Fansu's Beach

2nd May – Fansu's Beach

We left Camping Sukuta this morning after filling up our water tanks
from their apparently drinkable reserves. They do currency exchange
too, which is quite useful. The owner had given us detailed
directions to get to the Mali consulate in Banjul. However, although
detailed, they were somewhat hard to follow, which resulted in us
going through the same junction four times in different directions,
until we realised all we really needed to do was pick up the Serekunda
road we'd used when we arrived. In Serekunda there were roadworks, so
we had to follow the other traffic down various tiny streets for a
while.

We arrived back at the port in Banjul, where the last direction was
"turn down a sand road". Well, there weren't any, so we asked. As
usual, we were given totally different directions by every different
person we asked. After some hunting around, and many u-turns, we
found the building which the consulate was supposed to inhabit –
rather unprepossessing actually, as it's also a generator shop. And
the security guy said that the consulate had given up the post, so no
longer existed!

He directed us to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which we actually
found without too much trouble, for once. Nicki went in and asked
them, and they said there is no longer a Mali consulate in Gambia.
Meanwhile, the man from the ministry gave Nicki his email address, his
postal address and telephone number in the hope she would visit again
soon. (I wonder how many camels he'd give to take her as a wife?)
Our plan B is to ask a French-speaking contact in UK to ring the Mali
embassy in Conakry and confirm the things we need to find out. While
Nicki was inside, two Gambians came over and chatted to me. You can't
stop for more than a few seconds without people coming over to pass
the time of day. The Gambians have a deserved reputation for
friendliness and hospitality. We hung around Banjul for a short
while, but there wasn't enough there to capture our imagination and
make us want to stay for long.

Our next errand was to go to a town called Fajara, just north-west of
Banjul, which we had been told by a French chap in Morocco had a Land
Rover dealer. I wanted to get some One-Shot Grease, to replace the
EP90 which has started leaking out of the swivels. (Standard Land
Rover stuff.) As we drove through Fajara, a white couple in a small
car waved to us, and I thought they were just being friendly, but they
chased after us and flagged us down. They were a couple from
Northampton who live in Gambia for half the year and run a nursery
school charity here. We gave them our English newspapers, only a few
days old, which Nicki got on the flight over, and asked them if they
knew where the garage was. They flagged down a passing Government car
(you can tell by the number plates, plus it was brand new) and the
driver said, I'll turn around, follow me and I'll take you there!
Typical of the Gambian hospitality.

We were taken straight to the garage, Euro Motor Services, which is
the main Land Rover distributor for West Africa. They carry a lot of
spare parts in stock, and ship them around the region if need be, for
Land Rovers and other European vehicles including BMW. They're a very
useful organisation to know of, and can be found at N13° 27' 55" W16°
41' 25" in Fajara, tel +220 495 600. They had the specific grease I
needed in stock, although I'd forgotten that it's quite expensive.

We ate lunch outside, to the amusement of four young children who
stood in our doorway. For some reason they thought I was hilariously
funny, and the oldest one imitated me munching at my baguette. When I
disappeared into the back of the truck, all 4 faces followed me
avidly, gesturing at Nicki to move out of the way so they could see!
We gave them a handful of jelly beans each before we left.

The last errand of the day was to find our campsite. While in the
ferry queue at Barra two days ago, we got talking to a French-Spanish
guy called Tony, who lived in Leeds for 6 years so speaks totally
fluent English with a slight Yorkshire accent. He was in a Toyota
with a trailer, heading to a beach on the Gambian coast, where he
plans to buy some land and set up a campsite. He recommended us to
check out this beach, and gave us directions plus the name of his
friend, Fansu, who runs it. His directions were good, about the best
we've had yet in Africa, so we found it with only one stop to ask for
more details. If anybody wants to visit, email
kairadulabeach@hotmail.com for details of how to get there, as the
location is a closely guarded secret! Fansu has set up a little tiny
collective and has a bar, a kitchen, and a guest room, plus camping on
the beach. It's a great little getaway, the bonus being that you have
a beach which must be about 8 miles long, spotlessly clean, with
barely another soul on it. So far we've seen a jeep drive past, a guy
on a horse, and somebody about a mile away taking his cows down to the
sea.

Nicki and I parked up, had a drink at Fansu's. We were offered some
green tea, which is served in shot glasses and is very strong and
sweet, and spotted a sand dwelling frog – I didn't know such a thing
existed. Then we went for a wade around in the warm sea. We didn't
swim, partly because we didn't want to get too salty (and perhaps
partly because of the supposedly harmless small purple jellyfish on
the beach), but it's a calm, gently shelving beach. I've filled up
our portable shower to see how well it works later. In this heat, I
guess quite well. Right now, I'm sitting next to the truck, in my
trunks, overlooking the sea, with the laptop in front of me gradually
getting sand blown over it. Bikini-clad Nicki is just next to me,
although a hornet landing on her leg just considerably livened up her
afternoon, and her language. We're hoping to take some of the sheen
off our whiteness.

Evening update:
I tried out our portable shower earlier: you fill it with water,
leave it in the sun for a couple of hours then have a nice hot shower.
I found that if you leave it a bit too long, you get a fairly tepid
shower, but the idea's sound, if you have plenty of water.

We got talking to a German woman, who was walking along the beach and
came over to say hello, as most people here do. She's been living in
Gambia ever since her husband bought her a surprise holiday to Gambia
five years ago, and she fell in love with a Gambian and never
returned! Nicki commented that her husband probably regretted his
choice of present.

Fansu offered us dinner at a very reasonable rate, so we mooched the
10m from the truck (parked on the beach) to the huts when it started
to get dark, and sat around in hammocks drinking cold drinks until
dinner was ready. They served us up a very acceptable fish, chips and
salad, all cooked on an open fire in one of the huts. We sat under
lamplight talking to Tony and two Spanish fireman who cycled here from
Dakar, although given they didn't speak English and we don't speak
Spanish, Tony had to do a lot of translation.

Tomorrow promises to be an action-packed day, as we already have at
least 4 activities lined up, one of which is to visit the web café in
the village, so hopefully the blog will be updated; apologies for the
delay between posts!