My wife, Sandra, and I spent two weeks in The Gambia in late , our first visit to Africa, so we anticipated seeing a considerable number of species that we had not seen before. Even in two weeks in this small country, we did not have chance to visit all the places we wanted to, and The Gambia is definitely on our list of places to return to.
I now understand why so many European birders make several return visits! However, remember that it was written ten years ago and some of the information is now dated, though most remains valid. We supplemented the information with trip reports from the internet, particularly www. As a field guide, we used Barlow et al. The CDs are an invaluable companion to the field guide.
For other background information, we used The Lonely Planet guide to The Gambia and Senegal , though this was published in , so some of the information is no longer valid. None of the information that we could find in advance contained a decent map and, as it turned out, the completion of a network of new roads along the coast means that there currently is no up-to-date map. However, a map is not crucial unless you are planning to hire a vehicle and drive yourself, in which case it most definitely is, since road signs away from the new Kuwaiti-funded coastal roads are non-existent.
We booked through The Gambia Experience , and were impressed with their organisation , the information sent in advance and the local reps. There are also direct flights to Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
A new terminal at Banjul International Airport was opened in the late s. The airport duty-free shop and bars accept both Dalasis and sterling. We stayed in The Senegambia Hotel, not the cheapest option, but we had read about the suitable habitat around the gardens, and it proved to be a good choice, not just for its birding opportunities but also because there seemed to be a much wider choice of bars and restaurants than around the hotels at Kotu.
