Example tour 10 days/9 nights (you can always change places or lodges on request)
*Day 1: Arrival Banjul airport. Drive to Mandinari River Lodge. Depending on
the arrival time you have time to discover the area around the lodge (Tanbi Wetlands) and the beautiful garden with own bird hide of the lodge.
Bird species we hope to see: bearded barbet, blue cheeked bee-eater, northern red bishop, robin chat, Senegal coucal, black crake, cattle egret, blue-breasted kingfisher, giant kingfisher, yellow-billed kite, pearl-spotted owlet, African scops owl, rose-ringed parakeet, western grey plantain-eater, blue-bellied roller, yellow-billed shrike, sunbirds, starlings, Senegal thick-knee, violet turaco, hooded vulture, village weaver shikra,…
*Day 2: Morning walk through the mangroves, rice fields and wetlands of
Mandinari. Afternoon walk to the petrol station area where many raptors can
be found.
Bird species we hope to see: brown babbler, blackcap babbler, white-throated bee-eater, yellow-fronted canary, red-cheeked cordon-blue, pied crow, levaillants cuckoo, different kind of doves, long-crested eagle, wahlberg’s eagle, lanner falcon, common greenshank, African harrier hawk, green-backed heron, African grey hornbill, common redshank, …
*Day 3: After breakfast we start driving to Tendaba Camp (142 km) with stop in Farasutu forest on the way going. Arrival in the camp around lunchtime. After being settled in your room you visit one of the two bird hides around the camp.
Bird species we hope to see: vieillot’s barbet, little green bee-eater, common chiffchaff, fork-tailed drongo, cut-throath finch, yellow-crowned gonolek, spotted honeyguide, striped kingfisher, pied kingfisher, grey kestrel, indigobird, long-tailed nightjar, greyish eagle owl, northern white-faced owl,verreaux’s eagle owl, piacpiac, pygmy sunbird, ….
*Day 4: Breakfast at 7.30am, morning boat trip to the mangroves on the north bank of the river Gambia. After lunch and relax time for the guide, we discover the Kwinella bushtrack.
Bird species we hope to see: Senegal batis, yellow crowned bishop, bateleur, dwarf bittern, singing cisticola, great cormorant, long-tailed cormorant, temminck’s courser, bronze-winged courser, klaas’s cuckoo, dideriek cuckoo, African darter, Namaqua dove, beaudouin’s snake eagle, brown snake eagle, western-banded snake eagle, western reef egret, great white egret, intermediate egret, little egret, African finfoot, African paradise flycatcher, red-bellied flycatcher, hamerkop, black-headed heron, purple heron, striated heron, Abyssinian ground hornbill, African pied hornbill, red-billed hornbill, African sacred ibis, hadada ibis, grey-headed kingfisher, malachite kingfisher, woodland kingfisher, African golden oriole, yellow-billed oxpecker, pink-backed pelican, bruce’s green pigeon, Abyssinian roller, broad-billed roller, wooly-necked stork, yellow-billed stork, ….
*Day 5: From Tendaba Camp we start driving to Marakissa (131 km). On the way we make a stop in a bird hide in Killy. Afternoon walk in the surroundings of the camp.
Bird species we hope to see: cut-throath finch, bronze mannikin, black-faced firefinch, lavender
waxbill, orange-cheeked waxbill, red-winged pytilia, northern grey-headed sparrow, yellow-crowned gonolek, northern yellow whiye-eye, northern crombec, African trush, …
*Day 6: Morning walk at the Marakissa wetlands, the rest of the day we relax in
the garden of the lodge where many bird species come for drinking at the little
pools that are placed everywhere in the camp.
Bird species we hope to see: black egret, white-backed night heron, black-shouldered kite, Ovambo sparrowhawk, black-headed lapwing, African wattled lapwing, spur-winged lapwing, African pygmy kingfisher, little bee-eater, blue-bellied roller, …
*Day 7: After breakfast we start driving back towards the coast (36 km), where we will spend the night in Stala Lodge in the village of Kartong in the southwest of The Gambia near the Senegalese border. Evening walk to the wetlands of Kartong.
Bird species we hope to see: white-faced whisteling duck, osprey, cattle egret, shikra, red-billed hornbill, African sacred ibis, afrivan jacana, grey kestrel, malachite kingfisher, African wattled lapwing, crested lark, piacpiac, purple swamphen, African palm swift, ….
*Day 8: Morning walk to the Kartong Bird watching Observatory and the beach. After lunch we make a beautiful boat trip on the river Halahin.
Bird species we hope to see: little weaver, goliath heron, African fish eagle, osprey, great white
pelican, pink-backed pelican, Senegal thick-knee, grey-headed gull, slender-billed gull, hamerkop, African darter, blue cheeked bee-eater, African spoonbill, oystercatcher, ….
*Day 9: After breakfast we start driving to the next lodge (38 km), with stops along the way in Gunjur and Tanji, the famous fish marketplace. After lunch in Tanji we settle in Tanema Creek Lodge for our last night and we make a little walk around the lodge.
Bird species we hope to see: different type of gulls, Caspian tern, royal tern, sandwich tern, little tern, violet-backed starling, chesnut-bellied starling,….
*Day 10: Depending on the flight hours, we spend the morning in Kotu or in
Lamin ricefields before driving you back to the airport.