Tag: adventure

How To Spend Two Weeks In The Gambia

Published on by Rachel LishmanLeave a comment

What started as a quest for some winter sun, resulted in an unforgettable adventure.

Despite only being six hours’ flight from London and in the same time zone, The Gambia is so much more than a fly-n-flop destination. While tourists have visited The Smiling Coast since the 1960s searching for warmer winter temperatures, sea views and friendly people, it’s only more recently that the country has seen a surge in eco-tourism.

Opportunities for authentic exploration beyond Gambia’s coastal strip are growing and are arguably the more responsible path to take. Instead of giving all our tourist dollar to companies like Tui offering all-inclusive deals with hotels that aren’t Gambian owned, booking directly with local tour operators allows for wider spread of income to Gambians and a more diverse experience.

Base At Bakotu Hotel

Base camps don’t come better than Bakotu. My secluded room was expertly arranged in planted gardens. Inclusive breakfasts were a leisurely affair and whole days of recuperation were encouraged. The jewel in its crown? A wonderfully secluded wooden deck that overlooks Kotu creek and its birds. It was a joy to observe sunrise, sunset and everything in between from this spot. Birds of prey perched just above my head at dawn. Sun squirrels and vervet monkeys played and ate around me all day. I even caught a glimpse of a civet through the tall bamboo in dusky twilight.

A Day With Yabouy Home Cooking

Ida and her four daughters-in-law run this female-led business from their family’s compound near Tanji. Visitors learn how to cook chicken yassa and nutty domodo, both staples of Gambian cuisine, while our money goes back into community education and development. Ida’s passion for her culture shines through in all the activities, which include buying fresh ingredients from the fish market, cooking, beading and dancing on full bellies after lunch.

Overnight Stay In River Gambia National Park

Five hours drive inland from Gambia’s coastal resorts, chimpanzees roam free on three islands in the middle of River Gambia National Park. Set up in the seventies as a rescue centre for abused and injured chimps, it has become one of the world’s most successful conservation stories. The CRP has always trained and employed locals to monitor and care for the chimps. Today, seven local communities benefit from visitors spending a night or two in their spacious tents. I visited for one night, hosted by Owaru. Project Leader and local shaman. My stay included two hours boating around the islands at sunset to spot chimps, dinner by candlelight at the river’s edge and a dawn hike to search for baboons, birds and the endangered Western Red Colobus monkey.

Fathala Wildlife Reserve, Senegal

Travelling across the border into Senegal via a quick visit to Gambia’s capital, Banjul, makes for a long day. Although like most trips that take a little effort, it’s worth it. While France and Britain apportioned borders to these newly independent countries across the region in the early sixties, the roots of its ethnic groups remained. My guide Abdoulie whose family were Fula, explained to me that he still feels closer cultural ties to a Senegalese Fula person, than he would a Mandinka Gambian. Of course, the complexities of The Gambia’s history can’t be fully explored in one day. Though at face value it was interesting to pick up on the cultural differences in language, religion, currency and even approach to education at the land border into Senegal.

Fathala works hard to protect the extremely rare Western Giant Eland. We took an open top safari route that focused on birds, the eland and rare Red Patas monkeys. However, I’d strongly suggest not requesting their ‘lion walk’ – a controversial activity they still offer, sadly due to tourist demand.

Guided Birding

The Gambia is a birder’s paradise. While I saw many birds from the comfort of my hotel (sometimes even my sun lounger!) exploring the nearby countryside with a guide was an experience in itself. The Gambia Bird Watcher’s Association trains young people for two years, with the aim of creating jobs in eco-tourism. Their headquarters at Kotu bridge offer excursions from a few hours to whole weeks of birding as packaged deals with a guide. I spent three separate days birding with a guide at both coastal and inland locations, spotting over a hundred species from huge owls to tiny kingfishers.

A Dual-Stay Holiday?

As it was my first time in The Gambia I hadn’t considered a dual stay. I definitely will next time. Others I met were staying at Bakotu for a week then heading to one of the inland eco-lodges for daily river excursions and wildlife spotting. As well as visits to different market towns. Another great idea to make sure our tourist spend goes even further into communities beyond the coastal strip.

Of course, The Gambia had what I originally wanted in droves: Sun with a sea breeze, lovely beaches and welcoming people. Although it’s also a fantastic holiday destination for the more curious traveller. Stepping out of the hotel often, supporting local businesses and making an effort to research local taxis, guides and tour operators makes for a more responsible visit.

Desert Island Birds: Going Wild On Lanzarote

Published on by Rachel LishmanLeave a comment

As the plane approaches Arrecife airport, the deep Atlantic blue beneath gives way to white frothing waves against a stark, volcanic shore.

Beyond, arid scrubland connects low-slung white towns. Their bright little boxes stopping abruptly at the foot of the rich ochre swathes of Lanzarote’s old volcanoes. In fact, the entirety of this Canary island and its neighbours once formed the edge of a singular giant volcano. Millenia before the package deals descended and visitors lined its sweeping bays with loungers and two-for-one cocktails.

At first glance Lanzarote looks barren but beautifully so. I fell for its landscape as soon as I left the airport. Its unique topography – a long chilli-shaped strip of earth amid the Atlantic – ensuring that one coast is continually sheltered and the other stays utterly windswept and wild most days of the year. Its unusual weather patterns first bring red dust across from the Sahara, then create breezes from the vast ocean to its West that are deceptively cool against the fierce equatorial sun.

On my first visit, I assumed that the island didn’t have much wild life beyond the antics of its Playa Blanca tourist strip in the far south. Although despite the hints dropped by black pumice, lava tubes and sparse vegetation, there are plenty of birds that call Lanzarote home. And also those that don’t. The isle’s quirky winds and geographical location off the north coast of Africa often create perfect conditions for surprise visitors. These migrants haven’t pre-booked like the hotel guests along the Costas, instead arriving without fanfare, giving birders a sudden but unforgettable encounter.

Even the beautifully barren volcanoes national park is home to birds and wildlife.

In the years since my first holiday, I’ve gradually broken down Lanzarote’s sweeping scenery into a series of nuanced habitats. Not everything is broad-brush arid desert. From the inland north which gets more rain, to the heat-hazy dunes near the village of Soo and its looming sea cliffs where Egyptian Vultures can regularly be seen catching thermals, the birds of Lanzarote have become masters of their pocketed environments.

Costa Teguise & Arrecife Marina

Dark volcanic rock collides with roaring sea along this paved coastal walkway, creating rock pools galore for hungry waders. Whimbrels, turnstones, sandpipers, plovers and even Spoonbills can be spotted. Hotels also plant palms, cacti and a few larger trees, providing shelter for smaller birds like the endemic Berthelot’s Pipit and fabulously squeaky Trumpeter Finches; as well as hunting perches for shrikes. The marina of the island’s capital an hour’s wander south is a welcome shelter for all sorts of shorebirds and worth a cursory loop at any time of year.

Tinajo Dunes & Desert

Home to the island’s desert specialists. Going with a local (I visited with a career archeologist who guided bird groups in his spare time!) or a least a hire car is best for this area. Early morning provides the best sightings, less wind and minimal heat haze. Spring is best for catching the male Bustards displaying. Stone Curlews, the elusive Black-bellied Sandgrouse and one of my all-time favourite birds, the Cream Coloured Courser, are so well camouflaged I’d recommend scanning the ground with binoculars and ample patience.

Off-shore Spots & Boat Trips

Seabirds compliment most boat excursions. If you go out in search of dolphins and whales, you’re also in with a strong chance of seeing Cory’s Shearwaters, skuas, terns and even rarer migrants like tropicbirds and petrels if you’re really lucky! A catamaran cruise from the northern tip of the mainland to La Graciosa is a wonderful day trip; and also the best chance to glimpse nesting birds along the huge, craggy precipices of the island’s north.

Hiking Haría & Valley of the Palms

A few lovely hikes of varying difficulty from the town of Haría – roughly 20 minutes drive from the Costa Teguise – are the best places to spot Lanzarote’s smaller birds, including Spectacled and Sardinian warblers, Linnets, African Blue tits and the namesake Canary. Keep eyes peeled high and low for Hoopoes and Barbary Partridges on the ground and raptors in the air. Particularly Kestrels, Pink Footed Falcons and Egyptian Vultures.

Anywhere you go on Lanzarote, you’re likely to bump into birds. Whether the Yellow-legged Gulls are waiting for your crumbs on the front at Puerto Del Carmen, or the Ruddy Turnstones are waddling across your towel on Playa Jabillo, you have two choices: Go out of your way to find the birds, or let the birds come to you!

You can follow along with my birding adventures as they happen https://www.instagram.com/rachroamswild