Sunday 27 February 2011

Albreda & James Island

On Friday we were up early and waiting to be picked up by Keboteh as we were taking Uncle Chris to stay the night at Jerreh Camp Sittanunka and also calling in at Albreda and James Island. At quarter past eight there was still no sign of Keboteh so Paul phoned him he had only forgotten, ten minutes later he turned up. As we arrived in Banjul there were people all dressed up in uniform ready for the Independence Day celebrations. We arrived at the ferry terminal just missing a ferry so had a good thirty minute wait. The ferry eventually arrived however the crossing was the slowest ever as we were going against the tide it took us about an hour and forty minutes. Once across Kaba was waiting to take us onto the camp. We unpacked and then ate a lovely fish benichin lunch the only issue was all the bees which were buzzing around apparently Kaba said there was a nest in one of the trees.


We spent the afternoon chilling at the resort before taking a jeep ride to Albreda. We picked up our guide on the edge of the village and first called at the museum as we had just missed a pirogue which was going to the island. We then made our way back to the jetty for the pirogue. Once in the pirogue we set off, by now it was 6 o’clock and the river was starting to get a little rough hence Paul got quite wet when a wave lapped over the boat. At the recent Roots festival the island was renamed to Kuntah Kinteh Island by the president. We looked around and our guide told us the history of the island. As the sun was setting we made our way back to the boat leaving the pelicans who were just coming in to roost on the island. We arrived back at the camp for a late dinner of fish and tiger prawn skewers with rice, chips and salad. Abigail and Bradley ate little as they were so tired so I took them off to bed.












Kaba's brother




No comments:

Post a Comment