The Gambia February 2024

In February 2024 we made our second visit to The Gambia on the west coast of Africa, spending most of our time in the coastal area close to the capital Banjul, but also making a number of trips into the interior and along the Gambia river. 

We decided to book a package with The Gambia Experience, which included return flights from London Gatwick Airport to Banjul with 2 weeks at the Ngala Lodge Hotel in Fajara. The hotel was excellent and we had a large room with a sea view and the lodge also had a very good restaurant. The only disadvantages were that the grounds didn’t draw in many birds and the lodge was a bit isolated, being a couple of miles from the main restaurant area. But these were minor issues and we were grateful to be in such a comfortable hotel for the duration of our trip.

Ngala Lodge Hotel
The view from our room at Ngala Lodge
We designed the trip around a number of excursions with knowledgeable local bird guides interspersed with days when we could go birding on our own at a slightly slower pace or just relax. This worked very well and we felt that we were having a relaxing holiday as well as seeing some excellent sub-Saharan birds. The bird guide we had for 4 days was Aladin (Aladin Jammeh), who we’d met on our first trip to The Gambia in February 2013 (https://johnandmaggiephotography.org/the-gambia-february-2013/) when he was the resident bird guide at the Kairaba Hotel. By chance on this trip we also bumped into Zakaria Bah who had also guided us in 2013 and we went birding with him for 2 days, with Ebrima W. Barry acting as a driver and second guide on one of these excursions. 
Maggie and Aladin
John and Maggie with Zakaria Bah
 A document we found of particular value in planning the trip was a very detailed report produced by a group of Dutch birders who visited The Gambia in 2018 (https://www.cloudbirders.com/be/download?filename=HIJLKEMA_Gambia_11_2018.pdf). They covered much of the country during their two-week visit while we were more focussed on the coastal area, but their report did help us to decide which birding sites to visit nearby.
 We have divided this trip report into a number of sections based on different areas of the country we visited. It’s hoped it will be of value to birders planning a trip to this friendly, safe and bird-rich country. The bulk of the trip report is in the following pages:

 

 
We really enjoyed this second trip to The Gambia and photographed 155 species over the 2 weeks, taking our Gambian bird list to 199 species. It would have been nice to get a few more lifers, but to do that we would have needed to spend time well up river in the area of Georgetown and we wanted to enjoy our time in a pleasant hotel and enjoy the good restaurants of the coastal area. In conclusion, we would highly recommend The Gambia as an excellent birding destination for anyone wishing to see African birds in a safe environment that has a well-established tourist infrastructure and knowledgeable bird guides.