This trip was never intended as a holiday, since December when Lamin decided to leave the GTS partnership, there had been problems resolving the transfer of ownership of GTS property held in Lamin's name back to GTS.

Namely the Nissan car and the Brufut compound.

Staffing has also been a problem with Njundu, Lamin's brother only turning up at the centre in Kololi when he wanted to send personal emails or receive them, so Foday and May have been running GTS since January.

This trip was to have a few days at the very start where we could all go up river, visit the north bank and see Bird Safari Camp in Georgetown before a multitude of members descended on us over Easter. We had 27 members staying over the time I was there, the most we have ever entertained in any 4 week period and it wasn't without incident.

Humour, disaster and just plain logistics, caused havoc over the week containing FRIDAY 13th. The Shepherd family arriving on Friday 13th settled for a local guide, but everyone else got something special from their GTS membership and when I left on the 20th April - Andrew and Katinka were busy on a city tour followed by a Southern Safari before heading up to Bird Safari for a four day visit.

Difficult Legal Issues with people from very different cultures

It was always important to me that the help we offered Lamin should be fair and totally untainted by colonialism. Our loan to Lamin was interest free, his purchase of a car was in his name, as this was his business. The purchase of a compound for GTS was supposed to be in our name or that of GTS, but instead Lamin bought it in his name, but always said a transfer was no problem.

In October 2000 we signed a membership agreement linking Foday, Lamin and myself as partners for 5 years, so that they could become equal partners using my capital but their work to contribute to the partnership and thereby become equal owners of GTS. In December, two months later, Lamin quit and expected a third of GTS to be given to him, having contributed nothing to it except debts which GTS had paid.

The Gambian Way

Discussion, compromise and eventual agreement is the Gambian way of resolving all issues of this sort, a motor accident, a marriage or a divorce.

People are more important than things in Gambian society, so friendship and a future good relationship is more valuable than property. When you die you can't take property with you to meet Allah, but friends you will meet again in the hereafter and Allah will judge you by the way you have treated people. It did occur to me that this only worked for Toubabs (white people) not Gambians, as Lamin seemed intent on what we would call extortion.

Anyway after nearly 3 weeks of discussion, from a starting point of Lamin asking me to pay £4000 for property that I had already paid for, we came to an amicable agreement where he would have a quarter of the compound in Brufut and £500 and in exchange return the car and transfer the rest of the compound to GTS. Not a deal that would leave you with friends in the West, but in Gambia things are different, at least at this level of society.

To get from the £4000 to what amounted to £1500 - was a visit to the local police and British High Commission where Lamin was applying for a Visa to leave the country, apparently without settling the business matters with me and Foday.

Quite what changed Lamin's mind I don't know, maybe he thought he hadn't driven a hard enough bargain!! ... On the Wednesday before I left Gambia, instead of handing over the car with its papers and papers for the compound in Brufut as agreed, Lamin handed me, a threat from his lawyer, that unless I stopped oppressing and intimidating him he would reveal my tax evasion to the Gambian authorities.

This tax evasion, was my refusal to pay Lamin's business registration for the car he had purchase.. The business being my attempt to provide Lamin with a sustainable way of earning a living from tourists visiting The Gambia.

I was left with no alternative than to visit a lawyer myself and so the process I had delayed for 5 months to try to resolve in the Gambian way was finally forced upon me by Lamin resorting to legal action.

This case may take 3 to 5 years maybe even longer. Lamin now faces criminal charges. The progress and process of all of this, I will report to help others who may find themselves in similar circumstances.

Unexpected visits to the police and to lawyers disrupted some of GTS's services to its members. For that I apologise, most people were aware of the problems we were facing and were very sympathetic. I have written to the others offering them a FREE GTS day out and evening meal on their next visit to Gambia.

Friday the 13th (for GTS host Alieu)

Alieu had been looking after the Elk family and doing an excellent job, on the 13th Dave Elk had arranged a self drive 4x4 and they were all off to Gunjur and Sangyan on the southern coast of Gambia.

The day had gone really well, the tide was out and they decided to return along the beach. Small and shallow streams flowing from beach to sea are few and far between and the first proved to be no problem, but between Tanji and Brufut there is one not deep but with very soft sand in the middle of it - even the 4x4 got stuck and trying to get it out got it deeper into the sand.

All efforts to remove it failed - the tide turned and the car was filled with water and covered by the sea.- It is hard to imagine a much bigger problem than this.

The car owner, when informed was demanding D150,000 to buy a new car, around £7,500. This was discussed with a mechanic who said that the engine had to be replaced and also the windscreen broken by the water. By now Foday was present, the price by this time had been reduced by nearly 50% to D80,000 about £3,750.

Dave was released from the police, as it was agreed that this was not a criminal case, but something rather like my 'Lamin problem' that needed sorting between the people involved.

Alieu remained in police custody as a sort of 'human bail', so Dave could go back to his hotel.

Things in Gambia, like elsewhere in the world, depend on 'who you know' and on returning to his hotel and telling the hotel owner about his Friday 13th story, the owner turned out to know the local police chief, who after hearing the story, intervenes to say that D80,000 is an absurd amount and that although the screen must be replaced, the engine can be stripped down , cleaned and rebuilt, the new price negotiated is D6,000 about £300 and D350 for the screen about £150.

Kimberly, Dave's daughter, filmed the whole thing on Video and hopes to sell it to 'You've Been Framed', good luck Kimberly - far from being put off The Gambia, the Elk family had a brilliant holiday and hope to return some time soon.