Alittle change of plans...

Trip Start Jan 30, 2008
1
19
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Trip End Jun 23, 2008


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Flag of Gambia  ,
Monday, March 24, 2008

As we threw our clothes into the bag and dropped money into the managers hands, we bolted towards a Gelleh-gelleh of waiting Gambians. Alittle earlier we had decided that since we had such a shitty night and were absolutely still wiped out that we should try and still make it to Tendaba Camp. We were on the road by 6:30, had to pay for an entire fair to Serekunda. After about a 30minute ride we jumped off at Kwinella with a really nice man who was part of the gambian army. The resort was on the water about 5km up the road. We all decided since it was such a beautiful morning, why not just walk it. Lamen told us that we could call him at any time but we felt bad calling so early. After about 20minutes of walking and having a very interesting dicussion with this army man, we saw a toyota approaching, it quickly passed by us heading south. The solider told us that this man would come back for us on the way back in a couple of minutes.

Jori's words:

The previous night, Lamin told us to call him when we got to Kwinella and he would come pick us up. There now at 7 a.m., we realized that it was probably too early to call him after keeping him up until 2 a.m. that morning. I, personally, was just happy to see daylight. After all, most of our breakdowns the previous night and the whole "bug in the ear" incident all happened in the dark, so day light felt "safe". We started walking towards Tendaba with a nice army man who was headed in the same direction. After only about 20 minutes into the walk, a vehicle drove past with two "tubabs" in the back seat. We realized they were probably coming from the lodge where we were headed. The driver of the vehicle talked briefly to the army man, who told us that he would be back to pick us up as soon as he dropped the ladies off at the main road. Sure enough, five minutes later we get in a vehicle with a license plate, "Tendaba", and I warily ask the driver if he happens to be Lamin. He sort of looked at us and said, "Get the fuck outta here". We had told him the previous night (technically much earlier that morning) that we were really sorry, but just didn't think we could make it. Too many things had gone wrong and we were just planning on going home. Well, he was super happy to see us. We got there and he upgraded us to one of the nicer, river-front "VIP" rooms, at no cost to us. We spent a wonderful day sleeping, reading, writing, swimming, socializing, eating real food (we hadn't had a real meal in close to 48 hours), and it felt GREAT! It was a wonderful way to end the trip. The room was right on the water and we had a beautiful view of the sun setting. Unfortuately the camera's batteries died so no photos were recorded, but it was the best place of the trip.

Back to my words:

To be able to take a deep breath and relax was one of the greatest gifts, espically with someone you love so much. All i remember was realizing how lucky we were...
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