Barra - Banjul ferry

Today we got another full blast of the African experience, which is always most concentrated at border and ferry crossings. First we head for the Gambian border without the passe avant. As expected we get into trouble with the Senegalese border guards. For half an hour we try to explain to the border guards our situation, but they won´t let us pass. This is not good. We somehow manage to get hold of Don and Dave on their mobile. They crossed this border a few hours earlier, and they supposedly have the passe avant with our car on it. Not quite: They didn´t have a passe avant either, but they got through customs without any problem. Just as I hang up the phone the border guard waves us through and we can take off. We don´t even have to pay any fee. Wonderful African law!

We enter The Gambia and I am relieved to hear the locals speaking English. The whole trip so far was French only, and I just don´t speak French. I was so glad that Mario spoke French relatively well, so at least we could communicate, but now it is like heaven being able to talk to the local people myself.

On the other side of the border we have to show our passports to a young police man in uniform. We strike up a pleasant conversation, and Mario points out how progressive The Gambia is, since just across the street he sees female police officers dressed in that same uniform as our fellow. This is quite liberal in comparison to the role women play in the rest of Africa we saw.

At the end of the conversation the police officer hands us back our passports and asks for the obligatory cadeaux. We haven´t given out anything the whole trip, but I make an exception since he was so nice. In the next village we realize what asses we were, because our officer was actually just a young lad in a school uniform and the female police officers just his school mates.

Getting in line for the ferry

The last hurdle before we reach Banjul is the Barra ferry, a few kilometers South of the border. The 30 minute ferry ride will take us across the Gambia river to our destination. After our ordeal at the last ferry we are glad we are driving with other PBC participants. Again the ferry landing is closed off by a metal gate, and we get the car in line. There are about 20 cars to the metal gate, which looks like a long wait.

As we get out of the car we are immediately swarmed by an army of bumsters. Bumsters is a term for untrustworthy looking kids and young fellows harassing travelers, asking for money or cadeaux, and offering shady deals for mobile phones, tires, whole cars, and everything a traveler might be carrying with him. There is a constant danger of pick pocketing or getting something stolen out of the cars. The atmosphere is very tense.

The queue of cars is moving slowly, as one car at a time is let into the metal gates, but it is only 11 am and we are hopeful to arrive in Banjul in a few hours. After 3 hours the metal gates finally open for us, but the sights sends me into shock: There is another queue of about 200 cars in two neat rows between us and the ferry landing! We get out of the car and walk further down the queue, and find a number of fellow PBC participants we had met earlier at the Zebrabar. Some of them had already been waiting for six hours, and where no where near the ferry.

In Barra there usually are three ferries taking cars across the Gambia river, but currently only one is running. The ferry can take about twenty cars each time, and takes about one hour to get to Banjul and back. At that pace we can only hope that we are on the last boat across leaving at 10 p.m..

Mario strikes up a conversation with Basirou, a nice Gambian truck driver also waiting in line. He lives in a village down the Gambian river, and crosses over the Banjul regularly with varying goods. His father is the chief of the village and he invites us to come and visit, and he ensures us that his father would be very pleased. At the end of our trip we meet Basirou again, as he is at the airport to say goodbye.

We are indeed one of the last cars that make it onto the ferry. Two other PBC teams bribe their way onto the ferry with mobile phones, something every Gambian seems to have or want to have. At 11 p.m. we were finally home free at our final destination: the Safari Gardens Hotel in Banjul. 7200 km in 18 days. We made it! The car made it! I can´t believe it.