As soon as you get off the tourist trail, you start to see the real Gambia, the Toubabing stops and people are friendly because that's how Gambians are....

We set off to Banjul to arrive before 8 am to get an early ferry... at 1pm we got on board, it would have been earlier if we had been traveling by foot, but with only one ferry boat working, delays were long.... but very good tempered.

It was our mission to find a school in Essau on our way, but we were so late that our next stop Salikene looked like our only target of the day, we were certainly not going to see the Sunday market at Farafenni.

An excellent new road reaches the ferry at Kerewan and a new bridge will make this crossing a thing of the past in the months ahead.

Our greeting at Salikene could not have been warmer if we were family returning from Mecca. Not only did the immediate family greet us but within minutes the extended family was there as well. The children spoke good English and we were not only pressed enthusiastically to stay for a meal but urged to stay the night.

The family .........................The House ........................The Relatives

While the meal was prepared we went off to see the two schools, a nursery school and junior school taking the children to the equivalent of GCSE. Both desperately need funds and receive almost none from tourists because tourist seldom visit. I suspect the same is true of dozens of Gambian schools in towns and villages all over the country.

The staff were certainly doing their best, but with less than 5% of the pupils able to afford the £2.50 to hire their text books for the year, most kids relied on what they could write down from the teacher.

Examination pass rates in Salikene reflect this situation.

I discovered here why so many Baobab trees look as if they have a body sock around their trunks - each year the bark is stripped and worked into a rope rather like sisal, it is incredibly strong and used to tie all the cattle and goats who can't bite through it... We have samples at the shop in Kololi for people to see.

Our evening meal was eaten in Gambia style the women together, the family men together and Foday and I as guests in our own room. It was a chicken stew and was delicious.

The whole family moved rooms so I could sleep in the master bed, May slept with the sisters and Foday with the boys, we had an excellent evening under the stars with Foday telling stories and the others joining in, followed by my first night in a proper mud brick house. It was one of the most comfortable nights I have ever had, accompanied by vividly colorful dreams.

Although this was only the third day of my visit - it was probably the highlight of my whole stay, I feel as if I have got my own Gambian family!!