Our Ordeal Getting To The Gambia – Gambia Travel Diary #1

Sometimes travel goes wrong. This is the tale of the insanely long, hot, broken down and accident prone bus ride from Dakar, Senegal to The Gambia.

We woke up at 3:30am to be at the bus station across town by 5am to claim our tickets for a bus that would leave at 7am, or so they said….

If you saw our live broadcast from the broken down bus I can tell you I was far too optimistic in the time it would take to resolve the problem.

From the time we woke up to the time we arrived at our hotel was almost 18 hours. It should not have taken that long.

So watch the video and listen to the tale of the insane trip from Dakar, Senegal to the Gambia.

Video Transcript

• Team hazard.

Okay. So, shall we start
from the beginning?

• Sure.
• Okay. Last Saturday we
  knew we needed to leave

because of our visas

and leave Senegal because of our visas.

So we had it all planned out.

Several days ahead,

I went and got the bus tickets

from Dakar in Senegal to The Gambia.

• Right.
• My understanding is that it was

supposed to be about a
five to six hour trip

with going through the
border and everything.

Yeah. That didn’t.

• And then it grew.
• Yes. So I go on Saturday
  and I get the, the taxi ride

over there, and we get our name signed up

first one’s on the list and everything.

And so that, that all was, was good.

That went fine.

• You got the taxi ride over there.

You forgot just you, you read it wrong.

It was the taxidermy ride.

• But then I arranged with
  that taxi driver to pick us up

cuz we had to come back on Tuesday

at 5:00 AM to get our tickets,
to confirm our tickets.

And then the bus was
gonna leave at 7:00 AM.

So we had to be at the
bus station at 5:00 AM.

So I arranged with that taxi driver

who spoke some English to pick us

up at like 4:30 to get over
to the, the bus station.

So the night before, he
calls us about nine o’clock

I had called him about
four in the afternoon

and confirmed with him on Monday.

And then he calls us about
nine o’clock on Tuesday night

on Monday night and says,
I’m not gonna do it.

My friend is gonna do it.

He’ll pick you up.

And there’s some broken language there

et cetera, et cetera, between that.

And some texting, then
he’s like call my friend

after 3:30am, and he’ll come pick you up.

Well, oh gosh. You know,
it’s like too late to

try and find another driver.

And it’s like 3:30.

Call him after 3:30.

That sounds like we’re
giving him a wake up call.

You know, I was so afraid we
were giving him a wakeup call

and he was just gonna crawl outta bed

and hopefully make it over to us

in some reasonable time.

Turned out, he was a good driver.

He did show up promptly on time,

had a little trouble finding the place,

but all in all, he got
us there. No problem.

Then we get there and find
out that the list we signed

up on that we were on the top of the list.

Well, somehow that wasn’t the master list.

So there were a whole bunch

of other people on the list ahead of us.

And I brought that up
and he’s like, oh no, no

This is my book. I keep
it with me all the time.

But they transfer the names or something.

I didn’t see our names
on the list anywhere,

but they knew we had been there.

So, so we got our tickets.

They even let us choose special seats,

to make it easier for Tim.

So that was nice. Sounds good, right?

All going fine. We got on the bus.

We fell asleep by the time it started,

it was like ten to eight.

Still. We should be in The Gambia

by five, six o’clock at the latest.

Stop for the rest stop,

which you know went fine.

We already know at rest stops

that they only give you like 15
to 20 minutes and they put, put
the bathroom like 800 miles away

• From the bus. Yeah.

So I get him over and we,
we used the facilities,

but we had brought our lunch.

So we were we’re ahead.

See, we really planned
this out to be an easy,

good smooth trip.

We did everything we
could to make this easy.

We went ahead of time.

We got our food ahead of time,
our drinks, we were all set.

And, and then we get between this town

called Kaolack and Karang,

which is the border town.

There’s a little village called Sokone.

Well, that is where the
fan belt on the bus broke.

And if you saw the last live,

you’ll, you’ll see us actually
having broadcast from there.

So, it’s not just an hour,
they’re not just sending back

to Kaolack for a mechanic
and a, a fan belt.

It took ’em about two to three
hours of us sitting there

in hundred degree heat,

waiting for a replacement bus.

• Without an engine.
• Yeah, yeah.

No engine to keep like the AC running

for us or anything like that.

And then everyone gets on, and just like

sort of ignores the assigned seating

that we had worked so hard to get.

And so I like sort of had
to boot someone out of the,

the seat that we needed for Tim

So that he didn’t have to walk through

the whole mess of people

to the middle of the bus or
some crazy thing like that.

• You should have seen them.

They flew and they flew
like, like wild chickens.

• But so we’re finally on the road again.
• Yes.
• You know, hours and hours late.

Tossing people off like wild chickens.

No, they, they were actually
very understanding when

I explained the situation.

And we’re finally on the road again.

And then we get to the
border, and you gotta get

to a whole bus full of
people through the border.

Everyone has different situations.

We already had our visa.

This is how organized we were.

We had our lunch, we had our visa

we had anything that could slow us down.

We were not gonna be
the cause of slow down.

You know.

• We weren’t.
• Yeah. And we made it through golden.

I got through.

I went and got some money
exchanged at the border.

And what was funny is on
the way back to the bus,

I had to like walk through a herd of goats

to get back to the bus.

• Yeah.
• And sometimes goats can
  be a little aggressive.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when they

they were the ones that
moved outta my way.

Instead of me having
to move out of theirs.

Sometimes, not aggressive, cantankerous

let’s call it cantankerous.

So we all get back on the bus.

And then we had, we
got through the border.

Then we get into this
town that’s really small.

It’s like Amadalla or something like that.

It’s where the ferry is.

Actually Bara is where the ferry is.

And our bus is making this maneuver to,

to get around something.

And this idiot of a minivan driver.

Minivan being a minivan that transports,

you know, 15, 20 people at a time.

Not like a mom minivan
or anything like that.

These are full transport things,

but he makes this stupid
maneuver, and he hits our bus.

And so now the police get involved,

and it’s another 45
minutes of waiting around

for the the police to
finish their business.

And of course this whole time,

we don’t know where the ferry is.

Cause if you miss the ferry,

the Ferry’s gotta go all the way across

and all the way back.

Which is like a two hour wait.

And so, you know, we’re sitting there and

trying to get to the
ferry and this happens.

And then finally we get over to the ferry,

and man, I gotta give
credits to our bus driver,

because we got in the line.

And so the fact that there was a line,

at least was a good sign

that the ferry actually
had been out for a while.

But then, when the ferry came in,

he got us in and maneuvered.

There was no way he was going
to let us miss that ferry.

After everything that had
happened, he was determined

we were gonna get on
that ferry at that time.

And I give him credit for that.

• Yeah.
• Give him major credit for that.

He was just not gonna let
us sit another two hours

• Drive baby drive.
• But by the time we got off
  the ferry to the bus station

you know, into The Gambia proper

and then got the taxi ride

to the hotel, which was a
little challenging to find

cuz the guy didn’t believe Google maps.

He didn’t believe me and Google maps.

He kept stopping and
asking people along the way

who kept telling him to
go the direction I had

told him to go.

• Of course
• Time and again.
• Taxi drivers never
  believe you and Google maps.
• Yeah. And seriously, he
  asked like four or five people

in the time I was saying, no,

it’s a few blocks further down.

So. But we finally made it.

And so we finally made it to
The Gambia, exhausted, tired

sweaty, hungry, thirsty.

We were a mess, just a total mess.

And we get here and we get to Dabo house,

and it’s in a town called Brufut and

• Not to be confused with fufu.
• Yeah. It’s not fufu,
  but we get to Dabo house

and they took such good care of us.

They, they got us upstairs
and Tim was exhausted.

We were both exhausted.

But Tim going upstairs in
the dark, our whole point

for leaving super early was

so we wouldn’t be arriving
in the dark, by the way.

And of course it’s dark.

And so Tim’s going up
the stairs in the dark.

And so he wouldn’t have
to go back down again.

They actually brought a table up here.

We have a nice little veranda here.

So they put a table over there

for that evening, and they made us dinner.

It was like nine o’clock at night.

And they just, they made us dinner

and they got us, you
know, big bottles of water

and drinks and yes, and just
totally took care of us.

And the room is gorgeous. It’s clean.

It’s got a, both a fan
and an air conditioner.

It’s got screens on the
window, which is rarer

than you might think here.

• Yes
• And oh gosh,

let me show you the rest
of this place though,

cuz it’s hot right now.

So there’s no one round.

Everyone’s like inside hiding somewhere.

We had a power outage before,

but I think it’s back on.

So everyone’s probably inside with fans

and air conditioning,

but this is, this is

We’ve got a nice pool.

You got the dining area over there.

We’re only one floor up.

Over there, they put up a TV at night

and we can sit around and watch football

or movies or whatever’s going on.

And we just have this
nice little compound,

and it’s just a total oasis,

and is absolutely comfy.

And oh, let me show
you. I’ll show you Tim.

We have this wonderful couch and chair.

We have this wonderful.

Do that thumbs up again, Tim.

We have this wonderful couch
and chair out on the veranda

and we can use it anytime a day or night

cuz of the temperatures
the way they are here.

And we are, we are golden now, you know.

Yesterday I went out and got a SIM card.

That’s why I can do this.

Cuz I couldn’t have done this yesterday.

The wifi is not strong enough.

Plus there are, I will say
there are constant power outages

off and on kind of all day.

• It’s we’ve had like six of them.
• Yeah. Something like six of them.
• Since arriving.
• Yeah. And the, they
  have a generator on order

and it’s on a boat in a container

and it should be here any day.

So that’ll help when
the generator shows up.

• It’s kind of funny.

It’s coming from Sweden?

• Something like that, yeah.
• Yeah. I’m used to, it’s a Honda.

It’s like, wait a minute, Honda sweet.

But then I remember that
Honda is not American either.

• No.
• But no I delivered there though.
• Yeah. But so, so things are good now.

But yesterday we were so exhausted.

Tim slept the whole day.

I did the couple one or two errands I did,

I did on red bull,

and managed to stay
awake for the afternoon.

I still took a nap in the afternoon,

and today we are actually
feeling human and decent again,

but we’re still taking it easy.

And then we’re gonna go out and explore

or have djembe lessons tomorrow

or go to a national
park or go to the beach.

We’re gonna go do something tomorrow.

• Right.
• Something of interest.

And we’ll, if we have connection,

we will bring you along too.

• Yeah.
• So this is our check-in.

Sometimes travel goes
well, sometimes it doesn’t,

sometimes it doesn’t go well,

and then it ends well.

• Yes.
• And that’s the way this one went.
• All is well that ends well.
• At least we survived.
• Yes.
• So I’m gonna link to
  the, the first part of this

when I was a little more
optimistic about the,

the car repair.

So watch this video next.

If you haven’t watched it already,

if not, you can check out our
whole diary of Senegal travels

and see all the ups and
downs of our travels

and keep an eye out for more,

because we’re gonna be on
all sorts of adventures.

• Yep.
• Thanks for joining us.

We’ll see you next time.

• Bye.