If you’ve been following the Gambia blog you’ll know we’ve been supporting Jason Florio and Helen Jones on their proposed on-foot epic circumnavigation of The Gambia. The project is partly to document a personal obsession both Jason and Helen have developed over many visits to the country, and also a charity event, looking to propogate the ideas of the Gardens for Life project, set up by the Eden Project.
Well, we’re pleased to say that the trip has got off to a good start and the guys are making good progress. You can see their route on the map below and follow their travails on their Short Walk in the Gambian Bush blog, on the Adventure blogs site. Their experiencing a few problems getting on line at the moment but the blog should have some regular live updates. Here’s to a long walk in the country!
We featured something back in July on the excellent Gambia film made by the Canadian company Journeyman. Their task was to create a ‘non-stereotypical, empowering story about Africa that will talk to Canadians’. We’ve recently come across a couple of sections of the full length video on YouTube and thought we would share these with you.
They have a strange power about them and are as true a representation of the country as I’ve seen; and whilst the clip below doesn’t show The Gambia of brochures and polished photography it still induces, for me anyway, a near crippling nostalgia for the place: the faces, the rust-brown roads, the simple lines of things, vivid in that unique sharpness of light… It’s a great piece.
The victorious Gambia U17 team. (Photo by David Walker)
Just a short post to congratulate the Gambia U17s who gave the Pompey academy side a bit of a lesson at a rain soaked Collingwood ground last Wednesday. Although the Baby Scorpions only won 2-0, they dominated the game and adapted well to some less-than-friendly conditions… Here’s hoping the Scorpions go on and win the U17 World Cup! Below is a match report and some brief footage of the game – no goals but you can see just how dominant the Gambians were. Thanks to David Walker for the braving the rain to capture the footage and write the report.
Match Report
Being played under floodlight the game kicked off at 7pm. The rain greased up the surface of the pitch – which I’m sure the Gambians are not used to! But this didn’t get to the baby scorpions. They knocked the ball round like a professional outfit dominating the game from early on.
Portsmouth struggled to handle the pace of the Gambians who with a want to win were first to every ball. Deservedly so Gambia took the lead half way through the first half: after a scuffle in the box the ball was finally tapped in. The Gambian team delighted to see support on the touchline from few of The Gambia Experience Staff who’d braved the rain to watch the match. 1-0
Goal!
The remainder of the half was all one way with Gambia going close from a great through ball and shortly after calling the Portsmouth goal keeper into action to make an unbelievable save, pushing the Gambian’s shot over the cross bar. The half ended 1-0.
Second half the Gambians come out strong and sneaked an early second. The Gambians scored from a great strike leaving the Portsmouth goalkeeper with no chance. Portsmouth then had a 15 minute spell where they pushed forward creating a few chances, but they never really troubled the young African Keeper. For the last stretch of the game the Gambians showed why they could prove an upset at the U17 World Cup – winning every ball and pinning the Portsmouth side back deep in to their own half.
Full credit to Portsmouth though who played a brilliant, typical English game: solidly defensive throughout but lacking the same creativity that The Gambians played with. From the display I saw if I was a betting man a cheeky outside bet on the baby scorpions to win the Under 17 World Cup now doesn’t seem so silly!
With Autumnwatch about to hit our screens, it seems a good time to mention the long standing relationship we are lucky to share with Chris Packham. Chris has been out to The Gambia 11 times now, and as he has said himself (in a post he wrote for this blog, no less):
It will sound silly given I normally only visit for only two weeks a year but the Gambia has come to feel like a second home. What seals it are the fabulous cocktail of things the country has to offer: sunshine, great hotels, good food; and for me – top quality birding and wildlife…what you don’t realise until you get there is the wonderful hospitality and friendly nature of the people!
We couldn’t really have a post about Chris Packham without mentioning the fact that we’re now up in lights on his freshly refurbished website – his upcoming tour to The Gambia is sure to be popular so don’t hesitate to enquire if you’re at all interested…
