🇬🇲 10/2024 The Gambia Travel

Day 24, 23.10.2024. — Reaching a new country is never easy. 🙄

Allah calls at six. Time to leave the hotel. In the bathroom, a giant spider greets us, along with all the creepy-crawlies visible under the light — potential biters. 🪲 Outside, it’s still dark and chilly, but a few cars are already on the move. One of them, a shared taxi, quickly takes us to the next town, where another minibus is already waiting. The roads are quiet enough to make good time. 🥳 Will we really reach a new country today and make it to the embassy in time to submit our documents before the weekend? 🤞 A few visas are still on our to-do list.

At half past seven, kids head to school while others beg at car lots. 😞 In the chaotic hub of cars and minibuses, a taxi driver offers to take us to the border for 12,000 CFA francs. We only have 10,000. 🙄 Yesterday, we managed to scrape by with one Gazelle, but today we need a new plan. 🤦 We’re short by just 2,000 — about the price of a beer — but we’re reluctant to withdraw more cash. 😝

Thankfully, locals suggest an alternative: take two big buses instead of a taxi. Cheaper. Sounds good! 👍 But of course, the shared taxis fill up much faster than the buses, and we’re left waiting for ages before we even start moving. It’s clear we won’t make it to the embassy today — not that it wasn’t a pipe dream anyway. 😇 No big…