Entries about desparture

I lay awake in my bed early this morning, listening to the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer before daybreak. The first rays of daylight brings with them screeching plantain eaters flying through the camp, pigeons cooing in the rafters, quarrelsome crows in the tree tops and the chattering of many small birds. Makasutu Forest is awake once more. I shall miss this.

We wander around the hotel grounds before breakfast, enjoying the whimsical architecture and meandering paths overlooking the mangrove and mud flats. In addition to the four floating lodges, Mandina has Jungle lodges, a Stilted Lodge and a Mangrove Lodge – each room being individually designed.

The pool

Reception area

Breakfast

We travel to the airport with three other Brits in a mini bus, and on the track leading to the main road we encounter many children running alongside the bus. One of the tourists has bought a large box of sweets which she is throwing out of the window to them. Not only is she encouraging the children to beg rather than go to school, she is putting their lives at risk by them getting too close to the moving vehicle. The driver is getting more and more angry and shouting out to the kids. The woman's husband tries to involve me in the hope of getting some support. Wrong move. Telling him exactly what I think of the practice doesn't sit too well with him and he tries to justify it by telling me he doesn't approve of people “flashing at dinner” (referring to me taking pictures of us and food). I shrug and reply “fair enough”, letting the conversation die right there.

Banjul has a new airport building which is almost finished. It looks very different to how it looked last time we came in 1996. We check in our luggage in the new terminal, but have to walk across to the old terminal for security and passport control. There is a long queue snaking its way through the covered area and out into the sun.

Bottles confiscated at security

The departure lounge in the old terminal building hasn't changed much over the years, it still looks more like a cafeteria than an airport, with a large outside seating area.

The flight is full of British school children – three separate classes from what I can gather. They are mostly well behaved, and on landing they give the pilot an enthusiastic applause that goes on and on with cheering and whooping.

The flight lands at 22:30, and with a 3.5 hour drive back from Gatwick, we have decided to spend the night at the airport before driving back home tomorrow. We quickly grab a few things for a 'room picnic' from M&S before trying to locate the Premier Inn next to the terminal.

And so ends another Howard holiday.

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