With the easing of Covid restrictions and having left my job really fancied some travel with a trip abroad. This was not primarily about Photography or hiking but more about a change of scenery, climate and chilling. But for sure would take along some camera equipment. Eventually chose to visit Gambia in West Africa.

Travel to Gambia

Although many countries have opened their borders once again for tourism some have too many Covid hoops to jump through to make it worthwhile. Researching where to travel, initially I found the Kayak worldwide travel restrictions map very useful. It was here I discovered that Gambia had no quarantine or testing, you just had to be vaccinated on arrival. I usually use Skyscanner to find the best flights to a destination. But for Gambia TUI( previously Thompson Travel) was doing the best deals and TUI are not integrated with Skyscanner.

Due to Covid and work have not travelled for over 2 years. The last location was Tenerife on the Canary Islands in January 2020. Found the access Gambia website to provide very good information and to give a comprehensive overview of what to expect. Best time to visit Gambia is during the winter months between November to March. Be careful to avoid Ramadan as a Muslim country and all the bars etc will be closed.

Malaria Prevention

You are suppose to take anti malarial tablets up to 6 weeks before arrival in Gambia. This was not possible for me and is not a 100% guarantee. During the two weeks in Gambia I not get a single mosquito bite. This is partly due to them not being present during the winter months and mostly on the coast. But also due to spraying my arms and legs each morning and evening with Deet 50. Found a 100ml bottle lasted the two weeks. Its important to not forget to do it. To take it in your day bag. Also I sprayed the room every other day with some local insect spray. I did notice a few tourists with lots of bites on their legs.

Travel Camera

I was staying in the Senegambia area which is very much a tourist hub. I had brought along my Compact camera the Canon G7 X Mk2 and the Canon 80D, an 18-200mm travel lens as well as a travel tripod for something a little more serious.

Kotu Beach Sunset

The first evening took a wander down in the direction of Kotu beach from Senegambia with just my compact camera hoping to catch a sunset over the Atlantic ocean.

Managed to find a group of Palm trees to give some foreground interest with the setting sun in the background. There was a lot of rubbish on the beach to try and exclude, some of which had to clone out post processing.

Gambia Bumsters

There are a lot of Bumsters on the beach, lazy bums basically who constantly hassle you for one thing or another. Nearly had an altercation with one who for some strange egocentric reason thought I was taking a photo of him rather than the palms and sunset and demanded some money. Can you see him under the palms below?

Basically told him where to go and threatened to call the tourist police. But need to be careful of including locals within your frame and to remain calm. Nice sunset though although was some haze on the horizon.

Kotu Beach Walks

Many mornings after some breakfast along the Senegambia strip would walk Kotu beach with the compact camera. Would usually relax on the recliners for a few hours at Solomon’s beach bar and restaurant.

Then the afternoon would walk back along Kotu beach, back to Senegambia usually during low tide taking in the sights and sounds. Good thing with walking the beach during low tide it keeps you far away from the bumsters usually laying in wait under the palm trees and beach side buildings.

Its best to stay out of direct sun between midday and 3pm when its at its most intense. But what’s good is its a dry heat, not humid, so not get too hot. Some evenings in Gambia could have worn a fleece.

Cape Point Trip

After a few days around the Senegambia wanted to take a trip some where different and less busy. Along the Senegambia are the green taxis who are a safe and relatively cheap option for arranging a trip somewhere. Wherever you want to go they will take you and wait there all day for you. My first trip was to Cape Point. The stop off point is the Calypso bar and restaurant.

Compared to Senegambia the beach at Cape Point is almost deserted. But the Calypso was a very nice base. Realised now maybe I had planned this trip to Gambia wrong. It would have been better to have travelled the complete coast stopping off at various locations for a few days before moving on. I quickly get bored with beach holidays and being confined to a small area with lots of tourists. Should have made photography and travel more a priority. But it was a very good break, constant predictable sunshine and blue skies for two weeks.

BatuKunku Beach

A few days later took another trip down to BatuKunku Beach. Batukunku beach is very quiet if you like that sort of thing. Just one or two beach bars dotted along its stretch.

Its a lovely walk along Batukunku beach, maybe sharing it with a few wandering cows. Again could have just stayed in the area for a few days just chillin.

Tanji Fishing

On the return trip from Batukunku stopped off at the Tanji fishing village and beach. There are many colourful fishing boats along Tanji beach, lots of people and lots of rubbish.

The Tanji fishing beach is very chaotic and photogenic. I was just using my compact camera. Sure enough one local approached me and said no photos, like he was the law. But most people not bothered. Should have done more trips like this, made it more about travel and photography.

Bijilo Beach Sunset

Going in the opposite direction from Kotu beach from Senegambia is Bijilo beach. Bijilo beach has less bars, tourists and restaurants, less bumsters. I was looking for a sunset shot but wanted some foreground interest.

Scouted out a few locations during my morning walks in this direction. A derelict lounger and shade would make good foreground interest.

The better option though was a derelict boat on the beach. Had to clear up some litter in the immediate area. But this was the first use of the Canon 80D and tripod. HDR shot and another shot blended to include the flying birds captured at a much higher shutter speed.

Returned another evening to Bijilo beach to attempt a full moon rise behind Bijilo forest. Unfortunately was in the wrong place and only just caught the full moon rise when heading back.

Bijilo Forest Gambia

The jewel in the crown in the immediate area of Senegambia has to be Bijilo forest aka the Monkey Park. Towards the end of my vacation spent a couple of evenings in Bijilo forest and a morning. I found Bijilo forest very peaceful and cool under the canopy of the trees.

Deep in Bijilo forest, whats left of it, feels like a thousand miles away from all the tourists and hustle bustle of Senegambia. A good time to photograph Bijilo forest is during evening golden hour as the sun is setting out to sea. You get low directional side light on the trunks giving depth and dimension.

Did attempt to get the sun setting through the forest but was hunting around for the best composition to do this.

Unfortunately, Bijilo forest is under constant threat of destruction through development of more tourist infrastructure. Recently a large part was cut down to build a conference center in the Senegambia area.

The irony if they ever had a conference here about climate change and deforestation along the west African coast! Dont suppose the monkeys wondering where their homes have gone will be invited, they not have a voice. Bijilo forest is extremely rare habitat and one of the last remaining natural forests along the west African coast. A country should not rely on tourism to prop up its economy. I felt like I was photographing something that will not be here anymore in 10 years time.

I did wonder what this ugly wall was around Bijilo forest? One answer was so that tourists could not wander in for free as have to pay a small fee to enter Bijilo forest.

Destruction not Development

But the wall, work in progress is more to protect the forest and keep out people who would cut it down. I can only assume the people who would destroy Bijilo forest have no interest in the natural world, have never been there, only interested in making more money, where too much is never enough.

Bijilo Monkey Park

Wandering into Bijilo forest and you cannot help but interact with all the monkeys. You can buy peanuts and bananas to feed to them on entrance.

Bijilo forest has two types of monkeys, green monkeys and red monkeys. The red monkeys are more shy and endangered as they use to be hunted and eaten.

Inside Bijilo forest my wildlife photography improved somewhat. The images came out sharp when the shutter speed was at least double the focal length of the lens and shooting in burst mode.

The widest aperture could use with the 18-200mm travel lens had took with me to Gambia was 5.6. In the dark canopy of Bijilo forest had to raise the ISO to get a fast enough shutter speed. Its a relatively inexpensive lens and camera, yet really happy with the sharpness and clarity of the green monkey above having a coconut breakfast. Important to get the morning light on the subject and to focus on the eyes and to get down at eye level.

Another concept with wildlife and photography is a wildscape. In the context of a wildscape your trying to capture wildlife within the landscape it resides. This harder to do than a portrait as it can be hard to get enough detail in the subject – the wildlife.

Shutter Happy

Its easy to get trigger happy in such a location with so many subjects. When this happens many of the images will be blurry as you not check the settings and not have a high enough shutter speed when moving from a lighter frame to a darker one. Maybe having set it on aperture priority would have helped in this situation.

Check out the full Gambia Photography Gallery.

The Gambia Return

Good trip to the Gambia in west Africa, made a nice break from England. Good to have consistently good weather and just chill. Not break the bank either, flight was cheap as was accommodation and food. Couple of good restaurants down the strip I do recommend Paradiso and go for the Italian dishes. Its approx 6 hour flight from London so not too long but long enough to get restless.

I really hate airports and aircraft now, I almost not go even after booking up, just had to push through the pain of the travel. Good to break the no travel Covid bubble. Hoping to do some more international trips soon, more emphasis on photography and exploring new places. Beam me up Scotty!