The first experiences in The Gambia are overwhelming. What a complete culture shock. We already read in the pilot that The Gambia is one of the smallest and also poorest countries in Africa. Well, they are certainly poor here. But very friendly. Everywhere on the streets children come straight at you and give you a hand to walk with. The adults wave and shout loudly "Welcome to Gambia", "you, happy family", "we are poor, but happy". Yes, we feel really welcome! So many tourists don't come here either. On the coast is a handful of hotels and there tourists come by plane. Furthermore, especially at this time of year there are a few sailors who sail up the river.

The first morning, Toine and Jan, neatly dressed in long pants (phew, how hot), go to the country to clear customs. That takes a couple of hours; they have to go to three agencies: immigration (to have their passports stamped), customs (to have their boat cleared) and the harbour office (permit for the river). They walk from one place to another in the dusty heat and finally manage, with a little help from friendly people. Once back on the boat, it is late in the afternoon and we quickly sail to Lamin Lodge, a 'tourist lodge' an hour up a creek where it is good to anchor. We ourselves had a different idea about the word 'lodge'. It is a wooden cabin on stilts, entirely made by ourselves from wood we found ourselves. So no straight planks. With beautiful carvings, three floors and crooked wooden tables and chairs. In the evening we eat there, we sit on the 3rd floor with a beautiful view over the mangrove forests and the anchorage and eat delicious meat / fish / chicken with fries. There is no electricity, only candlelight.

We are very happy with our fans in the boat. It is so hot and humid here, that sleeping without a fan would not be good. At night it stays around 30 degrees in the boat. Only in the morning it cools down and those are the coolest hours of the day. Until the sun is a bit higher in the sky again and then the heat starts again. The next day we do school in the morning and have a quiet morning on the boat. After lunch we walk 2 km from the lodge to the main road. We want to take a taxi there to go to Bakau for groceries and see the town. We are greeted enthusiastically by children who shout "Tuhab, tuhab" (which means white man) and give a hand to walk along for a while. Just before the main road someone offers to take us to the town by jeep. It's an old rickety jeep and we just fit in it with its 8-ten (Brandaan and Barbarossa). What a hustle and bustle on the road. Everywhere people, small shops, stalls where they sell all kinds of things. The women look very well cared for and nicely dressed, often carry stuff on their heads. Marinthe notes that it is a 'men's world'. She thinks there are many more men than women. And she has seen that very well. Bakau is a relatively quiet village by the sea with a good market. We buy vegetables, fruit and eggs for the next week and we can put them in the jeep. Afterwards our driver takes us to a nice little tent at the beach where we have a drink (in a tree house) and later on some food. The girls go for a swim in the sea by themselves ("the water here is just as warm as in a swimming pool"). After dinner we are brought back by a somewhat stoned driver. His responsiveness is not that bad. And as Jan says "you have to be stoned to be able to resist that your jeep wears out a bit over all those dusty roads with potholes and holes". It is pitch dark when we arrive at Lamin Lodge. Luckily there are two guards with flashlights showing us the way to the dinghy. Tired and satisfied we fall asleep.

The next day (Thursday Nov 12th) we sail for 7 hours by engine with very little wind up the river to the side branch of the river where the village of Bintang Bolong is situated an hour further on. We sail into the side branch and at the end of the afternoon we drop anchor just in front of the village. Also here we need 5 attempts before the anchor is well anchored because of the rocky ground. The next morning we scratch the anchor and slowly drift towards the Barbarossa. Only on the other side of the river we are well anchored. Immediately we are welcomed by two men in a wooden boat. They invite us to visit their village and we do so the next afternoon. This after Toine has spent a couple of hours in the engine room struggling for some regular maintenance of the engine. The coarse filter of the diesel was almost clogged and had to be replaced. And an inspection of the impeller (water pump) almost led to a malfunctioning engine ... But fortunately with stubborn perseverance and some advice from the yacht-yard in the Netherlands finally solved. In the village we are welcomed by a huge group of children and led through the village. They show us their little houses (wooden shacks), the vegetable garden (a small field with a banana tree) and their school. That school still looks the best in the whole village. We get a tour from the 'headmaster'. He tells us and shows us how the teaching goes here. We leave some toys behind (puzzles, pens and stickers) and donate some money for the school. Very impressive, also for Eline and Marinthe. They constantly have a group of children of their own age around them, who give hands and ask a hundred questions in english. Eline moves very easily and laughingly through this. Marinthe has to have a little less of it but still participates. At the end of the school visit the children suddenly start singing and dancing a 'thank you' song and our girls are invited to join in. Wonderful experience! Once back at the boat we decide to bring the group of children some sweets and a soccer ball. First we pick them up at the boat. Then it's a bit of a consternation who can accept this (even the adults don't agree with each other), but it will be alright when the ball reaches the 'headmaster' of the school, so they can play with it on the schoolyard. The sweets are simply handed out to the children. Well, you almost disrupt the social life in such a village. What a big difference with how we live. As a 'culture' programme we agreed with the children that they are not allowed to watch TV or play on their nintendo for these two weeks.

Today (Nov 14) we sail a lot further up the river towards the freshwater part where nature will become much more impressive. We're very curious what we're going to experience, but the visit to The Gambia can't stop now!