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Gambia is a thin slip of a country that clings tenaciously to the river that not only bisects it but provides much of its appeal as a destination, writes LAURENCE MACKIN

CHILDREN FLING themselves off a ramshackle wooden quayside, slapping the sluggish water with shrieks of laughter. Across the way, an overloaded rusty ferry, teeming with people, is belching its way heavily across the river.