After waiting 3 hours for the bus to leave and then a jarring and cramped 8 hour ride from Dakar, we successfully negotiated the border crossing into The Gambia. Border officials were surprisingly friendly, making jokes about hidden swine flu and bombs in our bags. All-in-all, it was a very cursory search. Home free.
A routine passport check at the Gambian River ferry terminal quickly got awkward when we were ushered into a side room by a pair of undercover officers from the national drug enforcement squad. Naturally, we had nothing to hide, however our copious amounts of unmarked pills in plastic bags caused a great deal of suspicion. Things started off with a stern talk about the Gambian Drug Act of 2003, 'the full extent of the law,' and thorough bag searches where we were queried as to the exact function of each drug, cross-referenced against a hand-written bible of illegal tablets.
The only minor confiscations were some of Dan's birthday chocolate, Canada stickers, and Pete's unmarked blue sleeping pills. Things took a turn for the comical when the 'interrogation' devolved into Pete getting invited out to the pub by one of the officers and Evan and Dan whipping up a batch of water purification drops for a very elated and thirsty drug squad member.
The thing about drug squad interrogations is, armed with chocolate and mystifying water droplets, things can quickly turn into sweet hang time.
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