Lamin Lodge & Bijilo Forest

Along the estuary of the Gambia River grow mangrove trees, their roots in the water a home to delicious oysters. Women who have been trained to swim, dive in at low tide to cut the oysters from the tree roots. As well as being a protein-rich food, its shell has many other uses, such as to pave roads and to make dyes. 

From the boat that takes you through the mangrove forest, you’ll see birds, crabs and the apes that eat them. The apes dip their tails into the holes the crabs dig in the mud. When the crabs bite, they pull up their tails, crack the shells and enjoy the meat. Another life form you’ll see is the mudcrawler, a fish that has evolved into a sort of frog that can live out of water. You might enjoy fishing in the river. 

Afterwards you can join the Lamin Lodge. A 2 story building built entirely of wood. This gives you the idea of sitting in a huge tree house. From the Lamin Lodge you have a beautiful view of the mangroves and surrounding area. Here you can also have a snack and a drink. 

This is a small rain forest on a cliff overlooking the beach at Kololi, about 12 kilometers from Banjul and just ten minutes from the hotels in Kololi and Kairaba. 

It’s a must for eco-tourists and bird-watchers. The over 300 acres of dunes and trees were opened to the public in 1991. Since then about 23,000 people have visited. Before the reservation was created, there was uncontrolled cutting of the local rhun palm, a tree that provides fruit, fibres and wood, and apes were being hunted and slaughtered by Gambian boys and wild dogs. 

Now there’s a path through the forest with places to sit along the way from which you can spot some of the 133 different kinds of birds and four kinds of ape: the Patas, Green Vervet, Red Colobus and the Balagos.