The old village is about 1.5 kilometres to the east of the Kombo Coastal Road and has spread westward to the beachfront to include Brufut Heights holiday resort and Brufut Gardens residential community. The other nearby area is Ghana Town founded by Ghanaian fishermen many years ago.
ACCOMMODATION:
This section of the coastal region has undergone rapid development over the years, a number of hotels have sprung up to cater for the increased demand for accommodation located away from the tourist holiday hotspots of Senegambia Strip and Kotu. In March 2007, the beach based Sheraton 5 Star Hotel Resort (now the Coral Beach Hotel) was finally completed and opened for guests. You will find a number of quiet lodges and guest houses located on the seaside such as the deluxe, boutique hotels called Leo’s Beach Hotel and the Ocean Villa Heights. Further inside the village itself is boutique hotel called Hibiscus House, the much praised, down to Earth boutique lodge called The Plantation.
There is also the private, fenced and gated housing community called the TAF Brufut Gardens Estate, with its modern bungalows, apartments and villas starting on the coastal road itself. The estate is popular with expatriates and Gambians living abroad who are looking to purchase a house that is near the beach.
BEACH AREA:
The Brufut beach area is fairly wide with nice golden sands. To get to the beach you would need to make your way down the rust coloured cliffs dotted with trees and bushes using fairly steep paths. At the palm tree fringed beachfront you might see African pirogues parked on the sand, waiting for the tide to change, women separating fish and fishermen repairing their nets. Away from these places, the beaches are almost deserted, say for a few children playing or the occasional villager using it as a short-cut. You can use these sections of the strand for watersports, cycling or sunbathing.
GENERAL AREA:
Brufut village is an old settlement of block compounds with corrugated metal roofs, resided by mostly Mandinka farmers and vegetable plots. Increasingly however, land is being sold to private individuals and estate developers due to the high demand for plots to build housing space. To get to the original village you take the part laterite, part dirt road east for a few kilometres. During the rainy season this road is often dotted with pools of water which is best suited for four wheel drive cars.
The Atlantic coastal road has seen the installation of road lights running all the way from the AU Highway at Brusubi Turntable, and south just short of Ghana Town. Nawec (the electrical utilities firm) has also laid mains water and electricity cables that follow the coastal road and are being extended to private homes.
• Bird Watching
The Brufut Woods Community Project is a locally managed conservation area in partnership with the West African Bird Study Association (WABSA). It is located on the eastern periphery of the village, some way inland, over some rough back routes. The small nature reserve has a bird watching hide specially placed near to an artificial pond. One of the best places in the woods is an open area near the bridge.
The resident and inter-African migrant bird species you might see among the gallery forest and open savannah woodland are the Pin-Tailed Whydahs, Black Crowned Tchagra, African Scops Owls, Black Kite, Klaas’s Cuckoo, Emerald Cuckoo, Senegal Batis, Osprey, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Fork-Tailed Drongo, Four-banded Sandgrouse and the Yellow-throated Leaflove.
