A hyena at Abuko

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Matt Smith

Hyena at Abuko

Sally Bowe has added a wonderful new set of images to the Gambia Experience Flickr pool, including this gorgeous young hyena from the Abuko Nature Reserve. As Sally rightly says, the guys at Abuko are doing a great job with very minimal funds. Big cats and mammals in general aren’t a huge feature of The Gambia as there simply isn’t the space for them to roam freely; but at places like Abuko animals are rescued and safely reared and often released into the wild in neighbouring Senegal. All power to them and the excellent work they do.

To see more of Sally’s photography, please visit her Flickr page.

A morning’s bird watching at Abuko with Chris Packham.

Chris Packham Diary – Day 1

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Matt Smith

What follows is a 3-part account of the Chris Packham Gambia bird tour, that ran from 5th-8th Feb of this year (some of the party continued on for three more days at Makasutu, I escaped to Senegal). Needless to say it was a cracking few days, and for so many reasons: for the sheer number of different bird species we saw (147 at the last count); for enabling us to see so many different, odd corners of The Gambia; for getting to know a bunch of cool people; and, of course, getting to (figuratively) stand on the shoulders of two people with such a depth of knowledge of the Gambian bird life, and wildlife in general. Though they might not get mentioned that much, Chris and Malick are implicit in everything that happened, and everything I learned. I just wish someone had told me the birds got up so damn early…

6.30am found us huddled beneath a huge mahogany tree, squinting into the milky light of pre-dawn. We were at the entrance to the Abuko nature reserve, a vast tract of forest and open scrub and home to a renowned natural pool, excellent for spotting a good number of species. The night before the group of 18 had had a brief meeting with Chris at Bakotu where we’d sized one another up and been introduced to the inimitable Malick – prince of bird watchers and, as it turned out, a purveyor of heroic local knowledge. Thus it was that this straggly party entered the reserve, heavy with binoculars, heavy with anticipation.

Malick, Chris and the team at Abuko

The first thing we see is a dense line of nomadic ants, clustered into a fibrous cylinder across the pathway. They group together in this fashion to keep themselves warm, and to protect their queen, who is safe somewhere in the centre of the gathering. At first glance the ragged pile looks like leaf or vegetable matter, or even hair – which I guess is the point. The ants reportedly have a fearsome bite, so we leave well alone and continue along the path to the pool.

Along the route we stop in our own ragged cluster to seek out a violet turaco, hiding somewhere in the canopy. The thickening air is pierced occasionally by the bird’s gutteral call, and as it hops from branch to liana we try to fix on its movements. The profusion of growth around us is extraordinary – the sheer abundance of life, the riot of things, filling every available space. The canopy is one thing, but it’s down here at eye level and beneath that’s the most boggling: a labyrinth of entwined lianas and branches with huge buttressed hardwood trees rising from the meshed swarm of roots. There are breaks in this debauch of life, pockets of colder air where the massive concrete bunkers of termite mounds stand like centuries old sentinels. Yet even these conceal a frenzy of hyperactivity, worker termites at the coalface, keeping the place cool enough for her – lying at the refrigerated heart of things, sometimes up to 50 years old…

African Darter, Abuko pond (image by Chris Packham).

The pool when we get there, is quite a prospect – compact and surrounded on three sides by lush greenery; and perfect for watching birds – partly because of the natural stage set up, and partly thanks to the presence of a rickety two-storey hide from where you can observe the higher reaches of the distant palms. And so many birds, and so quickly… We see egrets, night herons, hornbills, wood hoopoes with young in the palms, a spectacular chestnut-breasted giant kingfisher (perched they are something, but in flight, oh my) barbets, a hammerkop, jacanas picking their way across the massive lily pads, just feet away from us, plus a dozen or so african darters, distant relatives of the cormorant, wings outstretched in the early morning sun. It’s an amazing sight, and so much to take in that you have to turn away occasionally to get some perspective. The group are scrabbling for their guide books (this extraordinary bible) (as an aside here, if Dave Allen ever offers you his guidebook, say no, probably best not to ask why – it’s to do with where he keeps it.), training their scopes or zoom lenses, off to my right someone is sketching the whole dazzling enterprise.

We do eventually tear ourselves away, and spend the next half hour or so on a weary walk to the rescue centre at the heart of Abuko. It’s HOT now, getting towards 35 degrees, and the heat lays across everything, puddling around your feet if you stand still for too long. We spot bee eaters in the tops of acacia trees, and the distant song of the bulbul, the only bird daft enough to still be active in this heat. We arrive at the rescue centre blistered and parched, to find an oasis selling cold drinks and small tubs of nuts to feed the resident vervet monkeys. Chris seems particularly adept at befriending them, getting a couple to leap for nuts held in an outstretched hand. The animals here are kept in good conditions, and there’s a true menagerie, ranging from red patas monkeys, through hyenas to a MASSIVE tortoise, that had dug herself an impressively deep hole to escape the heat. Something we could all have done with. Alas, we instead had to walk through the heat of the day back to the bus, air which seemed to congeal around us like a broiling active barrier. The stall holders at the entrance, when we finally arrived, seemed to regard us with sympathy and desultorily waved the odd carved owl at us and then, mercifully, left us alone.

Blue-cheeked bee eater at Abuko (image by Chris Packham).

That evening we went for the first of several walks across the fields that surround the Kotu stream. The area is legendary for the diversity of the bird life it supports, from a raft of kingfishers, to waders and even – on the more distant sewage ponds – a healthy number of whistling ducks. It is said (by Chris amongst others) that if you gave yourself a good run at it (say dawn till dusk) you might get to see 100 species from the bridge above the stream. One day, one day…

As we wound our way on the narrow paths that lace the fields around the stream, as well as looking at the numerous wood hoopoes and glossy starlings that graced the palms around us, and looking skywards for the kites and hooded vultures that rode the rolling levels, the first obstacle we had to negotiate was a herd of cows that very much wanted to get past us. Or rather we were the obstacle they had to tackle. As five became 10 became 40 or more, it was clear that this was no small herd either – mildly panicked laughter soon became shrieking alarm as the huge-horned beasts strove to get round us by any means possible. There was no malice, but that’s a ton of animal. With big bloody horns! Thankfully we managed to let them by without much more than the odd blush and booty from stepping into the sunken rice pits.

Belligerent companions on the path...

The sewage ponds, when we arrived were alive with activity. Now this may sound like a disgusting place to be spotting birds, but remarkably there is no evidence of sewage at all (save the odd brightly painted sewage truck), and the insect life is of such a density that it’s a natural spot for birds to congregate. There were squadrons of swifts flying low over the ponds, peeping patrols of stilts, plus massed ranks of creeping cattle egrets. I shall never think of sewage farms in quite the same way after seeing this fount of life.

A black-winged stilt prowls the pools... (image by Chris Packham).

Our final assignation was with the elusive painted snipe, a bird I was reliably informed was a ‘lifer’, the kind a true birder dreams of spotting. We’d crossed the road by now, and were on a ridge between the flats behind the Badala Park hotel. Malick had gone ahead to see if he could hear the muted call of the snipe, or spot its legendarily skulky lope as it picked for insects and grubs in the hard tufts of grass. See, the painted snipe, despite it’s name, isn’t exactly a colourful beastie, and has the perfect markings for hiding amidst grass and burnt soil; and it simply doesn’t want to be seen. So there we are, once again in our traditional (and by now exhausted) shabby column, all peeking through tired eyes, looking for a creature that has no wish to be spotted. Ocassionaly a faint cry of ‘there!’ would go up, only for the damp disappointed follow up of ‘no, it’s a coucal. Again’ to filter out. Malick was knee deep in grass by now, straining eyes and ears for the evasive wee creature but to no avail. We called off the search, promising to return another day, better armed and less exhausted.

Gambia Chris Packham tour – 2010

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Matt Smith

Chris spies a small bird in the middle distance

Well, I’ve recently returned from four fantastic days on the Chris Packham birding tour in The Gambia. We dragged ourselves through thorny acacias in forty degree heat – heat even the local owls avoided, skipped around marauding cattle in the lessening light of evening, and ran the gauntlet in the noisome charm of the fishing village at Tanji, and all this to get a look at some birds! But such birds: painted snipe, long-tailed nightjars, blue-bellied rollers, white-faced scops owls, splendid sunbirds… 148 species in total. 148. One might search for a lifetime in the UK and not get to that total; we managed it in four days.

I’ll publish some more detailed accounts of the trip over the next couple of weeks, for now here are just a couple of images to whet the appetite.

The boat trip on the River Gambia. The masters consult.

A huge bull interrupts the peace...

The dusty rabble, near Kotu stream.

My Gambian Experience

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Matt Smith

Today, we have a guest post from Joni Caswell. Joni joined Heather Armstrong’s Horse and Donkey Trust (a charity we have featured on the blog in the past) as a volunteer and spent two weeks in The Gambia. What follows is a moving account of her experience. Thanks very much to Joni for letting us put this on the site.

Joni and Oliver

Whilst at a trade show early in 2009 I got chatting to a lovely lady called Vicki who was manning a stand on behalf of the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust (GHDT). It had always been an ambition of mine to complete some sort of charity work abroad and after explaining that, along with my business partner, I run a small business teaching children how to see the world from a pony’s point of view, Vicki mentioned that my work could come in handy and to get in touch with the charity director. An hour long phone conversation a few days later and I was signed up to go for two weeks in December 2009. My journey was so amazing it’s taken me a few weeks to process it all in my own mind and it’s been even harder still to condense it down in to a short article, but here it is…

After a six hour flight, an overnight stay in the capital, a three hour wait for a ferry, a six hour car journey, two 45 minute boat journeys and several wee stops in a prickly bush, the journey to the small village of Sambel Kunda in West Africa can only be described as epic. We arrived in the pitch black and could hear the commotion before we could see anything. It was over whelming, the whole village were out with drums and whistles; they were dancing, clapping and singing. The children were chanting ‘welcome, welcome, welcome’ and I heard one man say repeatedly ‘Heather is here and she has brought her friends’…wow… we had arrived!

Party central!

In the early morning sun the following day, it was the first opportunity to get a good look at where we were. The charity have a large two storey house that caters for the large groups of volunteers that visit throughout the year. Overlooking the balcony are two large paddocks where the donkeys and horses have a good run around and leg stretch before the sun gets too hot (30 degrees would be considered a cool day!) and a short walk away is another yard for all the stallions.

22 of us have left the cold behind to come to Sambel Kunda to offer help in any way it’s needed including a vet, veterinary nurse and a small team whose sole purpose is to build a playground next door to the local school. I’ve come as prepared as I can be with lots of teaching notes, visual aids and lots of laminated pictures to show the children.

The first week of our stay is dedicated to the Horse & Donkey show, which is an annual event. We spend the first few days sorting out all the tack that has been kindly donated by people in the UK. We put up marquees, bunting and notice boards and on the night before the show, we already have competitors arriving. There are no luxury horse boxes here; some people have to get their horses and donkeys across the river and some have walked for two days to get to us.

Show day gets off to a flying start with the secretary’s tent inundated with competitors. Some horses and donkeys have just a thin piece of rope round the neck or through their mouths, so this is swiftly removed and they are sent off to their show ring sporting a new soft head collar. With such a large group for this year, there’s plenty of help for judging classes, stewarding, running the tack stall, first aid stall and manning the veterinary tent. The vet is busy all day treating various injuries, giving wormers and advising people to visit the dentist and/or farrier who are also on hand all day. The day is a resounding success, we see lots of horses and donkeys in beautiful condition, we have a fabulous write up in the main Gambian newspaper and the Donkey Club boys get to show off their new game of ‘Donkey Ball’ to a huge and excited crowd.

It takes another day to put everything away and once the volunteers for the first week are safely on their way home, it’s on with the general running of GHDT. Not only is there plenty to do at the GHDT site with daily wound checks on various animals, but they also travel round 10 local schools teaching children about the care of horses and donkeys and travel out to lots of markets each week to treat any sick or injured animals.

Going out to the local Lumo’s (markets) is where the harsh reality of the Gambia hits you; the days are long, hot and extremely dusty. People queue to see the vets and staff and we see everything from a horse with a septic tendon sheath, a horse with a badly swollen and broken penis, maggot infested wounds, burns, sores from poor harness, rubs and sores from tethering, abscesses, lots of horses with heavy worm burdens and levels of emaciation I have never seen. It sounds horrendous, but once you are there in the thick of things, you quickly get past the shock and have to just accept the reality of the place and get on with the job of patching them up as best you can and sending them on their way.

The Donkeys!

The charity is very well known in the area so sometimes on the way back from Lumo’s people would call and ask us to stop in to their compound on their way through, which we willingly do. There is currently a neurological disease affecting many horses and donkeys. It is not yet known what causes this but it’s very often fatal. I saw one such case with a little bay horse that had been down on the ground for three days before the owners called the GHDT staff. Generally speaking Gambian’s don’t believe in putting things to sleep on religious grounds, but when they could see how much this little horse was suffering, they agreed. It was a distressing experience and I fought every ounce of my being not to cry for him. But I was blown away by how professional and swift the GHDT staff were in dealing with the situation. They have received superb training from UK vets and they come in to their own in situations such as these. In order to learn more about this disease they had to take samples from various parts of his body, which is a job no one enjoys, but without these samples, they don’t have a hope of finding the cause.

Each evening everyone came back to the house and we filled each other in on how the day went. It’s not the easiest thing for such a big group of strangers to suddenly live together, but we came together brilliantly. From making each other laugh over dinner to looking after each other when a tummy bug worked it’s way round us, taking it in turns making the tea and keeping the gas powered fridge stocked with beer (what a luxury that was!).

During this trip, I quickly realised that all the things I had prepared to teach and show children were just not suitable. Even things that are so basic for us here in the UK, like providing ‘Fibre, Friends & Freedom’ are not appropriate. Gambian’s can’t offer an environment where their horse or donkeys have friends as they have a working animal, not a pet and they often struggle to support the one they have They can’t offer the animal freedom; when they are not working they are usually tethered to a pole within the family compound. In terms of Fibre, they offer them what there is available, which is a hay so coarse that you snap each piece like a twig.

It also quickly becomes clear that you can’t come to the Gambia and tell people what to do. It’s far better to do things, let people see the benefits it brings and they’ll soon follow suit. As an example, I stood talking to a young boy about his donkey at the show. I stood gently stroking the donkey’s ears and neck and the donkey promptly leaned against me and fell asleep. Within a few minutes I had a group of children with me all eager to have a go and even starting to argue over who got to do it. Two weeks suddenly seemed like two minutes; I’d just about got used to the heat and dust, understood what is needed from an education point of view and begun to appreciate the sheer scale of it all, before I found myself boarding the plane to come home.

My experience in the Gambia has left me questioning so many things that go on in the UK. For example, if injuries like the ones we saw were sustained in the UK, the horse would be put to sleep without hesitation. As mentioned above animals are rarely put to sleep in the Gambia. But not only do they recover from their injuries; they recover extremely well and go back in to work, even from broken legs. It makes you think that perhaps we are too disposable with our horses here. Amazingly, they also recover from these injuries with little medical intervention including pain relief. The charity relies on vets volunteering from the UK and often has to manage for several weeks without one present. They also rely on drugs donated from the UK, so once they run out there’s nothing else to offer.

I found the behaviour of the animals very interesting. You will see a lame horse, trotting down the road, pulling a fully laden cart, with rubs and sores all over him from the harness, but he doesn’t spook, nap or attempt to flee. They stand calm and still whilst you treat what must be painful injuries. They are resigned and accepting of their life where there’s never a mutual groom, a good roll or frolic in the sunshine with a herd of friends, but can they miss or crave something they’ve never had?

Molly

Another interesting thing is that the children ride on the rump of the donkeys and we all told them to sit forward. As soon as they did this, the donkey would dip his head to the floor, drop his shoulder and deposit the child on the floor! To be fair, the donkey doesn’t seem to mind the child sitting so far back and will walk, trot and canter on command. So, were we right to tell them to move? From the look we got from the child on the floor, I think perhaps he was ok as he was!

There are two people I met who cannot go unmentioned. The first is Heather Armstrong who runs the charity, a woman for whom there is no commendation high enough for what she does. She oozes a calm and radiant energy and yet works so incredibly hard. She’s constantly organising the next set of volunteers, ensures they have a safe (albeit long) journey and are well prepared for the task and environment ahead of them. She has to negotiate with officials, village elders, local dignitaries and the Gambian Government to continue her work or bring in something new. She organises training for the staff and teachers to keep them motivated and up to date so that they can offer the best possible care. She spends her year travelling to and from the UK (which as described above is no mean feat), she keeps everything running smoothly and is always so thankful of any small gesture offered to her charity. Along with other members of her family Heather has dedicated her life to improving the lives of the horses and donkeys of the Gambia and of the Gambian people by sponsoring their education and aiding their health care. As I tried to take stock of everything around me I found it hard to imagine what their lives would be like without Heather and her charity.

The second person is Anna, an Angel on earth if ever there was one. Anna is from the UK and is in her second year of volunteering there. She has to be so many things all at the same time. She has to be a nurse to sick and injured animals, a nurse to sick and injured people, she has to be a diplomat, book keeper, teacher, mother and mentor – she is a shining star; not only to the GHDT but to so many people and animals of the Gambia who have been taken under her wing. Nothing seemed to phase Anna and she never ran out of patience even when she must have heard her name called 100 times from people, all wanting something from her.

I have been humbled to tears during this trip; by the people I met and worked with, by the spirit and will of the horses and donkeys and I’m so very proud to have been part of this project if only for a very short time.

For more information on the Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust and to see photo’s of the amazing playground everyone worked so hard to build, please check out www.gambiahorseanddonkeytrust.co.uk . GHDT are also on Facebook.

For more information on the school sponsorship programmes, please check out www.sssgambia.co.uk

Chris Packham and The Gambia (again!)

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Matt Smith

Chris Packham in The Gambia

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…

You can see the Autumnwatch trailer below.