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| Boarding the ferry |
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| Squeezing on board! |
Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, sits on an island in the estuary of the River Gambia. It is accessed from the south bank via Denton Bridge and from the north by the Banjul to Barra ferry. Here, all the life of West Africa, both human and animal, is to be found. Having done the crossing three times now, I can say it is an experience not to be missed!!
The ferry runs regularly throughout the day and carries motor vehicles, animals and foot passengers, along with all their possessions and purchases.
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| Being transferred to a pirogue! |
The only alternative to the forty minute, seven kilometre crossing is to use the privately owned pirogues, which make the journey rather more quickly, but which cannot carry all of the goods and chattels that most passengers seem intent on taking with them. Also, the way to board these pirogues is to be carried on the shoulders of porters out to sea and then be unceremoniously dumped into the boat! This is enough to put most tourists off using them, although I did speak to one couple who described it as ‘an absolute must’!
Barra, on the north bank of the River Gambia, is a much cheaper place to live in than Banjul itself or, indeed, than the resorts to the south of the river. It is also the gateway to the agricultural areas where most of the country’s produce is grown and where prices for these goods are therefore less expensive. In addition, it is much more difficult to get work in Barra and the surrounding villages. For all of these reasons, many, many people make the ferry crossing every day. Some of them shop on the north bank for their families. Others buy there in order to sell on in the south. Still more go to work in the south and live in the north. All of this means that the ferries are incredibly busy!
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| Loading a minibus on board the ferry |
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| A passenger finding a comfy spot on board! |
Foot passengers who pay the highest prices (which included us as this was already organised by our tour operator) get to board the ferry first, even as it is still being unloaded from the incoming trip! These people get to sit on the few seats that exist on the upper deck. Next are the motor vehicles which are crammed in so close together that there is no chance for drivers or passengers to get out! Then the animals are brought on and encouraged, by generous use of a stick, to huddle in tight formation as near to the sides of the ship as they can. Once all this has happened and you imagine that the ferry is pretty full and will be leaving soon, a huge metal gate is opened and the hundreds of foot passengers who have bought the cheapest tickets are released from their holding pen to run down the slipway and on to the boat to find the most comfortable spot they can stand or squat in to make the crossing. The sight of these people, many of them balancing impossibly large loads on their heads, some with babies strapped to their backs and two or three other children in tow, moving en masse is incredible! For them, it is normal, but for us as tourists, it is quite a spectacle!
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| Goats, people and vehicles! |
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| The people keep coming! |
When every human being who can be squeezed on deck has been, then the ferry sets off and the fun really starts! Sellers hawking everything from sweets to toothpaste to a shoe shining service, start moving through the boat, climbing over people, in a bid to offload their wares. Women breastfeed their babies and prepare breakfast for their older children. Minibuses which you thought were already crammed to capacity – both inside with passengers and on top with goods – sell tickets to some of the foot passengers to secure their onward transport. These poor souls are then shoved inside these sweat boxes via windows or through a half open back door, while their belongings are added to the precarious pile on the roof! At the same time, all of the other foot passengers are gradually inching their way from the back of the ferry to the front in order to be amongst the first to disembark. They squeeze through spaces which don’t exist and step on their fellow travellers with little regard for their, or their own, safety!
As Ali, our guide, said, ‘Welcome to the real West Africa experience!’
