A week of crocs and quad bikes in (#ebolafree) Gambia, West Africa

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Kachikally Crocodile Pool, Bakau, Gambia – L-R: Helen Jones-Florio, Musa (the keeper of the crocs), Jason Florio

 

We’ve had a busy, adventurous – and extremely exhilarating – kind of week, since we completed our walk of the Gambian coastline, finishing off a couple of travel assignments… from getting up close and personal with big crocodiles, to throttling around in the Gambian bush, getting thoroughly down and dirty in the process,  on Tonka Toy-like 200cc quad bikes, alternating with bouncing over potholes in buggys. What fun!

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Helen – ‘I’m going to drive that buggy next’! Image © Jason Florio

 

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Photographer, Jason Florio – shooting from the rear! Image © HJF – UTV buggy courtesy of West African Powersports

 

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Yours truly – I am hooked! Image © JF. Quad bike courtesy of West African Powersports

 

And, where better to finish off editing (me: ‘A Short Walk in the Gambian Bush‘ book) and writing  the features (Jason) … my old haunt, Laybato Beach Bar. Our office with a view…

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Once the features are published, we’ll be posting more on the coastline walk, the quad-biking, and the crocodile pool. Please stay with us. In the meantime, updates about what else we are up to, down here in West Africa, will be posted on FB, Twitter, and Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by The Florios – Helen & Jason

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It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it! JF & HJF – buggying in #ebolafree Gambia, West Africa. Thanks to West Africa Powersports

The River Gambia meets the East River, NYC – a floating photographic exhibition

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At Photoville, NYC, 2013, we exhibited Jason Florio’s ‘River Gambia‘ body of work – taken whilst we were on the ‘River Gambia Expedition – 1044km source-sea African odyssey‘. So, we were very excited when, earlier this year, the organizers of PV – United Photo Industries – approached us to see if we would like to exhibit the work as part of their Wunderlust / Drawn to Water series of exhibitions on the East River Ferry, in New York.

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We are particularly honored to except their invitation because, although we are spending an extended period here in West Africa at the moment,  New York has been our home for some years now. We only wish we could be there to see it. However, we are more than happy to have ‘River Gambia‘ representing us… floating around on the East River in NYC.

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‘River Gambia’ © Jason Florio
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‘River Gambia’ © Jason Florio

 

To see more of Jason’s ‘River Gambia‘ series, please visit the website: floriophoto.com. And, if you would like to read about and see more images from the journey – check out our ‘River Gambia Expedition‘ blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

The Florios – Helen & Jason

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Jason Florio & Helen Jones-Florio – ‘River Gambia’ exhibition, Photoville 2013. Image © Chris Bartlett

Instagram – strolling in (#ebolafree) Gambia, West Africa

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Image © Jason Florio

We’ve added a few new images to our floriotravels instagram page – beach dogs, beach walks, sacred pool crocodile pools… all the beauty of living in #ebolafree Gambia, West Africa

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Have a great weekend!

The Florios – Helen & Jason

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You may also like ‘Walking in #ebolafree Gambia‘

Walking in #ebolafree Gambia, West Africa

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HJF, The Gambia coastline – image © Jason Florio

 

Jason and I have just completed our Gambia coastline walk and what a truly lovely experience it was; albeit mighty humid – an average of 90% humidity every day. ‘Mad dogs and English (wo)men…’ kept springing to mind. Even now, as I sit here typing in the relative coolness of our house, my fingers feel as if they sticking to the keyboard.

The story was assigned by an airline in-flight magazine. So,  unfortunately,  until they publish it we can’t really say too much about the walk. However, we can share a few images from along the way – most of Jason’s, so we’ll have to hold back on until the photo editor decides what they want to use (updated: January 2015- see Brussels Airlines B.Spirit Magazine feature about our walk).

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We’ll be posting more images over the coming days, so please stop by again. You may also like to check out our floriotravels Instagram and Photostellstories FB pages + ‘A Short Walk in the Gambian Bush – 930km Africa odyssey‘ which we completed in 2009

 

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Our little companions during our walk around Jinack Island © HJF

 

The Florios – Helen and Jason

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