See the trail route:
We start our journey with breakfast at Tendaba River Camp, a beautiful and peaceful spot by the river. This place is a paradise for animal and nature lovers.
After refreshment, we board a boat to explore the wetlands to spot some of the stunning area's wildlife and natural scenery.
After the boat trip, we will continue our journey to Kiang West National Park, which is one of the largest and most important wildlife reserves in the Gambia. It was declared a national park in 1987 and is located on the south bank of the River Gambia.
We will continue our journey to Ndemban, a Jola village on the river's south bank.
We greet the alkalo first and have a chance to ask about the history of the village and daily life there.
After a delicious traditional home-cooked lunch, we walk to the bakery to have our hands-on experience of making a famous Gambian bread – tapalapa. In the meantime, we stroll to the women's gardens to help with the morning watering of their vegetable beds. After we put the bread in the oven, we head to the river, where we will see the process of cleaning and preparing oysters for sale at the market.
We return to the bakery to have a taste of freshly baked bread and gather some strength for the workshops. We will learn about and participate in the process of salt production by a traditional method and make our very special souvenir – a naturally dyed T-shirt or material made together with village ladies.
We head back in the late afternoon.
You can adjust your trip as a private tour. With the group tour, slight adjustments are possible.
The trip is easy to moderate. The most activity expected from you is when you have to board a boat. It will include some walking, but there will be no serious activity.
We recommend bringing sun protection (headwear, long, lightweight clothes, sunglasses, sun cream) and mosquito repellents. We recommend comfortable wear.
The trip is organised by the Insitute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG) in collaboration with Ninki Nanka Encounters (NNE).
ITTOG specialises in hands-on training mainly in the Travel and Tourism sectors with special emphasis on travel agency, tour operations, tour guiding, ground operations, events management, entrepreneurship/business skills development, responsible/sustainable tourism, community-based tourism, and general tourism business management.
NNE Foundation is a small, new Gambian charity and UK community interest company (CIC) working towards the responsible development of the Ninki Nanka Trail as a community-based tourist destination.
They work on projects with communities, tourism businesses and local government to develop experiences, products and community-based tourism designed to create inspiring, cultural interaction between travellers and local people and use tourism to create livelihood opportunities for host communities along The River Gambia.
We do believe it's time for another adventure. Don't spend all of your time in The Gambia in one place. Go out and explore! There are so many beautiful experiences waiting for you. Let us help you pick one - and take care of all the rest.
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