We've been in The Gambia for over a week now and reached the end of the river the day before yesterday. After 150 miles from Banjul on motorbikes (either no wind or the wind is against) we reach the end point of the river in Georgetown (actually called Janjungbura). There an electricity cable hangs over the river at a height of about 16 meters and most sailboats, like us, can't go under there. No problem, because we've seen a lot on this beautiful river and it's also time to return.

It's like a zoo you sail through. With large and lots of small animals. The big animals are beautiful to see and keep their distance. We regularly see a hippopotamus swimming in the distance, just with his head above the water and sometimes with a young one. But when we come close to something, it disappears under water and doesn't show itself anymore. With the binoculars they can be seen very clearly and can often be heard while snorting and tasting. In the National Park we saw two large chimpanzees (lured to the side by the rangers, otherwise you don't get to see them), and two other kinds of monkeys sitting in the trees at the side of the river. We also see a lot of birds and often large birds of prey like an eagle. And we saw one snake swimming in the river. Crocodiles are here too, but we haven't spotted them yet.
Well, and then those little critters ... during the day, luckily that's not so bad. But in one place we meet short of those annoying flies (tse-tse flies). Many beautiful butterflies fly and other small creatures don't show much during the day. In the evening and at night all the more ... fortunately we can close our boat with good mosquito netting on the top hatches, homemade insect screens on the side windows, a good insect screen for the cabin entrance and a mosquito net that we hang under the bimini to close the cockpit. Only the homemade mosquito nets on the windows let small non stabbing creatures through as soon as it is dark outside and there is light burning inside. So we quickly developed the following strategy. At the end of the afternoon we always have a drink with the Barbarossa (alternately with them and with us). Nice and very nice to share the experiences of the day with each other. We're already greasing ourselves with deet, but until sunset we don't suffer from anything. Around 6.45 pm we make sure we are on our own boats and that the cockpit is well closed with the mosquito net. Experience teaches us that we shouldn't do this later, because then we get stabbed with a leak and are crazy about the flying animals. From 19.00 it is really dark and then we stay in the boat or in the cockpit under the mosquito net with as little light as possible. Most nights we are in bed early, still readable with a small light but as little light as possible to keep animals outside. The next morning we always have to wait and see how many critters are outside on the boat and on the mosquito net. Usually they are already dead by then, but not all of them, especially not those earwigs crawling around everywhere. So a fixed ritual is cleaning the boat just before breakfast. After that, everything can be opened again, the mosquito net is gone and it is 'beast-free' again until it gets dark.

From 5 o'clock in the morning it is nice and cool in the boat. Also outside it is very nice as soon as it gets light. Lovely cool is still 25 degrees. Until the sun comes and then everything inside and outside heats up quickly. With a high of 35 degrees at the end of the day (often during drinks), especially when there is no wind. Sometimes we wonder if we should drink a cold beer or better throw it over our bodies. When we go to bed it's often above 30 degrees in the bedrooms, but the fannets provide cooling, so sleeping is no problem.
We've been self-sufficient for almost three weeks; we make all the bread ourselves and draw for dinner from the huge stock we've stocked in La Gomera. That often means dinner without meat, but very varied and tasty. So far we haven't been able to buy more than some fruit and vegetables. Internet is nowhere to be found. Even GPRS (for the blackberries) only works in the early morning when there seems to be a signal coming from Senegal. Toine then hoists his BB a bit higher up the mast in the morning and can receive his mail. But mail to zeiljachtbrandaan@tele2.nl we can't read. So we rely on the shortwave radio for mail and updating our site. Also sometimes a separate experience. Our girls are doing fine without TV and nintendo (that's the appointment for in The Gambia) and look for other creativity. They have been playing chess with Koen and Giel for a few evenings during drinks.

Well, The Gambia is really beautiful and a huge experience that we wouldn't have wanted to miss. So we like to take all hardship for granted and it's just part of it. Just like in other situations, the positive feeling is all the more intense when hardships have preceded it to achieve it. Good, now back to our experiences of the past week.

From Bintang Bolong (where the previous report ended) we sail up the river for a day to the Mandori creek where we stop on time in the afternoon. We have to fight against a tidal sea with strong winds. That is a bit disappointing and it is really waves up and down. But the Mandori Creek is really beautiful. Such a creek is a side arm of the river and the entrance is shallow (we can just cross it and it is often difficult to find the best route with the depth gauge). After that it gets deep enough again. A narrow arm of the river with forests and an enormous amount of birds around us. Wonderful to sail in for a bit and drop anchor on a nice spot. We are all alone here with the Barbarossa in a beautiful nature with a lot of bird sounds around us.

The next morning as soon as it's light (7.00 am) we go further up the river. We just sail out of the creek with low water (that makes a difference of about a meter) and have to look for a navigable exit. Kick if that just works out. We make a long day and motorbikes 9 hours on a still quite wide river and banks at a distance. Luckily a lot less wind and waves than the previous day. Once in a while we meet fishermen and we see people on the shore who are waving friendly. In the afternoon we pass Elephant Island and from there the river becomes really more beautiful, narrower, with fresh water and roughly vegetated banks. Just above Sea Horse Island we drop our anchor, again in the middle of nature without anything or anyone around us.

The next day (Ma 16 Nov) after breakfast we sail with the current on the motorbike further up the river. In the afternoon we stop at the village of Kudang Tenga, expecting to buy some fruit and/or vegetables. A naïve expectation. We are just anchored and children in boats come up to us who ask for a pen and also like to have empty water bottles. We give them in exchange (we think) for taking the garbage bag away from us. The children put it in their boat, but then it is opened. They take out what they think is of value (like an empty pringles-bus or an empty pack of gravy) and throw the rest into the water. It's a shocking experience and the contrast is huge. What is waste to us has value for them. And what is worth to us to leave the waste in the right place and not in the river has no value at all for them. Toine and Jan stay on the boat and Ellen and I go to shore with Koen and Eline. There we are picked up again by a bunch of children who show us the way to a shop. It is a very poor village, huts with thatched roofs, small pieces of fish drying with lots of flies on them, the children look poor and dirty. Really poorer and less socially organized towards tourists than Bintang Bolong. In the small shop there is almost nothing, just some rice. The children guide us further through the village with the promise that there really are vegetables available. Then we arrive at a hut where the mother of one of the children brings out a bag of potatoes. We can buy that. But that's not the intention; that's their own food and we don't even have small money with us to pay for it. So we walk back to our boat and on the way we can do something for the people by taking pictures of them (Ellen does) which she will send to an email-address that she gets. Impressed but with mixed feelings we go back to our boats and sail a bit further to Deer Island to anchor for the night. Just before we drop anchor we see a group of hippos in the distance. We calmly sail towards them and see them coming up from time to time, tasting and buzzing. A beautiful sight, but at a distance. Later, when we are anchored and have a drink at the Barborasso, we see them swimming near the boat. It is a bit exciting when we row back to our boat in our dinghy in the dark (no motor on it). Hippos can be very aggressive when they are cornered and are cause of death number 1 of the animals in Africa.

The next morning (the day before yesterday) we set off early and explore the area around the anchorage, hoping to see some more hippos. With success! When we sail to Bird Island we meet the five other Dutch sailboats that are on their way back. It is quite special to be there with seven Dutch boats. At Bird Island we see some hippos and we stop to climb a hill on the side with a nice view over the river. A little further on we drop anchor just before the National Park for the night. Two rangers check there and force us to lie down a bit further on. After some discussion (because according to the pilot we are allowed to lie down there) we do it anyway, because one ranger is rather persistent. We notice that again the next day, when we see them in the morning and ask where we can see chimpanzees. They take us to the place where they occasionally feed them, and soon two big chimpanzees show up. How impressive to see such a large primeval beast in the wilderness. One is called Jumbo and is the boss of the group of 13 chimpanzees that live on this island. Jumbo gets very angry when he notices that the rangers have lured him but have no food with him. Soon they disappear again and we don't get to see them anymore. Then comes the discussion about how much we have to pay for this. We think we already paid for the entrance to the park at the clearing in Banjul, and the rangers say that this is another instance and that we have to pay again. Equally annoying, but soon we decide that we shouldn't let such a wonderful experience be ruined by such a discussion and we just pay. The following hours we tour quietly along the banks of the Baloon Islands and we see many birds and a different kind of monkeys sitting in the trees. Also very beautiful! At the end of the day we arrive in Georgetown, the end point of the river.

Georgetown is a village that once, three centuries ago, was very lively with a lot of shipping and slave trade. Now it has lost its glory, but they are used to tourists and that has its advantages. In the evening we can have dinner in a small tent at the river where we can join a group of Swedish tourists for a dinner buffet. The next morning (yesterday) we go to the side for some shopping and there we're also very kindly welcomed and shown around by three older boys without all the children chasing us. That way we can buy some (potatoes, bananas, watermelon and bottles of water). There's a public water tap in the village where we're allowed to fetch water and so the Barbarossa can fill their water tank with bottles and jerrycans again. We don't need water because we filled up the tank with the water maker just before we sailed into the sweet part of the river. There is also diesel in the village with a jetty nearby. So we decide to get diesel as well, now that we have been helped so well with all the other things here. The diesel comes in 20 litre jerry cans, four for the Barborossa and three for us. And so we have all the comforts we need again and the day is almost over. We sail a little further down the river to anchor for the night in the middle of nature. At dusk seven fishing boats come towards us and start fishing right around us. We turn out to be in their fishing area, but they don't mind at all. For a while we see small lights of the boats and we hear voices around us. Then they quickly disappear with the current back to their village.

Today we found a record number of dead critters on our boat when we woke up. Well, with a few buckets of water, they'll be gone in no time. The girls are doing a lot of schooling (catching up the days before) and we calmly sail down the river again through the National Park. This time we don't see any monkeys and chimpanzees. Only a lot of birds and a big hippopotamus in front of our boat. Tonight we are going to make pizza on the Barbarossa at our Cobb-BBQ. That will probably be a very nice decision of this beautiful day. The next few days we sail back to Banjul. There we will do some more shopping for the trip to the Cape Verden and we expect to leave The Gambia somewhere in the middle of next week.