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Gambia

Stories, recommendations and more concerning the country of Gambia. See the country guide here for more trip planning information.

Elephant in a game reserve in West Africa

West Africa can not compete with East and Southern Africa when it comes to National Geographic level fauna. Expansive human settlement and overhunting are the main reasons for that. But that doesn't mean you have to settle for pied plovers and green monkeys (no disrespect to them). Increased conservation efforts and a growing spotlight on [...]

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You can cover a surprising amount of ground in The Gambia, a tiny sliver of a country that looks like a fly-by on the map. In our previous post we talked about exploring the Gambian river. In this post, we will head down the coast to one of our favorite places in the whole region: [...]

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Exploring the Gambia River

Exploring the Gambia River

Photo from Fair Play, Gambia We are writing this right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. No one is doing much traveling in West Africa, let alone the rest of the world. That said, Gambia's tourism sector had already been ravaged by the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook. Once we are all able to travel [...]

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Surfing in West Africa

Guide to Surfing in West Africa

I just recently watched The Endless Summer for the first time. Any images from that immediate postcolonial period in West Africa are to be treasured, and this film offers a unique angle with a sport that many West Africans on the coast were likely seeing for the first time. Enterprising surfers have long been combing [...]

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Getting visas in West Africa

For overland travelers planning on visiting multiple countries in West Africa, organizing visas is often the biggest logistical headache. Visa policies are asymmetric and often vary from embassy to embassy. In one country, the Ghanaian embassy may not grant you a visa unless you are a permanent resident of the country where you are applying. [...]

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Crossing the river into Casamance from the Gambia

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and in this case, there is more than one way to enter Casamance from Gambia. Most people take the Trans-Gambian highway, which starts up in Kaolack, Senegal. This highway, also known as the N4, crosses the Gambia in the middle of the country before darting south [...]

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