A sunday... a place

    Known for its birds, Lamin Lodge is near Banjul. From the day we arrived, we were told it was one of the places not to be missed. Looking on the internet, I found “Three-storey construction on stilts facing River Gambia’s mangrove and close to Lamin village. Essentially a restaurant, though also a starting point for multiple excursions.” “Popular destination with an excellent restaurant and an open-air oyster factory visit.”

  An exciting-sounding programme, so all aboard! The holidaymaker obviously doesn’t go alone so no worries there; though for us, finding the road was a little more complicated and we had to try our luck twice seeing as last time, we had had to take other roads, all of which were as sandy. You must ask for directions on where to turn in Lamin (under the iron archway). Then begins the track in the village (top-left). After a number of forks (unsigned, of course), we found ourselves on what seemed like a track and we had to slow down and aim right (top-right). When we left Lamin Lodge again, behind a tourist van, we noticed that there was another road so I think that we could have avoided all this gymkhana!

   The place is far from the village though a website says you could get there by foot. Well good luck with that – 25 minutes of walking under the beating sun ☼, not counting the return journey. No, no, not conceivable let’s be sound! The area is on the edge of the mangrove and boat trips are available. Good luck!

   As is the case everywhere, the moment you set foot outside the car, you are accosted by several people who surround you and want to be “welcoming and nice. Make you discover Gambia, etc…” in short, they don’t leave you in peace. As there is this “oyster factory”, it gave us a reason to accept this “close shadowing”. I accomplished my learning of one or two… but no more… bits of information on what they do to these oysters. Often a task allocated to women, it was they who pried open the shells and separated the later from the oyster. There were two sorters and …erm… one or two guys around the fires and that was about all there was in this “company.”

   Aside info from the “guide.” They don’t like having their photo taken as once, someone had printed postcards and the woman was not at her best, let us say.  Here and yes… well… that’s strange… I’ve already heard that story twice before; when we went to the market in Banjul, and when we went to Juffureh. Three times we’ve been told the same misadventure; it’s stretching the credibility somewhat, but hey, just ask their permission and when they don’t want to, there will be others who will smile for the camera. Respect their choices.

   What about the oysters then? Well the ‘animal’ is cooked for thirty minutes and is then sold on the market. As for the shells, come are put into a fire (bottom-left) for two days in order to make the lime (bottom-middle) which will be used as paint or cement. Other shells are crushed and mixed with grain to feed the poultry.

   The visit took a grand total of five minutes – also don’t expect to relax on the beach as there isn’t any. A baobab has made some art and its branches seem like they form an elephant’s head (top-right) whereas another looks like a hanging weaver-bird nests (bottom-right) which is surprising as up to now, I had never seen weaver birds in baobabs!

   Let’s go into this Lamin Lodge. The one who followed us asked permission to the guard to see if we could enter. Welcoming, it brings warmth to the heart! Actually, we knew before coming that one month beforehand, the place had been closed for sanitary and security reasons, though seeing as there’s a jetty from where there were still catamaran trips leaving (D250 for the one hour tour with drink), we wanted to go have a look.  The access to the jetty overlooking the mangrove was nice in itself and the area must have also been nice but for the moment, it was closed and much work would be needed for it to reopen. A shame because the area had a real charm and is an excellent spot for amateurs of bird-watchers and I hope to return one day with Lamin.