The Gambia 2011 - day 5

On the 5th day I had a relaxing morning with breakfast and just a small walk with my girlfriend, Johanne, down to Kotu Bridge to make an appointment with our guide Alieu. Here we bumped into my brother-in-law, Mads, who had just returned from his morning run.

Mads was training for an ironman and therefore had to stick to his programme - even on vacation...

...and due to the lack of proper training facilities he had to be quite inventive....

My father enjoying life in Bakotu Hotel with cigarettes, cola, nice weather and loads of birds. Here Mads is seen reading in a book on training for an ironman...

View from Bakotu Hotel towards Fajara Golf Course and the mangroves of Kotu Stream. My sister, Sine her boyfriend, Mads, and my father are seen on the picture.

After having releaxed in the morning all of us walked northwards along the beach and had a nice lunch in a hotel run by a danish couple.

Lecturing my father about the joys and challenges of identifying sub-saharan cisticolas while having ckicken yassa.

Pied Crow, Kotu Beach, 10/11-2011.

Yellow-billed Kite ssp. parasiticus, Kotu Beach, 10/11-2011.

 Mads, Johanne and Sine (my sister) watching a Hooded Vulture having a feast on the beach.

Hooded Vulture, close-up, Kotu Beach, 10/11-2011.

Variable Sunbird, male, Kotu Beach, 10/11-2011.

In the afternoon my father and I went for some birding in the Kotu area with Alieu. At first we went to the Sewage Ponds where we saw two nice Black Crakes. After that we went to a place to look for Painted Snipes but failed to see any but instead had another Black Crake and an obliging African Pygmy Kingfisher in the fading light.

Alieu and my father at Kotu Sewage Ponds.

Black Crake, Kotu Sewage Ponds, 10/11-2011.

African Jacanas (two adults and one 1cy) with a Black-necked Stilt, Kotu Sewage Ponds, 10/11-2011.

In the evening we had dinner on the beach where the fishermen/beach bums had prepared the fish that Mads had caugth the day before.

A gambian party without drums would be like having a shrimp-cocktail without shrimps.

It tasted better than it looks. Actually the fish was some of the best I've ever had but the athmosphere might also have contributed to this....

Danes eating gambian cuisine with their fingers. From left to right: My father, sister, brother-in-law, girlfriend, myself and my mother.