Page 57 - Ranger Demo

John visited us in the field and then held discussions in Dakar and Banjul with SGN, GSD and the Secretariat. He was very complimentary about our working arrangements. John was under no illusions about some of the difficulties of dealing with different cultures and of explaining technical matters to diplomats and administrators! He accepted our early estimates of future progress which fortunately turned out to be more or less correct but left us to deal with an argument about who was paying for overtime!! Both Senegal and Gambia tried hard to get the most out of our project, but DOS declined to pay all local support staff a nightly allowance equivalent to an average week’s wages!
Up-river and nearing the end of the project, we were able to visit the memorial near Karantaba dedicated to Mungo Park. Park started from the Gambia river on both of his explorations to the Niger. In 1805 on his second expedition, he was killed in the middle of what is now Nigeria. His ‘Travels in the Interior of Africa’ tell of very different local conditions at the time of the slave trade.
Life in the bush
Fresh food was generally plentiful – there was a small supermarket in Banjul and while in the bush we could obtain fresh meat and vegetables. At meal-times in camp, if sharing with the team, as Europeans, we were always offered a spoon to eat. Hot chillies and peppers spiced up the daily dish. If the village needed fresh meat, then it was just a matter of taking a cow to the village ‘abattoir’—no waste, with the vultures in the location. Fish was plentiful, and when in Banjul barracuda steak was incredibly tasty. We were also fortunate to possess a water trailer. The camp was always chosen with shade from the heat and sun. Tents with sewn-in groundsheets were our shelter from the weather and the wildlife as related below.
As we moved up the length of the river, our bush camps moved to minimise daily travel to the towers. When camped near habitation, we employed a night watchman to look after camp security. One night he suddenly announced that there was a giant snake in the camp and sure enough when spotted by torchlight the snake became agitated and fled, trying to escape down a hole in a termite mound, this was the point at which the watchman chopped it in two with his machete. The next morning, we found a black mamba – a notoriously poisonous variety. There was a time when Robin returned to his tent – fortunately with the aforementioned built-in groundsheet - kicked off his shoes, and felt a wriggling
Figure 10 A typical ferry
on the groundsheet under his bare toes, a quick run to grab a Land Rover starting handle soon despatched that snake!
Ferries, large and small, were important modes of transport and we remember a lot of time waiting, and waiting, and waiting...... On the busier roads at principal towns like Mansa Konko and Basse, there was always a long queue. Smaller ferries crossed at other places, the mechanic down below putting the engine into forward or reverse to the sound of a klaxon from the ‘bridge’. On more than one occasion a broken ferry meant returning to base and trying the next day again.
We had two Bedford four-wheel-drive lorries to carry the towers, and these worked in a leapfrog
manner on the traverse legs. These lorries behaved well, being relatively new, and the four-wheel- drive was rarely needed. Vehicle breakdowns with the Land Rovers were frequent, but in addition to our mechanic, we had access to the services of the Gambian Public Works Department with workshops in several towns.
Figure 11 Field Work
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