Gambia

Gambia is a country shaped entirely by a river - a thin strip of land on either bank of the Gambia River, surrounded on three sides by Senegal, open to the Atlantic on the fourth. It is the smallest country on the mainland of Africa and one of the most ecologically dense: bird species in numbers that make ornithologists speak in a different register. Banjul is modest, unhurried; the river towns upriver are quieter still; and the lodges built for birders along the banks have, almost accidentally, produced some of the best wildlife guiding in West Africa.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: river lodge routes, Banjul's Albert Market, upriver village stays and the birding sites that have no signposts and require a guide who knows which tree to wait under.