A Short Walk in The Gambian Bush – Photostories by Jason Florio & Helen Jones

Sunday 8th November

Tendaba Camp is perfectly situated on the banks of the River Gambia, with spectacular views across this vast body of water (at this point) to the opposite North Bank, where we hope to be in about 5 weeks on our way back to Makasutu Culture Forest, near Kembujeh Village. The camp us undergoing a lot of construction at the moment but we are happy to have been able to have a running water shower and a couple of cold beers. Also, they very kindly gave us all complimentary rooms when they heard what we were doing and they threw in a communal dish of fish domada (very tasty peanut based sauce with rice).

There is so much wildlife by the river, in particular, including thousands of Weaver birds, which Samba managed to find a baby one tied to a tree by its leg, in the baking sun when he and Florio were out walking. They are particularly fond of the giant ancient boabab trees (the sacred tree of The Gambia), where you can see their intricately-weaved hanging nets, We suspect that the baby fell out and some kids tied it at the bottom of the tree in the hope that the mother would find it. We’re not quite sure how they thought the mother would untie the string?!

It seemed to take quite a shine to Florio as he walked into the restaurant with the little mite quite happily perched on his finger! We tried to feed it, but to no avail. Then just by chance, Malang (the very same of Makasutu Wildlife Trust) walked by who just happens to be a wildlife expert. He suggested that the only thing to do was to put the bird back in the boabab tree and hope that the mother would find it (although not necessarily accept it back into the fold as it had been handled by human hands). We did just that, perched it on the highest branch we could reach and left it with promises that we would return later to see if it was still there (if so, we had already decided that it would join the expedition as our mascot – sitting atop Neil or Paddy whilst on the road!).

As promised, we did return later and it was nowhere to be seen. We can only hope that it was rescued by its mother or at least other Weaver birds and had not dropped off the branch out of hunger and exhaustion to become Tendaba Camp cat food – as one of the waitresses succinctly put it!

A whole day off. Much needed by us all. We have walked long and hard this week and reached our first 100mile mark. Only another another 600 to then!

More soon from the road!

A Short Walk update

http://www.justgiving.com/gardensforlifegambia

The River Gambia from Tendaba Village, The Gambia

Image: Jason Florio 2009

If you would like to help the ‘Short Walk In The Gambian Bush’ expedition members get more Gardens for Life up and running for Gambian school kids, then please visit our Just Giving page and see how even a small donation can make a big difference to these kids.

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