January 2007
The Gambia
From 5 to 15 January 2007 we were in The Gambia where we did a five-day birdwatching safari upriver to Georgetown and saw 177 different species of birds. We also visited Bijilo, Abuko and Tanji Nature Reserves.
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1/51 We arrived at Banjul Airport at around midnight on Friday 5 January 2007 and checked into the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi.
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2/51 The next morning we explored the area and had a short walk on the beach. This Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu was one of the first birds we saw.
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3/51 In the afternoon we walked to Kotu, just north of Kololi, and visited the sewage ponds and golf course, both very good birdwatching spots.
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4/51 On Sunday we went to Bijilo Nature Reserve, just 20 minutes walking south of our hotel.
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5/51 We spent about six hours in the park, which was not only full of birds but there were lots of monkeys too.
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6/51 We were excited to see our first hornbill, a Red-billed Hornbill. They were very friendly, probably because they're used to being fed peanuts by tourists.
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7/51 Kololi Beach
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8/51 On Monday we were picked up at our hotel by Ebrima Sidebeh, who would be our birding guide for the next 5 days. The first leg of the journey east was very dusty and everything inside the car was full of red sand.
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9/51 At around 2pm we stopped for 'lunch' at a small restaurant near Kalaji, but they were out of food so we had to continue to eat dust.
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10/51 In the evening we arrived at Tendaba Camp where we checked into a nice room with en suite facilities, although with cold water. This is the bar at the restaurant.
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11/51 In the evening we visited some birding places. This is the old unused Tendaba Airport, and after sunset we also looked for nightjars and owls.
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12/51 On Tuesday morning we did a 3-hour boat trip through the mangroves on the north side of the river Gambia.
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13/51 It was an excellent boat trip and we saw many different birds, including a Goliath Heron, many Malachite and Blue-breasted Kingfishers, White-crowned Night Heron, African Darters, and more.
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14/51 Great White Egret
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15/51 The roads were incredibly hilariously bad; the asphalt on most of the main road on the south side of the river is so full of large holes that it is a labyrinth for cars, and most times cars try to drive next to the road, like here. It was very bumpy and very very slow.
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16/51 Red-billed Oxpecker
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17/51 We stopped many times to look for birds, and usually a small crowd of children came to watch us from a safe distance.
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18/51 A beautiful baobab tree.
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19/51 Arthur on the bad road.
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20/51 The car was very ill-equipped for the rough journey. Our guide had promised a comfortable 4WD large car, but we ended up crammed in this small van with three other birders.
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21/51 Our camp at Georgetown was on an island and we had to take this small ferry several times. We stayed at Baobolong Camp for two nights.
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22/51 Near the ferry Arthur found this neat weaver's nest.
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23/51 On Wednesday morning our first stop on the agenda was an abandoned quarry, the best place in the country to see Red-throated Bee-eaters.
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24/51 Unsuprisingly the van broke down when we were near Bansang. It took the driver about an hour to fix the problem.
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25/51 Ebrima took us to his family in Bansang for lunch, which included beef or fish in a peanut sauce on rice. It was very good.
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26/51 Sometimes they had to use a metal ramp to get our car on the ferry.
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27/51 In the evening we went into a forest to find the elusive and very rare Adamawa Turtle Dove. The guide and other birders listened to its calls very carefully and eventually we found it.
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28/51 This was our room at Baobolong Camp.
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29/51 On Thursday we left Georgetown and drove back west on the north side of the river Gambia. The roads here were much better.
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30/51 Along the way we stopped at a good place for Egyptian Plovers and we found two. The Egyptian Plover is the grail bird for birders in Gambia.
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31/51 This is the beautiful Abyssinian Roller. We saw many of these on our trip.
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32/51 At Bambatenda we stopped for lunch just before our ferry across the river. It is on the Trans-Gambia Highway an important road connection for Senegal.
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33/51 The ferry across the 800m Gambia River here was a much larger ferry than the ones we took before. The ferry costs us 4 dalasi (10 euro cents) per person.
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34/51 On our way back to Tendaba Camp we came across a large bush fire. We stopped immediately looking for birds, as fires attract birds, and we saw 25+ Carmine Bee-eaters, which we had unsuccessfully tried to find earlier that day.
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35/51 At Tendaba Camp we got the same room (#9) as earlier that week.
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36/51 The restaurant at Tendaba Camp.
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37/51 On Friday morning we did another 3-hour boat trip through the mangroves around Tendaba. This time we were specifically looking for the African Blue Flycatcher. We only got a glimpse of it.
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38/51 View of Tendaba from the river.
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39/51 On the dock lots of kids were waiting to walk with us back to the camp.
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40/51 The last part of the journey brought us again by the sandy roads that were under construction and we were once more covered in red dust.
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41/51 On Saturday we rented bikes thinking that we could get around by ourselves for the last few days. We were wrong. It was much too hot, the roads were horrible and the distances too far, so we brought the bikes back after just a half day.
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42/51 In the afternoon we went back to Kotu Creek and the golf course where we had also been a week before.
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43/51 We saw six different kingfishers in The Gambia. This is the Pied Kingfisher, which was the most abundant one.
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44/51 Two Little Bee-eaters.
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45/51 On Sunday we got a bush taxi to bring us to Abuko Nature Reserve where we spent most of the day.
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46/51 We finally saw a Giant Kingfisher, ...
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47/51 ... and an African Pygmy Kingfisher.
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48/51 At the end of the park was an orphanage where injured birds and animals recover. They had five Hyenas that we watched getting fed. We hadn't see any Hyenas in the wild.
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49/51 Hooded Vulture.
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50/51 On Monday we made a short visit to Tanji Bird Reserve, which lies on the coast. We spent two hours here.
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51/51 We found a bush taxi to bring us from Tanji to Bijilo, where we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon. We flew back to Amsterdam that evening.
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