In Senegambia, 18km South of Banjul, there is the Bijilo National Park. 51.3 hectares and according to ‘Lonely Planet’, Gambia’s 7th out of 25 attractions not to be missed. Wow, I wonder what the others are because if there are 25 for our 104 weeks here, there will be some revisiting … and probably some re-revisiting. ☺ Looks like we’ll have to overlap into other the neighbouring countries.
This forest was opened as a national park in 1991. Before this, she had to be ‘renovated’ due to a heavy deforestation for Borassus aethiopum palm trees whose fruits and young roots can be eaten and whose wood is used in construction for its anti-termite properties. She is home to over 100 species of birds and 4 species of primates (patas, green vervet, red colobus and galagos) and sees approximately 23,000 visitors per year.
Personally, we had only heard of and seen two types of monkeys. The red-furred one, who stays up on high and doesn’t approach humans, is the red colobus (Procolobus badius). We only spotted two near the entrance to the park, but we only stayed 1 hour 30 in the area and only discovered a small quarter of the forest. You can find this monkey, who weighs about 8kg in adulthood, in central and western Africa. In the chimpanzee zones, he’s chased away. Here, he can live in peace.
He feeds on tender leaves, flowers, and unripe, green fruit. Occasionally, they look for charcoal which allows them to combat certain plants’ toxins.
Our guide Alex — the same guy than for the crocs, as it was the same day — had bought a packet of peanuts and gave it to us once we were in the park. That’s how we became acquainted with the ‘green vervet’ (Chlorocebus sabaeus), a small monkey weighing in at 4 - 5 kg as an adult. He eats fruit, leaves, roots, and, on occasion, reptile or bird eggs. Here however, he likes to see what some visitors have brought.
As in Malaysia, the monkeys came to open our hands and help themselves. If we showed them a closed hand, they remained to the side; otherwise, they would try to take as many fruit as possible if we were offering it to them with our hand out.
Pascal took the role of teacher and it was funny to watch the monkey patiently waiting.
Not all came to see us, some stayed in their trees sleeping soundly or one against the other. They really have a nice colour with their vivid tails and the ‘highlighted’ top of their heads. So cute!
Alex told us to go close to a tree and put the peanuts at shoulder height. As soon as this was done, a monkey jumped on Pascal.
I loved the sensation of having this small hand like ours but so soft which tried to open my hand with great kindness. The bigger ones would try to chase off the younger ones, but when they had finished, they let the others have their share without any aggressiveness. And if we went past and pretended that we had nothing to give, they would just passively watch us go by… though without staying too far away, just in case!
The subject of my grimace!
The cockatoo on the shoulder, in the ‘wild’ in a common in Sydney, had been a memorable moment to put tears of emotions in your eyes and of which you would never forget. This had been sort of similar though the weight and smell of urine had made the experience less emotional though still moving. I should have chosen a tree with a baby … lol!
It’s a good idea to have three-quarter or full-length trousers as they protect you from the small scratches from their feet. Though on the flipside, you come out all grimy!
About one kilometre from the forest is the Kairaba hotel whose manager Gérard explained that every day (and mostly in the morning), he sees monkeys passing by and even stopping, if not settling down, in their sun loungers. For the hotel, they are a bit of a nuisance as they eat all of the tender leaves and flowers that they come across; and if there’s a vegetable patch, there’s no chance of seeing anything other than aromatic plants growing (as they don’t like them). Hotels also inform customers not to feed the monkeys in order to incite them to remain in their zone, and so that they don’t ‘settle’ near human houses.
The fact that we weren’t bothered by mosquitoes was a pleasant surprise. I don’t doubt that there will be times in the year where they will do some catching up, but in the middle of the forest, or near a crocodile pool, and in the peak of tourism season, not a single bite was reported all day.
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