Sports Events in The Gambia

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There are several groups of few horses and instructors riding along the beach the whole day long. You can stop them anytime for a ride or make a reservation. Horses seemed to be wellkept. Riding was wonderful because of the quiet, beautiful beach and the safe seeming horse that galloped like a dream.
I payed 300 dalasis (9€) for one hour. Maybe I could have got it cheaper but sometimes its not good to pargain that much.

Equipment: Long pans may help not to get bruises like I did

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The Gambians are grazy for football and wrestling. I had heard beforehand that there are wrestling shows in Serekunda on sundays but we didnt make it. People also say that the shows are quite impressive with the drummings and all.
One day we drove pass a football stadium when the The Gambia - Guinea -game was just about to start. I think maybe half of the population of gambia was there.

It's the Paris Dakar Rally. What can you say about the hardest race in the World.

I've travelled to the last eight with most going through Mauritania and ending in Dakar Senegal.

It's an easy trip via St Louis into Mauritania and back to Dakar for the finish.

If you want to tag along drop me an email.

Enjoy.

Equipment: 110 expedition Land Rovers, Discovery or Pajero. Kitted with everything including a fridge.

During the progress of the match it is not always easy to see for the public and supporters what is happening and who wins and why. The first to be knocked down loses.

Anyhow the last part of the match is between the champions of the teams. After a well-fought fight friends and supporters rush into the arena to press coins into the hands of their favourite contestant.

Succesful wrestlers are believed to have even a spiritual strength or nyamo.

Before the match starts, the wrestlers with their drumming group make a tour in areana all along the public.

The event has a kind of progression. Each team starts with the youngest and less skilled wrestlers and works to a certain climax.

While the drumming groups do their job, the wrestlers appear in their special outfit. They show their muscles and body to the public and enthusiaistic supporters and to try impress their opponents.

Traditionally the match is between teams of two different villages. Each team is called kato.

At the moment you enter the arena, you don't have the feeling to visit a wrestling match, but you think you are visiting a drum concours or another colourful Gambian ceremonial occasion.

It´s nice to see this traditional musical part of the match, which is inseparable of the traditional Gambian wrestling.

A wresting match is a lifely and noisy happening. Every wrestler brings his own drumming group, supporting and showing the wrestler, and activating and stimulating the public. Every ethnic group have its own traditional wrestling tunes.

For me was this part, before the match started, one of the most interesting.