DAY 30 FRIDAY 5th FEBRUARY 2010

A decent breakfast in our luxury hotel with German pork sausages, bacon and fried eggs. Nothing like a good breakfast to set you up nicely for the day. It was strange seeing flabby white English people again after so long away from them. The staff all spoke perfect English but some of the guests spoke to them as though they couldn't understand and just shouted louder, it almost made us feel ashamed to be British.
The helpful reception desk staff informed me that there were a couple of cash machines just up the road in Bakau so that would save me taking the bike and riding to Senegambia. After all the riding we had done in recent weeks, I was happy for the bike to not move an inch today and instead I was keen to take a good walk albeit slowly in the intense heat. After about a 20 minute walk I found both the bank cash machines but unfortunately both of them were out of service. I decided to go into the bank and get a cash advance on my visa card as I needed local currency. The paperwork was substantial, I think I filled in less forms when I purchased my house than I did getting some cash out of this bank. They took photocopies of my passport and it took about 30 minutes to complete all the forms but at least the bank did have a cold water dispenser that I was able to help myself to which made the wait bearable. Coming out of the bank I found an excellent little internet cafe, with decent PCs, low cost and a waitress who kept me supplied with ice cold Fanta every half hour. Got back to hotel and played at being a typical tourist for a few hours just reading a book, drinking a cold beer and going for a swim in the large pool.
In the evening the others announced that we were all going to the Clay Oven, an Indian restaurant. Now normally I'm no great fan of Indian food as I've been unlucky in the past and never had a really good Indian meal. This restaurant changed my opinion of Indian food forever as it was far and away the best Indian meal I've ever had and I would definitely recomment this restaurant to anyone else going to The Gambia. It was not cheap but that was more to do with the drinks bill rather than the bill for the food.
Another excellent day.