Finally back “home” here in the Gambia.

We were up early to catch the taxi to the airport. Ben & Kate had arranged for our driver to pick us up again for this trip. I was grateful that I was able to use my Visa to pay for the hotel room (and they did not complain like they did on Gorée…).

Waiting in the lobby, eventually Usha showed up with her chairs to take on the plane.

The trip to the airport was uneventful as we passed in the same general direction as we had over the previous week's journeys.

The airport was not crowded and we checked in quite easily – or rather, most of us did. It turns out that Steve & Gemma did not have a seat on the aircraft because, for some reason, their seats had not been confirmed by telephone a week previously. This is odd since I had not called to confirm myself – I take it my travel agent had done this for me. They were told that they did not have seats and that they would have to wait until tomorrow for a seat on another airline or wait until the day after for a seat on the same airline – though there was no guarantee that either flight would actually have seats. We left them with a copy of the guidebook and we each scraped up some cash for them to do whatever they needed to do to get back to Banjul.

The rest of us proceeded into the gate area where we were a bit disappointed to see that only one coffee shop was open (no food, really) and all the other shops (other than the duty free liquor marts) were closed. We consoled ourselves with drinks and croissants.

We headed through the final bit of security to the gate itself where a few minutes later we boarded the bus that took us to the plane – a small propeller-driven Dash-8 with four seats across. The assigned seats were pretty much ignored as people just grabbed whatever was available (though, by chance, my seat was the one actually assigned to me).

The flight was very quick and I had a great view of the city as we left, passing directly over Gorée. We were given a small snack during the 30 minute flight landing essentially right on time at the Banjul airport. A far cry from the 10 hour+ journey that Chris and I had experienced coming up to Dakar. There was a bit of a fuss at security where there was a bit of a misunderstanding with one of us. I passed through security and waited for a few minutes when we headed back to our houses in a shared taxi. Of course, the taxi driver tried to rip us off but we would have none of it (after all, we had dealt with the troubles with the hawkers walking down the street in Dakar, this was MILD by comparison). Ahhhh, back home, gotta love it!

I was later to learn that Gemma and Steve were able to share a taxi with someone they met at the airport to get to Barra in the Gambia in order to take the ferry across to Banjul. Of course, they paid a lot of money but they did not want to have to stay around for however long it took to get a seat on a plane. They eventually got half their money back for their tickets.

Senegal was an interesting and much-needed break from the Gambia. But, for all the differences, there is much in common with the Gambia. I sort of saw Senegal and, specifically, Dakar as what the Gambia could become if it chooses that type of “development”. Whether that is the most appropriate with all of the ensuing problems and, admittedly, advantages – at least to those with money – though, who am I to judge?

In Dakar, Steve stayed at:

• Hôtel du Plateau - 62 Rue Jules Ferry, Telephone (+221) 823 44 20
• Hôtel Al Afifa - 46 Rue Jules Ferry, Telephone (+221) 889 90 90

On Île de Gorée, Steve stayed at:

• Auberge Keur Beer - Fax (+221) 821 38 01

In St. Louis, Steve stayed at:

• Auberge de Jeunesse - Rue Abdoulaye Seck, Telephone (+221) 961 24 09