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Ashton's Gambia

by Jonathan Ashton

Introduction to The Gambia

The Gambia is just a small country - approximately 11,000 km2 and has a population of between 1.5 and 2.0 million people. It is situated on the west coast of Africa and is surrounded by the much larger country, Senegal. The entire country lies below 100m and is approximately 330 km long by 25-30 km wide, the Gambia River runs through the centre of the country and is tidal for about 200 km. Mangroves grow over most of the river banks and many low-lying swamp areas, accounting for as much as 30% of the country.

The Gambia was a British colony until 1965 when it gained independence and it became the Republic of The Gambia in 1970. Most of the population is Muslim and approximately 25% is Christian. The people are very friendly and they love the British people. Most of the tourists are British, followed probably by the Dutch. You must remember the people in Gambia are, in general, rather poor and so whenever you are offered assistance with baggage, directions, drinks or food, etc a tip is anticipated and often requested.

The Gambia has a tropical climate and there are two distinct seasons though there is no sharp division between them. The wet season is approximately June to September and the dry season runs from October to May. We decided to go at the very end of November/beginning December, so the dry season had started and logically this meant that birds would often be attracted to water, and we anticipated a good deal of hide photography which was near to water - but more of that later.

I will not dwell upon the geography and climate further, but I would advise you that, speaking as an Englishman, it is incredibly hot and humid; walking with a rucksack of camera gear, plus a 500mm mounted on a tripod is not much fun at 36° C and 80-90% humidity!

A full passport with more than six months' validity is required; you will also need immunisation for yellow fever, tetanus, hepatitis c, polio, diphtheria and tablets for the prevention of malaria. I took sterling travellers cheques along with £50 worth of Dalasis - you will get a better exchange rate in your hotel. As might be expected there is a range of hotels ranging from what might be loosely referred to as 2* to 5* rating; comparatively speaking, costs are low. Hotel food ranges from fair to very good, though it may prove highly repetitive - so the answer is go to the hotel next door or to a well-frequented restaurant.

Photographic Equipment

There is something in the region of 500 species of birds to be found in The Gambia and almost everywhere you look or travel there are birds to be seen. I went primarily to photograph birds, followed by insects, then reptiles and a few mammals. I also wanted to capture images of the people and the country when possible. I used some very simple logic, reasoning that it was unlikely that I would be revisiting in the foreseeable future I decided to maximise my photographic opportunities; if I took most of my equipment I could use it and if I didn't - well I couldn't!

The list of equipment taken is as follows:
Canon 50D, Canon 7D, Canon 500mm F4 L, Canon 100-400L, Canon
180mm L, Canon 14-40mm L, Canon 28-105, Canon 1.4 and 2.0 extenders,
Canon 550 EX flashgun, Canon extension tubes, a right-angle finder, two
batteries for the 7D, and four for the 50D.

Hand luggage allowance was only 5kg and hold luggage 20kg.

Officially there is no leeway on these allowances - in practice we found there was a little give and take. I took a holdall as opposed to a suitcase, I put my clothes and toiletries in there, along with my tripod and a small/medium camera rucksack which contained the wide-angle lenses and flash guns. I wore a photographer's vest and in it I carried the two camera bodies, all the batteries (NB none allowed in the hold!), all the CompactFlash cards along with the 100-400 zoom and 180mm macro. The 500mm lens was taken on as hand luggage; I have a purpose-made bag for this lens. I reasoned that if my holdall went missing I would still have the key equipment with me and could still take photographs.

For most of the time I set the ISO on the cameras to 400, partly out of necessity and partly for convenience knowing that for the most part it would provide fast shutter speeds and a choice of aperture values. I continually checked the histogram and adjusted the exposure accordingly - in general I shoot 'histogram to the right'. I would recommend that you do most of your photography in the morning and afternoon as the sun is directly overhead from about 12.00am to 2.00pm.

Whenever possible I tried to get the sun behind me so that my shadow pointed to the subject; this provides more even lighting. As soon as we got into the vehicle I made sure the camera and 500mm were ready - it's no good finding a bird and then having to unpack the camera and lens and then make sure it has got a battery and CompactFlash card, then check ISO and aperture shutter speed, etc, etc - the moment will be lost, forever!

The camera batteries lasted very well indeed, never falling to less than 25% capacity - this surprised me considering much was done with the 500f4 L. I always carried spares, but in reality I didn't need them, I always charged the batteries fully each evening after 'chimping' my images in-camera. I took about 120GB of memory cards with me, I decided not to buy a portable hard drive nor to take a lap top, (CompactFlash cards have always served me well to date). After each day I reviewed the images taken in the camera and deleted any obviously poorly focused or badly exposed images. I think I came home with about 90GB of saved images. Above is a table to indicate the usage of the equipment used.

So no surprises there: the 500mm was used most frequently followed by the 100-400mm zoom. I was a little surprised at first at just how much I used the 17-40mm but I soon recalled that many were grab shots taken from the back of the jeep we travelled in. Time was of the essence so we spent as much time as possible photographing wild life and as little as possible travelling in the vehicle or on foot. I used the 50D a little more that I first anticipated, this was because the 7D gave me some problems; firstly it refused to focus on an intermittent basis - resulting in some frustration and expletives, it also refused point blank to engage the image stabiliser on any stabilised lens.

Upon return this was quickly fixed, under guarantee, by Lehmanns in Stoke upon Trent - I delivered the camera to Lehmanns at 10.15 am on 23 December 2010 and it was delivered back to me at 11.00 am on 24 December 2010 - they replaced the contacts in the camera body. I didn't use the extenders much but, having said that, I got a few important images with the 1.4 x coupled to the 180mm macro lens.

The Experience

After a flight of about six hours from Birmingham we arrived at Banjul airport. The heat and humidity were incredible after leaving the UK in one of our protracted cold spells - going from -50°C to 34°C and very high humidity was a mighty shock to the system. After arriving at the hotel at 5.45pm (local time is same as UK) we unpacked, checked all the photographic gear and had a wee dram; I always kid myself that this is for medicinal purposes, the alcohol kills any bugs in my digestive tract! We soon discovered, however, that this was not a good idea and the whisky came back home (much to my surprise), a few local lagers were a much better idea. Food in the hotels is in general quite good and sometimes very good indeed, the local fish is always very fresh and is delicious. We had a minor bout of Banjul belly for one day, but this did not spoil the holiday at all - we soon recovered.

The following day was an easy day, we were pretty tired after the flight and getting used to the heat was, we decided, a gradual thing, so we stayed in the hotel grounds photographing various birds, lizards, monitors, dragonflies and monkeys - a very pleasant start to the holiday. As might be expected the light is best in the earlier part of the morning and later on in the afternoon, sun rises at about 6.45 am and it is pretty well dark by about 6.45 pm.

The next day we went to what has been referred to as the Jewel of Africa, ie Abuko Forest Reserve. As you travel along the roads there are many ramshackle buildings so, upon arrival, we were not surprised to see the entrance in a poor state of repair. We walked through the reserve for about a mile or mile and a half to get to the 'photographers' hides' - these are near to the animal hospital/sanctuary. The hides were in a state of disrepair and the vegetation in the viewing area was overgrown - this resulted in very poor photographic opportunities.

The light between the leaves of trees was very intense and this made for poor backgrounds (a good deal of time has since been spent in Photoshop). There is a small fee to pay for the hides - cheap enough, but we were very disappointed, apparently Abuko Forest Reserve was initially established by an Englishman who has since been unable to remain and the reserve facilities have fallen into a poor state of repair. To add insult to injury one of the staff directed us to a hide that we had missed - he requested a tip for this - we obliged and when we got there the hide had completely collapsed - it was under water! Abuko then, was very disappointing, especially after my friend had been 10 years previously and he had regarded it as one of the premier sites he had ever visited - we had expected so much and yet achieved so little.

The next day was better - much better, we hired an old Nissan Patrol with an open back and a tarpaulin for a roof. Travelling in the heat was much more comfortable, but the dust from the roads got everywhere. It is a good idea to carry an old towel, or something like that, to place over the camera and lens while travelling. We initially went to Kotu Bridge - a very famous location for birders. As soon as we arrived various 'guides' offered their services.

We politely declined despite their repeated attempts; their persistence was really irritating, so we went elsewhere. There is a big difference between seeing birds, watching birds and actually photographing them; this is something the bird guides do not really appreciate despite their insistence that they do.

We drove to a place called the Bund Road, a long straight road with mangroves at either side, there is also a bridge there and we had much more success. Along the road there was no hassling from bird guides, in fact there was only one other person there - a local crab fisherman. Here birds could be seen and photographed, we took shots from the vehicle and we also got out and walked with the camera and tripods - never more than 200m or so. We managed to get shots of reef herons, darters, pied kingfishers, terns, gulls, godwits, whimbrel, black-winged stilts, wire-tailed swallows and various species of plovers.

Later we went to Steam Corner (a local name - sometimes called Cameloo Corner), again many birds were photographed - including the Senegal thick knee - a bird that looks like our familiar stone curlew.

The next day we went to Marakissa lodge and adjacent fields - a beautiful location but in truth better suited to watching than photographing birds - nevertheless we got some beautiful shots of Senegal coucal and whitefaced whistling ducks as well as broad-billed roller, manikins, red-bellied firefinches and red-cheeked cordon bleus. I also got some very sweet shots of dragonflies.

The following day we again went to Steam Corner followed by Tanji beach where we got images of the local fishermen and numerous shots of caspian terns, pied crows and pelicans, we even got a few shots of an osprey fishing.

The day after was rewarded by more images of the Sengal thick knee - but this time with chicks - something that has been rarely photographed. Black kites and vultures were also in abundance.

In summary

The trip to The Gambia was great fun, having time to photograph the wildlife at leisure in plenty of light is a rare pleasure for people based in the United Kingdom. The strong light in Africa does, however, have its own problems, creating strong shadows and high contrast. I would recommend a trip for anyone interested primarily in bird photography, you will be pretty well guaranteed good weather and plenty of subject matter. The holiday is relatively inexpensive and transport/hiring a driver is also cheap provided there are two or three sharing the vehicle. The local people are friendly but can be rather persistent in tourist areas, always asking you to 'come and see' or to buy something or to 'make me an offer'.

Depending upon your mood, this can prove to be very amusing and two of us spent an hour or so in the local market bartering for small presents for the family upon our return. The only thing I didn't like was the seven hour wait at the airport at Banjul for the delayed return flight - there was no air conditioning, and the seating was rather cramped in the plane - a Boeing 757.

We arrived at Birmingham airport where there was minimal delay waiting for the bags, we left the airport in temperatures of -4°C; I never felt the cold, in fact I enjoyed feeling cool! The following day the return journey home from Birmingham was even colder, the Shropshire countryside was covered in frost and snow, it was absolutely picturesque, buzzards and kestrels were perched on roadside trees looking for road-kill. I have never been so close to them before...if only my camera and lens had not been packed away!



Updated 27/04/2026 16:44:22 Last Modified: Monday, 27 April 2026