Monkeys galore!

This morning we had booked another trip with the excellent Habib, who picked us up soon after breakfast when the air was still fresh and pleasant. As I mentioned in my previous entry, following all our chat about football he had promised that today he would wear his Newcastle United strip (a gift from a previous client) in our honour and sure enough, he did!

Bijilo Forest Park

Bijilo Forest Park is an easy and popular excursion from any of the coastal resorts. It’s an area of natural sandy-soiled forest that was preserved when the coastal strip was being developed, so that tourists would have a chance to see something of natural Gambia on their doorstep. It has become home to troops of monkeys, with two species living here: Green Vervet and Red Colobus. While the latter are relatively shy and sightings not guaranteed, the Green Vervets are habituated to humans and incredibly friendly and inquisitive – probably because they have learned that most tourists come bearing gifts in the form of groundnuts. Not for nothing are these also termed monkey nuts, as the creatures clearly love them!

In theory feeding the monkeys is not encouraged; in fact, there were signs at the entrance to the park saying that it was not allowed. But in practice all the guides seemed to me to encourage the tourists to do so and the park security guys must know this and turn a blind eye as long as the food (bought from sellers just outside at 50D a bag) is hidden from view in your bag as you enter the park. Arguably we should have resisted the temptation to buy any food, but as it was clear that everyone else fed the monkeys there seemed little point in not doing so ourselves, so we succumbed.

Strolling among the different trees was lovely, and for a while we were happy with sightings of birds (a hornbill and bee-eater in particular), ants’ nests, various trees etc. But to start with at least, there were no monkeys to be seen. Habib explained that they would have gone to the nearby hotels to forage for breakfast scraps and would be back soon. He promised that we would see the Green Vervets for sure, and get some good photos, but gave no guarantee about the Red Colobus monkeys.

After we had been walking for about half an hour, and while I was engaged in photographing an interestingly shaped baobab tree, suddenly there was a small Green Vervet monkey at my feet! Soon several more appeared and as Habib pulled our bag of nuts from his pocket, even more. I reckoned that even without food you’re pretty much certain to see these cute animals here, as they will surely come to check you out. But if you have some nuts they will linger and you'll get a chance to really interact with them and get some great photos too - although I found the latter wasn't as easy as you might think at these close quarters, as they are almost continually on the move.

We spent some time with this group - in fact until all (or so I thought) our nuts had gone. It was a wonderful experience to feel their soft hands gently tugging at your finger to see if you had a nut for them. What intrigued me most was the very clear distinction of characters within the group. Most were friendly and eager, without being pushy. But one large male, clearly the alpha male, threw his weight around and tried to shove the smaller monkeys away if he felt he wasn't getting his fair share - on a couple of occasions a brief scuffle ensued. One younger male in particular took my fancy, sitting patiently in a nearby tree, at shoulder level, and seemingly accepting each nut I passed him with almost spoken gratitude. And one poor little one was so self-effacing that she hung right back and wouldn't even pick up a nut that landed nearby when I tried to toss it to her, because she just knew a bigger, bolder monkey would easily grab it from her before she could eat it.

Eventually we moved on. Habib was continually on the watch for the Red Colobus monkeys and we were in luck! It was not too long before he spotted a group in some trees above our heads. We grabbed a few shots but it wasn't easy; however he soon motioned us to a better position on a side path and we were able to get some better ones and to enjoy the sight of a small baby with its mother high above us.

As we returned to the park's entrance we found that more tourists had arrived (up to this point we had seen only a handful of other people) and also a lot more Green Vervets, who were interacting with the visitors and enjoying a bounty of nuts. One was even sitting on a man's shoulder!

It was at this point that we found that Habib had kept back a few nuts. He suggested I sit on a low branch and hold a nut by my shoulder to see if a monkey would take it from there. As soon as I did so I had a monkey on that shoulder, with his tail draped round my neck, and a couple more on my lap! They quickly realised that my small supply of nuts was in my pocket and when that ran out one monkey even stuck his head inside the pocket to look for more - so cute and clever!

Altogether we spent almost two hours here and had a great time, although I realised afterwards that I should have worn old and/or darker shorts – monkey paws aren’t very clean! If you look at my legs in the photo above you can see how dirty they got!

Back at the lodge

Habib dropped us off back at Ngala Lodge in time for lunch. We’d had two super outings with him at a very reasonable cost, much more so than the official tours. We paid him, as he had requested, in sterling – he preferred this as he could wait till the low season to change it and get a better exchange rate. As you can imagine we also tipped him well, again in sterling. Incidentally, it seems from reviews I’ve read that Habib is still working with Ngala Lodge and their guests and still providing a great service – worth knowing if you ever find yourself in the area!

[Postscript: after our return from The Gambia I wrote a number of reviews including of course a very positive one about Habib. We had exchanged email addresses, so that I could book him directly for future trips should we return, and could include his contact details in my review. I duly sent him an email with a link to the review, asking him to let me know if I’d said anything incorrect and/or if he was happy with the photos of him I’d posted alongside it. The next evening I was sitting at home when my phone rang. It was Habib calling, having found my number in my email signature, to thank me for the review. He was so pleased with it, as up to now, although people writing reviews of Ngala Lodge quite often recommended him, no one had ever written a review solely about him! And I was equally happy that he had gone to the trouble, and the expense, of calling me to say thank you rather than just reply to my email. A lovely man!]

This was our final day at Ngala, so we had another relaxing afternoon of swimming, reading by the pool and taking photos.

Bougainvillea at Ngala Lodge

We also went to the small office to change some money – we’d been warned that our next destination, Mandina Lodges, only accepted cash payments so needed to take plenty with us. One small issue was the lack of large denomination notes. The highest available was the 100 Dalasi note, worth only about £1.60. Although prices here were lower than at home, we found ourselves with an envelope stuffed with banknotes to take to Mandina!

Towards the end of the afternoon we packed our bags ready for our onward journey, then spent our final evening here as we had many of the others, enjoying the sunset, drinks on the terrace and another excellent meal in the restaurant. We were excited to be heading inland a bit tomorrow, to see more of the country, but knew we would be sorry to leave the haven that is Ngala.