Bakau Beaches Gambia

Bakau is mainly a working beach as you will see by the fishing boats called pirogues and the jetty that is used to haul in the catch. They mostly catch a fish called bonga here and most of it is taken to the smokehouses located on the shore. Bakau is useful, simple, transforming and persuasive. Tucked away on a low cliff between the mouth of the River Gambia and the Atlantic Ocean, Bakau is a small, densely populated coastal town with a good scattering of pleasant hotels. Its western and eastern enclaves, Fajara and Cape Point, are well-to-do havens for diplomats, professionals and expats, while central Bakau (home to fishermen, cooks and musicians) is a maze of crowded compounds where chickens and children scurry to and fro under the mango and pawpaw trees.

Bakau is one of a series of laid-back, Atlantic resorts with a number of bargain beachfront hotels. If you get bored sunbathing, you can explore national parks like Abuko which has birds galore, as well as porcupine, monkeys and some snappy crocs. Bakau is a bustling town and is a maze of small dirt roads, guests staying close by here can experience the real Africa.

There are a few restaurants serving traditional Gambian dishes along with banks, supermarkets, post office and the popular Kachikally crocodile pool located deep into the heart. The beach at Bakau is interesting if you like to watch the fishing boats. If you want to relax in the sun then head for Cape Point where you will find the Calipso bar and a nice clean beach.

Bakau itself was a small village at the turn of the 19th century and grew in importance as it became a favourite place for private residences of colonial administrators especially along the beautiful palm fringed beaches. Despite being a major town, the old village still exists and is run like any other in The Gambia with an Alkali and divided into Kabilos.

Interestingly, there exists a much smaller village within the old village called Bakau Wasulung Kunda, indicating the migrant origins of its inhabitants. At the scale that we have in mind it would be comparable to a Dutch village library. We are talking about 5000 to 7000 books. Nearby is the village market which is a little rough on the edges and is tightly packed with stalls selling a wide range of local foodstuffs, buckets, second-hand clothes among other things.

The front of the market which is on the main road is lined with fruit and vegetable stalls selling bananas, oranges, tomatoes, guavas, apples and other tropical fruits as well as other locally produced & imported fruits and vegetables.

We found that a lot of British tourists would go topless on the beach. We never really understood why- maybe it?s the idea that all Africans go topless, but it’s not true. I’ve heard mixedreviews about sunbeach. Is the hotel really that bad, and if so why? We have stayed at the Sunbeach now 7 times, twice when it was the sunwing, and have also stayed at 4 other hotels in Gambia, and for us this is the best hotel to stay at. The staff are very friendly and remember us from year to year.

Tags: Crocs, Pawpaw Trees, Crocodile Pool, Fishing Boats, River Gambia, Pirogues, Dirt Roads, Jetty, Coastal Town, Colonial Administrators