Gambia 2021

So after missing out last year to Covid, we finally managed to get back to the Gambia. It wasn’t without incident though thanks to the new variant Omicrom: Palm Beach told us in early December it wouldn’t be opening after all, our new choice, Bungalow Beach, couldn’t take credit card payment, so we ended up going to Palm Beach to get our refund in cash to pay the new hotel. Portugal changed its entry rules on the day of departure meaning a quick pack followed by a trip to Leeds for Lateral Flow Tests on the way to the airport. Queues in the Gambia to pay for and then take PCR tests before we flew back and anxious times hoping the tests would come back in time and be negative. All this on top of checking the news constantly to see if UK was going to go into lockdown and stop us getting back at all! But in between all that we had a great time back in the sunshine and seeing our friends there.

The Gambia was pretty much deserted—only 5 rooms in our hotel were occupied. It was nice to have a peaceful, relaxing holiday, but hard for the locals who needed the business. Buba picked us up at the airport and with the help of a local policeman he broke into the hotel to find someone as it was all locked up and in darkness! Most days were spent round the pool with long walks along the beach. We experienced our first rain in the Gambia—not much though. Buba took us to his compound where we met his kids and the neighbours. It was nice to see real Gambian life—a shared compound.

It was great to see Awa, Sona and Bintu again. She plied us with plenty of fruit and peanut brittle. It was an hour’s walk to hers though, so we met some new fruit ladies, Abi and Yai, who were a bit closer. We spent Christmas day with Awa and her family.

Sad news that Julbrew is no longer made in the Gambia. It is now imported from Senegal so more expensive. Found a great new restaurant on the strip though — Saffron.