Why does it always end up in the one place most holiday makers would want avoid at any cost? In Egypt students could (genuinely) tell their offspring and husbands they had had a visit to a brick factory. Here it's the smelliest, smokey fishing 'port'. I use 'port' in the loosest possible way. It's the place where the piroques land their catch so its full of fish heads, smoking tables, squabbling gulls and people, the women sometimes with a baby on their backs, poking at fish until they eventually buy the ones they want. Hotels, institutions, housewives all jostling for the best of the catch. The reason for this visit, and a cold, breezy hour on a balcony overlooking the mayhem below, was down to the tour company rep at the hotel. She happily decided I was better qualified to sort out birding trips (fine) and promptly pointed a lovely couple in my direction. As I say, birding trips - fine, but the husband wanted to see where they brought the catch and as I wanted the bookshop in the same general direction I ended up tagging along to share the taxi. I only hope the photos were worth it!
Blue sky, sunshine, lots of birds and trees and plants and colour. Well, at least after around 8.00 in the morning. It was just getting light when we arrived at Lamin Lodge and pitch black when we left the hotel (there'd just been a power cut so it was torchlight to the car), But when the sun came up it was beautiful. A whole new collection of birds but also some great shots of the women in the fields. The real Gambia. Breakfast included oysters in a tangy sauce freshly taken from the mangroves where they grow, Can't get better than that. Afternoon joining the dogs lazily on the beach with a couple of bulbuls singing in the palm tree just above my head. Tomorrow who knows? Somewhere but not yet sure where.
As golf courses go it is a standard 18-hole golf course. As golf courses go it also has some interesting features. Notably lacking due to the dry season is grass. The course is a dusty meander with some low-lying wild plants as ground cover. Being Gambia it is also a good bird-watching site. Set alongside a mangrove swamp but with trees and shrub cover all across the site it is a bit hit-and-miss for golfer and bird-watcher alike! Even more interesting are the local pigs and their litters which are allowed to wander freely scavenging for pine nuts. As a non-golfer but having watched golf on television the bit I found most fascinating is the hole in the middle of the mangrove swamp. To hit a ball at the post requires the ball to circumnavigate a few palm trees, bend over water and (hopefully) land on a small island surrounded by mangroves. By anyone's standards a hole-in-one seems an unlikely event. From the point of view of anyone criss-crossing the golf course early in the morning the flashing red of a gonalek (bird) and the brief but wonderful sight of a red squirrel are hard to beat.
It must have been quite a shock for a little Birmingham fly. One minute happily (or maybe not) flying around in the cold and wet, then suddenly finding itself in a strange new world. Fortunately this strange new world wasn't unfriendly,(though there was one attempt at fly murder which thankfully didn't succeed) but clearly the fly wanted out. He'd come wrapped up in winter woolies. One wonders what he felt (if he finally escaped at Banjul) to be in a hot country with no familiar faces. If there is a fly-speak hopefully it will cover both Brummie and Mandinka, a curious mixture to any fly-cousin listening. If the little fly actually got back to England it had certainly been an adv
It doesn't seem a few months since I last flew out to the Gambia. This holiday really is an unexpected treat. I have a list of things 'to do'; visit the wonderful bookshop in New Bakau; bird-watching (high on the list though maybe without too much travelling this time); reading (I've three whole books to enjoy!) and generally have a lazy time. I've always been on the go so much I haven't really had time just to 'chill out' (though maybe in 30 degrees plus 'chill' sounds a contradiction in terms!) but the heat and a complaining joint mean that this time I really hope to have some 'chill out' time - until I get bored that is! Good food, cups of tea at will, and at night the magical, wonderful sound of Atlantic waves breaking on the beach are my idea of heaven. |
Angela TorpeyI have taught Egyptology for nearly 25 years, for 21 years with the Centre for Lifelong Learning, the University of Warwick and for just over 10 years on the internationally recognised Certificate of Egyptology (Distance Learning by e-Learning) with the University of Manchester led by Professor Rosalie David.
Because of changes to the lifelong learning programme at Warwick I now teach independently, although I also teach dayschools for the university. For nearly 20 years I have led Study Tours to Egypt both independently and as guest lecturer with Ancient World Tours. Archives
December 2018
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