guide for some day or half day trips but £80 each ? We paid £70 for both of us for a day trip last year without any haggling. We're back in Jan hopefully andwill contact our usual guide when we arrive.For anyone who is going for the first time ,you will easily find recommended guides in the Gambia by searching Birdforum.
Regards, Bill.

Click to expand...

The prices seem to have gone through the roof this year. There was a few visitors in the same hotel as us who visited last year and their prices matched yours.
This year they found the same trips were double the price if not more.

It totally priced us out of going to Abuko, Tanji, Brufut etc. We were fortunate that one guide (Ibrima) was able to offer us a special rate (the normal price paid last year!) as we are friends of Colin Cross at Kartong.

They are running a very dangerous game with the prices and with the attitude they seem to have adopted will be losing a lot of business going forward.

Well, if they've really doubled the prices, we won't be using them ! Abuko is easy to do yourself. Cost £10 for a taxi inc return. Small fee to enter ,then just bird the trails for yourself. You could do the same for Brufut woods. Some other spots do really need a guide with you.
I like to support the local guides but only within reason !
Regards, Bill.

Sorry to hear about your experience.Sounds like my idea of torture!
When we went to the Gambia I just did my own thing.The three areas you name in particular,Tanji,Brufut and Abuko are easily visited on your own:just hire a taxi and ask them to pick you up 2 hours or so later,or get them to drop you off and get a taxi back when you are ready to leave.
You should have no problems in any of these places.As Brufut and Tanji were close to our hotel I spent most days wandering about the woods or the Tanji lagoons.Nobody bothered me once and they easily navigated.
To be honest I cannot see any advantage to be guided around any of these locations.You can make your own way to Tanji lagoons easily enough.Just ask the taxi driver to drop you off at the entrance.The Tanji Forest on the other side of the road can be accessed by any of the wide dirt tracks.Abuko is way marked so you can't possibly go wrong.I got into a bit of a tiz finding Brufut Woods initially. but that was because I made the mistake of walking through Ghana Town.I was told this place was a 'no- no' yet I managed to walk through the entire settlement without anyone batting an eyelid,even though I stuck out like a sore thumb.
I probably missed out on a few good birds but I enjoyed the experience of finding my own birds and arranging my own itineraries.
I accept there is an argument for supporting the local economy but you can do this by hiring taxis.There were reserve staff hanging around the entrances of Tanji and Abuko.The entrance prices were so paltry I gave them some extra money for themselves.There was a warden wandering around Brufut Woods.I wasn't sure about his credentials but I gave him some money in return for an official- looking ticket.
Referring to the point raised about the hassle around the tourist strip,the solution is not to stay there.
The Sheraton are doing some great deals at the moment.You can spend a week there virtually hassle free.Because it stands alone there is no bumster infrastructure.Go out the front entrance to Tanji and Brufut and nobody will even stop and talk to you:the locals are just busy getting on with their own lives without feeding off the tourists.There are three beach bars between the hotel and Tanji lagoons, if you walk along the beach.Sure, the owners will request you stop for a drink but you can avoid two of the beach bars by walking along the cliffs from the edge of the hotel[and there are some good birds along there!]

Well that's put me off going, I was thinking about it in the years ahead, but I shall think again now. Love birding at my own pace.

wolfbirder said:

Well that's put me off going, I was thinking about it in the years ahead, but I shall think again now. Love birding at my own pace.

Click to expand...

Don't let it deter you!
Avoid the tourist honeypots you will be fine.The Sheraton is as far away from there and close enough to some great habitats to make it an enjoyable,hassle free holiday.You can go there and bird at your own pace without having to travel too far
We only visited the tourist strip once and noticed the difference in the levels of hassle.Mind you even then we just laughed it off.
We didn't go near Kotu Creek guessing it might just be a place where we would attract unwanted attention.
The only guides I saw werene taking a bored looking trio around Brufut Woods.He was simply pointing his telescope at a bird and the weary threesome just looked through the scope and ticked off another bird.He said he could show me some rare bird or other, at an inflated price,in an arrogant way.His attitude annoyed me so I told him where to go.
The other guide was dragging an older birdwatcher around Abuko.I was telling the birder how good it was at Tanji.He said he wanted to go but the guide was setting the agenda and hadn't taken him there!
To be honest it was one of the most relaxing holidays we have ever had.The hotel was wonderful and the birdwatching second to none-just avoid the honeypots
.

Hi,

I can only think that these must be the unlicensed guides who operate in the area. I went out with Modou Colley and hardly saw another guide, especially away from the tourist areas. Modou is chairman of the Gambia bird guides association and I am sure he would need to know about this. As for costs we were charged in total £110 for the two of us, which included Pirang all day, Abuko morning, Kotu creek area morning and Bijilo late afternoon early evening. Well worth it in my opinion as the lifers just kept coming. Some rare for the Gambia.

Ebola is having an effect as when I enquired Modou said most of his booked clients had cancelled their holidays. Totally no need. We were checked at the airport coming into Banjul from Gatwick so they are doing all they can to prevent it's spread into The Gambia. As with all things it only takes a few to spoil it for all, but be assured they are not all like this. The few guides we did meet when out with Modou were more than happy to show us birds they had found. Especially roosting pearl-spotted owlet at Kotu. We would never have found it.

I can't recommend The Gambia highly enough. I will be returning hopefully in November 2016 but this time up river.

Lee

Lee Baines said:

Hi,

I can only think that these must be the unlicensed guides who operate in the area. I went out with Modou Colley and hardly saw another guide, especially away from the tourist areas. Modou is chairman of the Gambia bird guides association and I am sure he would need to know about this. As for costs we were charged in total £110 for the two of us, which included Pirang all day, Abuko morning, Kotu creek area morning and Bijilo late afternoon early evening. Well worth it in my opinion as the lifers just kept coming. Some rare for the Gambia.

Ebola is having an effect as when I enquired Modou said most of his booked clients had cancelled their holidays. Totally no need. We were checked at the airport coming into Banjul from Gatwick so they are doing all they can to prevent it's spread into The Gambia. As with all things it only takes a few to spoil it for all, but be assured they are not all like this. The few guides we did meet when out with Modou were more than happy to show us birds they had found. Especially roosting pearl-spotted owlet at Kotu. We would never have found it.

I can't recommend The Gambia highly enough. I will be returning hopefully in November 2016 but this time up river.

Lee

Click to expand...

Sadly Lee these are all licensed guides, unless they are all using fake licenses and wearing the official shirts when they aren't licensed.
Frankly I can't wait to return to The Gambia. But I will not be returning to Kotu any time soon.

Lee Baines said:

As for costs we were charged in total £110 for the two of us, which included Pirang all day, Abuko morning, Kotu creek area morning and Bijilo late afternoon early evening. Well worth it in my opinion as the lifers just kept coming.

Click to expand...

This is fair enough if you actually want a guide, but for many folk finding the birds themselves is half of the pleasure and if the guides in general are hassling unaccompanied birders to such an extent that it is bordering on abuse and threats, then it is hardly a ringing endorsement of the birding scene at large.

Na, if they can't sort it out, I too wouldn't bother with a return to the country - plenty of other good destinations.

Hi all

Just got back last night and this thread caught my eye, went for my 60th with my partner who is not a birder but said she would like to come out with me rather than be round the pool. Stayed at the Bakuto and our first experience with the guides came after about an hour of unpacking, about half four in the afternoon we were just having a look out over the creek from the hotel viewing platform when two guides came approached one spoke and gave the usual chat about trips etc said I'd only just got here and would go to the bridge if I needed one. Next morning had a quick look again on the platform before breakfast and the guide who never spoke was there and said if I wanted a look over the golf course and creek he would take me round free and if I liked his birding skills maybe book a few trips so I thought ok nothing to lose, so after breakfast me and jane went out with him, his name was Lamin Daboe been birding for 15 years, he said an hour walk but lasted two and a half saw some good stuff imm African harrier hawk, bearded barbit, African scops owl, violet turaco etc yes I could have seen these on my own with the exception of the owl, never would have seen that, but wanted to go further afield and this being my first time in the Gambia thought I'd give him a go so next day we went off to Brufut woods for the price of £70 for the two of us sounds expensive but about the going rate now, anyway 7-30 next morning he's outside with a taxi can't drive, gets to Brufut and meets a warden who then joins us as he's been out earlier and found the Verreaux's eagle owl sitting on branch at the top of a tree giving great views, even jane was excited seeing that. There is two ways of looking at it go on your own and try and find birds which I do like doing or hire a guide and chat about birds and life in the Gambia which we both found interesting. Later we saw the long tailed nightjars which was totally a wonderful experience but slightly spoiled by two English birders who flushed it earlier by getting too close with tripods and flash guns, I just got a record shot with my trusty canon sx50. They asked if we had seen the owl said yes showed them my pics and then moaned to their guide for not doing his job properly which at that point my partner wanted to wrap his tripod round his neck ! We got some more good birds more turacos, pearl spotted owlet, paradise flycatcher etc off then to Tanji beach for more good birding. Later that afternoon when back at Kotu bridge the guide we saw the night before came to chat with us asking what we had seen told him we had been out with Lamin he got a bit miffed and that it was him who we were talking to last night and we should have booked him ! maybe he should have got up a bit earlier and bat Lamin to it ! Had one more trip booked and that was to Mandinaba, Farasuto forest Pirang best birds seen at Mandinaba was wahlbergs eagle which was nesting in an enclosed allotment, saw female on the nest and male perched nearby long crested and brown snake eagle all within an hour great stuff plus black headed heron our only one of the trip. At Farasuto we had brown wood owl, greyish eagle owl and white backed night heron being star birds. Pirang gave us sacred ibis, great white and pink backed pelican, namaqua dove, northern red bishop, mosque swallow. All in all a great week also went out by myself and enjoyed that too just find my own birds, without Lamin I wouldn't have seen some star birds and I would definitely recommend him, thanks to lee and pratincol for their tips and yes we did do the wake up with birds trip and was brilliant one of the highlights of the week monkeys were great

Gary

Hope you had a great holiday.
What was the hotel like?

Thanks Pratincol, yes we had a great time would definitely go back, its a shame there was not more people there hotels having a hard time ours got rid of 20 staff at the beginning of the season and a few restaurants had not opened. The Bakuto was quite nice, clean and staff very friendly only 25 of the 80 rooms were taken this time last year all were full we booked ours in feb this year and paid £749 each plus bit more for half board and air con, talking to birder from Birmingham who booked a few weeks ago and got 2 weeks for £600 !

Gary

Thanks.I have heard good reports about the hotel.
You weren't to know prices were going to drop. It's a shame you don't have a crystal ball.