O.Reville1989
I started off with nothing and I've still got some
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.
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.