The Gambia has been a popular winter holiday destination for four decades, offering good Western-style resorts with sandy beaches, swaying palms, swimming pools and a smiling waiter to deliver a cooling cocktail. We at Xploration, however, tend to immerse ourselves in things more real. We’ll travel up River Gambia, which gives this former British colony its name and determines its bizarre, elongated shape to sense West Africa at its fullest and discover picturesque mud-built villages, ancient baobabs and palm groves, extraordinary wildlife (think hippos, chimps and more than 600 bird species) and hopefully some local festivals – invariably exuberant displays of colour, energy and noise.

The Gambia is rich in biodiversity, with an unusually wide variety of natural habitats ranging from beaches to river, mangrove, tropical woodland and savannah, all crammed into a small area, being a top bird-watching destination. But apart from that, there’s a rich seam of history to explore too in the Gambia valley, with heritage sites dating from prehistoric times to the slave trading era and the later colonial period.

For travellers who have never visited sub-Saharan Africa before, The Gambia offers a gentle introduction to this most fascinating region. Gambians are known for their friendliness and the religious, racial and sexual abuses are unknown here. People here also generally speak English, which allows a deeper communication. You can holiday in Kenya and learn nothing of its neighbours, visit Tunisia without feeling the presence of Libya or Algeria, but The Gambia means an encounter with all the colourfulness and friendliness of West Africa.

includes: diesel, gas, and port fees

Upriver:

Downriver