Stroking Crocodiles🐊 at Kachikally Pool, Bakau, The Gambia🇬🇲

“There goes the fear. There it goes.” – The Doves.

When you leave your hometown gloriously behind, these are the days you live for. The idea of stroking and touching a fully alive, awake and undrugged crocodile had me buzzing. There’s no time for any scaredy cat nonsense here. You run on adrenalin and you go do it and don’t look back.

“I’m just high on the world” – Mark Knopfler. 

It had serious memories lingering in my mind though as I headed to Kachikally in Bakau, The Gambia. Memories of those adrenalin charged moments of madness to grace my back (packing) catalogue:
– The time in Batu, Malaysia when I first had a snake round my neck
– The Drake Shake on route to Antarctica
– The hyena feeding at dusk in Harar, Ethiopia
– The sky diving in New Zealand
– The bungy jumping in New Zealand

This had all the makings of a classic yet again. Touching a crocodile? “Are you gegging me? Themmuns are dangerous!” (Northern Irish accent).

“These sacred moments of silliness are where I find my heaven.” – Gigolo Aunts

But here I was out of my comfort zone. I wasn’t backpacking anymore. I had no backpacks, no luggage and no laptop. I was out in the Gambia and Senegal with MoneySupermarket.com’s Lost Luggage challenge. Hashtag this beast for a feast: #MSMLostLuggage – there are a load of fellow travel bloggers on it too.

So yes, no backpack, no rucksack, no change of clothes, no laptop. But perhaps more importantly, no fear. When you’ve backpacked alone through Venezuela, Afghanistan and Iraq, these days out are where you come alive. I’m in my element today as I headed to the Kachikally Crocodile Pool in Bakau, the Gambia.

Getting to Kachikally Crocodile Pool
Public transport in the Gambia doesn’t really cater for tourists. Oddly, this place isn’t even on a bus route. Even crazier, it’s damn hard to find. So do what I did and hire a driver to take you here, wait for you and take you back.

My driver was Zachariah. I paid him £30 for the entire day out. But bear in mind this included a load of other sights and pick up from the Banana Lodge where I stayed, and a lift back there. If you plan on just doing the Kachikally Crocodile Pool, then work out a price and barter your driver down. Most people only need an hour inside this place and for me that was enough. I love a short sharpburst of adrenalin – in and out.

Entrance to Kachikally Crocodile Pool
The entrance is a gate and there is a lady who will charge you 100 Dalasi (around $2 US) to go inside. There are murals on the entrance and the place looks “touristy”, however for today, I am the only tourist. You get given a ticket that looks like the one below. If you are with a driver like I was, the driver can get in for free assuming they are Gambian or live locally.

Museum at Kachikally Crocodile Pool
Before you make the walk through a jungle within a village to the crocodile pool, there is a museum. In here, you can read up on Gambian culture and history down the years. The country used to be called Gambia, now officially we should call it The Gambia, they gained independence in 1965 and after a revolution in 1994, the country is a presidential republic with the same leader for the last 20 years – Yahya_Jammeh.

Also in the museum are some traditional Gambian clothes and musical instruments as well as historic photos down the years including the royal visit from the British Queen.

The Walk to the Crocodile Pool
After touring the museum, we head through a short jungle area, 2 or 3 minute walk and here we can see people harvesting fruit and vegetables.

After speaking to a local lady selling gifts, something crazy happens. A CROCODILE IS STANDING BY MY FOOT AND I DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE!!! He was so camouflage.

What is important here is that this is dangerous and the crocodiles are NOT drugged or asleep. You walk here at your own risk, though there is always a guide around – at least there should be. When you see the sign below, take the advice it gives you and step four metres to the left and suddenly, you have crocodiles all around you.

Stroking Crocodiles at Kachikally Crocodile Pool
There are around 100 crocodiles here at Kachikally Crocodile Pool. It’s their territory and they mark it. I’m with my driver Zachariah and we are introduced to Moses Bajo, the guide. Moses shakes my hand and then we walk next to a crocodile. Moses nonchalantly touches, strokes and massages this crocodile. It moves a little bit but generally it’s just relaxing here, chilling out. Crocodiles spend so much of their lives not moving. They’re damn lazy. But don’t tell them that or they will bite you bollocks off and kill you.

But one question I need to ask here:

Why don’t the Crocodiles Attack Us?
I was thinking to myself maybe they are drugged, maybe they are asleep. But they are neither. They are fully awake and conscious. So why don’t they attack us? Moses tells me “because they are not hungry”. I’m confused, I thought all they did was swim and eat. But actually, the real reason why they are not hungry is because Moses feeds them thousands of fish, day on day, every morning. When the sun comes up, these beasts get a treat – an all you can eat fish buffet. Because of this, they are stuffed, they are full and they are not hungry. I visit around 11 am, though anytime in the morning is recommended. Moses is super confident as he strokes the crocodiles.

And it’s my turn next.
I don’t have time to be scared of course. I’m launched straight in. At first I just give its back a touch. Then I put my whole hand on it, then both hands, then I stroke its tail. The crocodile only budges a little bit. It feels like rock. I was running on adrenalin and not scared. I kind of trusted Moses however as I was touching this one crocodile, two more emerged in the background, one of them was right by Zachariah’s foot as he took a photo of me, it was crazy! I also got a bit braver as I stroked and started taking selfies as the tail jerked just a touch!

You can probably tell by the photos that it was great fun and not really that scarey, once you can trust them!! But still, in the back of your mind, that crocodile could kill and eat us within minutes so don’t go overboard by giving him a full body massage!

Sacred Kachikally Crocodile Pool
So you need to know that the Kachikally Crocodile Pool is sacred. It has healing powers. Women flock here if they are infertile, they bathe in the pool then they are told not to shake hands with anyone and they will become pregnant. I didn’t go in for a dip though – I drew my limits at stroking their bodies!

Moses at Kachikally Crocodile Pool
Moses Bajo is the crocodile expert here. He looks after them but he has a huge problem – over population and escape. In fact, as we were leaving we saw a crocodile outside the complex crawling along the road. This freaked me out a bit as these crocs are more wild than you’d think. What Moses does here is he feeds the crocodiles so they are too full and not hungry to attack humans. I see a croc with his mouth open. They do this to catch flies and cool their body down in the heat.

To keep the crocodiles full and fed, it takes not just manpower but MONEY so a voluntary donation is expected. I handed a backpacker budget donation over (you expected that) but you can give as much or as little as you want and if you are rich, it would be nice to put money back into this place as Moses works hard to keep the population down. Sadly this means crocodile abortion/egg destruction. Otherwise, us humans are at risk. A population of 100 odd crocodiles is a lot of fish to feed them every day. I have a lot of respect for Moses doing this job. If you want to help and donate, please contact Moses here:
Moses Bajo
Telephone: (+220) 7775621. Email: [email protected] .

There is not much information online about Kachikally Crocodile Pool sadly and they don’t seem to have an official website, but this site has some details on it:
http://www.accessgambia.com/information/map-katchikally-crocodile-pool-museum.html

This photo shows a crocodile that has escaped into the wild…

And I really hope that this blog article helps spread the word about this place and that you enjoyed reading my story. It was great fun. Thanks to Moses, Zachariah and all at Kachikally Crocodile Pool for this crazy experience!

Souvenirs at Kachikally Crocodile Pool
You can buy souvenirs a plenty. I’m normally only after a fridge magnet for my Mum and some postcards for my brother. I found them all here in the stalls.

“Keep on chasing down that rainbow. You never know what you might find. Over the sunset on the horizon, it might be a dream but it tastes like poison. I’m going to take that tiger outside for a ride. What a life!” – Noel Gallagher.

Here are some videos from my time at the crocodile pool, please note that I say in one of them that the crocodile is sleeping, but it’s actually not – it’s awake yet resting: