Fathala Nature Reserve and Delta Saloum

Fathala Game Park, around ten miles north of the The Gambian-Senegalese border, is a nature conservation area of 2,000 hectares of thick savannah within the national park.

After an early morning hotel pick-up, we drive to Banjul and join the ferry across The Gambian river to the bustling north bank at Barra. The ferry trip is an experience in itself!

We then drive by road, passing through a number of villages typical of The Gambia, before arriving at Fathala Game Park, which has been stocked with many species of indigenous wildlife, including Roan and Kob Antelope, Buffalo and Defassa Waterbuck, with its distinctive white rump patch.

The park is also home to ground-dwelling Patas monkeys, Guinea baboon - the smallest baboon species - Bushbuck, Warthog, African Forest Buffalo, with horns that curve out backwards and upwards, and Side-striped Jackal, with faint white stripes running from elbow to hip on both sides of its body.

A major draw for wild life enthusiasts is a herd of 17 Western Giant Eland, the world’s largest antelope, which have been introduced from Nkolkoba. Criticially endangered, there are only around 200 left in the wild, meaning that the Fathala Game Park herd represents almost 10% of the total global population.

From our game park visit, we drive to our overnight destination, Tobakuta, a town in the Salum Delta, first enjoying lunch and relaxation. At 5pm, we board our boat for a sunset crossing to Shippo Island, where we visit the village of Shippo and its very own Queen. This is the real Africa, with authentic hut houses and we sleep in one of them following our return to Tobakuta for dinner round the camp fire and stargazing.

On day 2, after breakfast, we tour the village of Tobakuta and the market before embarking on our safari towards Misra village and its landmark cotton Tree, the biggest in the Senegambia region. We them drive through the bush to the border and back to Barra for the ferry crossing to our hotel.