Juffreh and James Island

Yesterday, as part of our travel week plans, we took an all-day excursion to the town of Juffreh. Juffreh is located north of our current Cape Point location, and one must cross the river by ferry as part of the trip. It's a popular tourist destination because it was a major town of the slave trade, and is the hometown of Kunta Kinteh.

We left our hotel at around 7:00am and crammed into a small Hyundai SUV. Our driver/tour guide took us to the ferry terminal in Banjul, where we left the car parked and walked on the ferry. For being built in 2004, the ferry is quite dilapidated. It can only hold a handful of vehicles, and completes a voyage that should take 30 minutes in about two hours. The exterior has an extensive buildup of rust, and the interior is ill-maintained and dirty. Nevertheless, we made it across the river in one piece.

We exited the ferry and were greeted by a safari-style land rover into which we all piled. It had an open back and seating that required one to sit sideways. However, for most of the hour-long ride through the African countryside, we stood up or sat on the railings for a better view and greater sense of exhilaration.

We arrived in Juffreh at around 11:00am, and were greeted by a tour guide from the town who explained the history to us and showed us the small museum, slave ship replica, and artifacts. It was immensely moving to experience firsthand the history of the slave trade and to walk the same ground that hundreds of thousands of slaves had only a few hundred years ago.

We then hopped into a small wooden boat with many leaks and an outboard motor that started once every twenty tries. Our destination was James Island, which was actually recently renamed "Kunta Kinteh Island." This island is located on the Gambian river (which is MASSIVE, by the way) an served as a holding area and military base for whichever country controlled that area at the time. Before being abandoned in some year I forget, it had been under Portuguese, English, French, and Spanish jurisdiction. Due to poor maintenance, much of the original fort had been reclaimed by the river. However, there was certainly enough left to obtain a fairly vivid picture of how the island functioned years ago.

After returning from the island, we ate a much needed lunch at a nearby restaurant and piled back into our Land Rover for the trip back home. At this point, I was terribly sunburned, and sat as much as I could in the shade. What a poor choice to omit sunscreen from my list of things to remember that day.

Upon our return from this fantastic and moving day, we learned that the girls' hotel room had been burglarized. Their belongings were strewn all over the room, and hundreds of US dollars and Gambian Dalasis had been stolen from extremely obscure hiding places. It was very disturbing to know that someone had invaded private space, and even more disturbing to deduce that it must have been someone who works a the hotel or is a friend of a hotel employee. Luckily, nothing of mine was stolen despite having hundreds of Dalasis in plain sight. I doubt the burglars entered my room. We are being extremely vigilant and are disappointed as well. Thieves really are the lowest of the low.

I hope to be able to load some pictures soon once I get access to a computer. Writing these posts on my iPhone doesn't allow me to upload photos from my camera.

Looking forward to being home in a few days. Until we depart, I'll be living large and soaking up as much of Gambia as I can!