Bianca Hadley, who is originally from Amsterdam but now lives in Palma working for Radio One Mallorca, Globo Balear, was today stranded in the Gambian beach resort of Kololi, some 20 kilometres from the capital Banjul.
Via Facebook, she told me that the situation was tense and they were in the dark about what was really going on. By mid-afternoon, when she was able to get an internet connection, she sent the Bulletin a message in which she said: "Hi, Humphrey. Thank you for contacting me. I will post updates in FB when I have internet. I just posted a new one. It is a tense situation but I do think tourists leaving makes it worse. The Gambians are beautiful people and the only thing they don’t want is this dictator that oppressed them for 20 years. I’m staying put at the moment because I think the airport will be the most dangerous place to be today.
"We are staying put because Thomas Cook hasn’t contacted us at all. The rep told me that if we were going today there would be a notice on the board. By 10am no news, went to the beach, checked at 2pm and apparently they rounded up the guests around the pool and left. No message, no note. There are still a lot of guests here including Dutch. Second of all we think we are safer here than sitting with thousands of tourists stranded at the airport being a target if this idiot will do something stupid at the last minute."
From Majorca her hundreds of friends were sending her messages of goodwill and everyone who knows her is hoping that she gets back to Palma safely.