Gambia: News from resort

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Joyce

Our resort manager Joyce Stavroulakis has lived and worked in The Gambia for 25 years and will be a familiar face to most people who have visited the country. Here, in a new feature for the blog, she gives us some views from the ground, and keeps us up to date with what is happening in resort. We shall leave you in her capable hands…

The Gambia Experience resort team

2010 was a difficult time for the travel industry, but The Gambia has been working hard to continue attracting holidaymakers as so many people here rely on tourism for their income. Luckily there are many travellers that love the country and keep returning time after time, I can understand why – I came and never went home. Let’s hope 2011 is a good year!

Right now the country is gearing up for the forthcoming Roots International Festival, the 10^th of these biennial events which celebrates the culture and history of The Gambia and attracts people from around the world who are keen to trace their African heritage and learn more about the region and its past. This year the 7-day festival will take place between 4^th and 10^th February and the programme includes a music concert, carnival, a trip to the ruins of the British slave trade fortress on James Island, film night and more. There are still places so if you’re interested in finding out more and attending the event visit www.rootsgambia.gm.

Last year the traditional Gambian cookery course we offered with Ida Njie proved really popular with guests and in 2011 we’ll be offering “Come dine with Ida” where you can enjoy a home-cooked African buffet at home with Ida and her family, plus get the chance to learn more about life in The Gambia.

There’s also a new lodge on the north bank called Sitanunku which will welcome its first guests this month, it’s particularly aimed at birdwatchers and anglers but anyone wanting to experience rural Africa might be interested. What else is new? Well, the smoking ban has finally hit The Gambia and there is now no smoking in public places, only in designated areas – it seems to be popular with diners in the restaurants. One thing that hasn’t changed is the weather, today it’s 31 degrees!

Wide Open Walls Blog

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Matt Smith

Wide Open Walls - the blog

Just a quick note to say that there is now a Wide Open Walls blog and you should go see it, subscribe to the feed and watch the joy roll in.

Banjul Airport makes top ten…

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Matt Smith

Banjul Airport

For anyone who has been there it may come as something of a surprise that Rowan Moore, the Observer’s architecture critic, has selected Banjul Airport as one of his 10 favourite airports in the world. I must confess to having never really paid much attention to the place in my time there. I’ve always found airports to be a means to an end: classic non-places, liminal zones, transit areas where the senses shut down for a few hours. But on reading his short piece I guess it is quite a striking building, small and somewhat strangely formed. If nothing else, it’s given me an excuse to go back and have another look…

Banjul Airport, Gambia, wins a prize for its sheer indifference to all the usual clichés and conventions of airport design. True, it goes like many others for something a bit wing-like, but the gratuitous projections at its sides are nothing like the swoops of Saarinen or Piano. It also goes, for no particular reason, for an arch in its centre with a bigger inverted arch above. A tongue-like canopy then sticks out from the mouth-like arch. The work of the Senegalese Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, its main design principle would appear to be to do stuff for the sheer hell of it.

You can read the full article at the Observer website.