Arriving in Bansang

After leaving Basse we drove for an hour to reach Bansang. We came to Bintou’s Paradise Hotel, which is right on the River Gambia, and after checking the rooms decided to stay.

It was really nice to be by water, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the river. It looked so different depending on the light.

The ferry across to ‘Bushtown’ was also fascinating to watch – the vehicle ferry is pulled on a rope, and the passenger boats are steered across by small boys who are dwarfed by the punts they use to move the boats.

The vehicle ferry to Bushtown - this one is carrying a tractor.

The rooms were fine – very dark when the power was off, but clean and comfortable. So far, in both Bansang and Basse, the electricity has been scheduled – it’s on from 9am to about midday and then goes off until 18.30 when it stays on until 2am. At least with this schedule you know when you can charge your laptop etc, unlike Bakau where it just randomly goes off and you don’t know when it will come on again!

After dropping our stuff we went to find food – we tried for afra but all the fresh meat had gone, so we ended up having a slightly strange but tasty concoction of spaghetti, omelette, fried spam (which Gambians call corned beef) and half a tapalapa. After dinner I had some attaya so managed to stay up a bit later than the night before! After the success of the day, and the strong tea, I was buzzing and didn’t sleep until about midnight.