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Bird watching, Photography and Wildlife Tours

I offer tailor made bird, photography and wildlife tours throughout The Gambia and Senegal, visiting numerous high quality birding sites to suit your needs, the species you'd like to see, and the habitats you'd like to experience.

Tours can be split into three main catagories; single day tours at Kotu, day trips out to birding sites in easy reach of Kotu, and longer travelling tours to pick up many of the specialities of the region.

Although tours can be completely tailor-made, a number of popular itineraries of differing lengths are displayed below on maps to help you to visualise the routes.

Note: There is an option available to be led by a Female Bird Guide on all tours across The Gambia and Senegal.

Popular itineraries

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Coastal tour of Gambia

3 nights / 4 days birding

We will visit a variety of birding sites within close reach of Kotu, taking in all the coastal species. This tour can either be undertaken via day trips from your hotel in Kotu, or staying over at our destinations.

Day 1: An introduction to the bird life around the famous Kotu creek (1).

Day 2: Travel to Bonto and Farasuto to enjoy some woodland birding (2).

Day 3: Travel to Marakissa river camp to bird in the surrounding habitats and relax at the camp's wetland (3).

Day 4: Birding at Kartong, Gambia's only bird observatory, before slowly making our way back to Kotu, stopping off at the coastal sites of Brufut and Tanji (4).

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West Gambia tour

4 nights / 5 days birding

As well as visiting the popular coastal birding destinations, this tour adds in two nights inland exploring the mangrove swamps of Tendaba and the open bush at Morgan Kunda.

Day 1: Spend the early morning birding at Kotu creek before hopping along the coast to Kartong Bird Observatory via Tanji and Brufut (1).

Day 2: Travel to Bonto and Farasuto to enjoy some woodland birding (2).

Day 3: Travel to Tendaba, stopping off enroute at some profitable road-site birding sites, for a boat trip through the mangrove swamps (3).

Day 4: Enjoy the morning walking the open bush habitats at Morgan Kunda to search for inland specialities (4).

Day 5: More birding at some sites surrounding Morgan Kunda before heading back to Kotu via some other road-side birding sites (4).

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Complete tour of Gambia

6 nights / 7 days birding

Add in a trip to Georgetown and its surrounding birding sites in the east of Gambia to complete the full Gambian birding experience.

Day 1: Spend the early morning birding at Kotu creek before hopping along the coast to Kartong Bird Observatory via Tanji and Brufut (1).

Day 2: Enjoy the whole day birding at Kartong Bird Observatory and surrounding sites (2).

Day 3: Having overnighted at Marakissa river camp, we'll make our way to Bonto and Farasuto for various specialities before making our way to Tendaba for an evening boat trip (3-4).

Day 4: Relax as we spend a morning exploring the swamps at and surrounding Tendaba before travelling to Georgetown (4).

Day 5: Go in search for the African finfoot in the creeks around Georgetown (5).

Day 6: Travel to Morgan Kunda, stopping off at some open grasslands to search for bustards (6).

Day 7: Spend the morning birding in the bush and grassland habitats surrounding Morgan Kunda before travelling back to Kotu (6).

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Gambia and central Senegal tour

9 nights / 10 days birding

An exciting tour that ties in a complete tour of The Gambia with five days birding in eastern and central Senegal to pick up a number of species that can't be seen in The Gambia.

Day 1: Spend the early morning birding at Kotu creek before visiting Lamin rice fields and other birding sites near Banjul. We'd then travel to Marakissa river camp for the evening (1).

Day 2: Early morning visit to Kartong Bird Observatory before returning to Marakissa for lunch and some local birding. In the afternoon, we will travel to the woodlands of Bonto and Farasuto (2).

Day 3: More birding at Bonto and Farasuto before travelling to Tendaba, stopping off at some roadside birding sites (3).

Day 4: Relax as we spend a morning exploring the swamps at and surrounding Tendaba before travelling to Georgetown (4).

Day 5: Go in search for the African finfoot in the creeks around Georgetown before travelling to Wassadu (5).

Day 6: Spend the day birding around Wassadu (6).

Day 7: Early morning trip into Niokolo-koba National Park to spend the day birding before returning to Wassadu for an evening boat trip (7).

Day 8: Travelling to Koalack, stopping off at several birding sites throughout the journey (7-8).

Day 9: Spending the day at Koalack birding at various sites before viewing the sectacular roost of scissor-tailed kite (8).

Day 10: Travelling back to Kotu, stopping again to visit some other sites around Tendaba (4).

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Full Gambia and Sengal tour

13 nights / 14 days birding

Get the full Gambia and Senegal birding experience, with a chance to see all of the target species of this West African hotspot.

Day 1: From Kotu Creek, we will head to Lamin rice fields and Abuko for the first day's bring, before travelling to Kartong Bird Observatory (1).
Day 2: Enjoy the whole day birding at Kartong Bird Observatory and surrounding sites (2).
Day 3: Spend the morning searching for the specialities of Bonto and Farasuto before heading into Sengal  and the riverside location of Toubakuta (3-4).
Day 4: Spend the morning birding at Toubakuta before heading to Kaolack and the evening spectacle of the scissor-tailed kite roost (4-5).
Day 5: After a bit of local birding around Kaolack, we will make the journey up to St Louis, stopping off at some well planned rest sites for some gental birding (5-6).
Day 6: Spend the morning birding around the coastal wetland site of St Louis before travelling up to Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (6-7).
Day 7: Take in the incredible bird diversity of Djoudj before a late afternoon trip inland to Richard Toll (7-8).
Day 8: A full days birding in the magical lands around Richard Toll, overnighting here for a second night (8).
Day 9: We will start the long journey back down to Kaolack , stopping off enroute for some regular breaks at some good roadside birding locations (8-5).
Day 10: We'll continue our journey eastwards to Wassadu, again stopping for regular birding breaks. Evening boat trip if time allows (9).
Day 11: Early morning trip into Niokolo-koba National Park to spend the day birding before returning to Wassadu for an evening boat trip (9-10).
Day 12: Birding locally in the habitat around Wassadu before travelling to Georgetown (9-11).
Day 13: Explore the channels and creeks near Georgetown for some specialities (11).
Day 14: Undertake some more boat trips at Tendaba searching the mangrove swamp for some additional targets before returning to Kotu to finish the tour (12).

Specialities

Other wildlife

Hippo
Chimpanzee
Chameleon

There's plenty other wildlife to see other than birds, whether its a troop of Guinea baboons crossing open countyside, a family of hippos at Georgetown, wild western chimpanzees in the Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve, or perhaps a solitary leopard or a pride of lions in Niokolo-Koba National Park. See below for a list of some of the mammals on offer to know what to look out for:

  • Guinea baboon

  • Patas monkey

  • Western red colobus

  • Callithrix monkey

  • Green monkey

  • Western chimpanzee

  • Bushbuck

  • Giant eland

  • Korrigum

  • Roan antelope

  • Hippopotamus

  • Red-flanked duiker

  • Gambian sun squirrel

  • African white-bellied hedgehog

  • Tiny white-toothed shrew

  • Pardine genet

  • Serval

  • White-tailed mongoose

  • Marsh mongoose

  • Banded mongoose

  • Aardvark

  • Giant pangolin

  • Spotted hyena

  • Common warthog

  • Scrub hare

  • Dwarf epauletted fruit bat

  • African leopard

  • Western African lion

  • Caracal

  • Side-striped jackal

Let me know if there are any particular mammals you would like to see and we can try and make it happen!

Logistics

Accomodation

Accommodation

We will stay in a variety of lodges and camps which have been carefully selected to provide the easiest access to birding locations as well as offering great comfort and hospitality.

Breakfast

Food and drink

The lodges that we will stay at all provide exeptionally tasty and well prepared local food. Travel days are carefully planned to allow for lunch stops at resturants with good reputations. Water is stored in cool boxes in my air-conditioned vehicle.

Ebrima and his vehicle

Transport and group size

Travel in comfort in my air-conditioned 7-seater vehicle. For larger group sizes, a small bus can be rented to provide ample space for all luggage and equipment.

Get in contact

If you have enjoyed what you have read and are thinking about organising a tour, please don't hesitate to get in contact with me to discuss options and put together an itinerary.

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