David Tungate thinks that his new girlfriend Isatou will be different

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IT SEEMS like the ideal place in which to escape the relentless drizzle of an endless British winter. The Gambia offers not only year-round sun, sand and beaches, but also the excitement of a real African holiday.

The country's official tourism website offers an intoxicating sequence of holiday images - platters of seafood, freshly squeezed juices, palm-thatched huts and smiling locals wearing colourful textiles. But there is something else The Gambia has come to represent: romance.

In fact, the country known as the Smiling Coast of Africa has become the premier destination for British women in search of toy boys. In a country where a third of the population lives below the international poverty line of 86 pence a day, perhaps it is not so surprising that young Gambian men seem so quick to fall for the charms of older British tourists keen to offer them a passport into a brand new future.

And it is not only British women who have fallen prey to the charms of the opposite sex in a country ranked 151st out of 169 countries on the Human Development Index (comparing life expectancy, years of schooling and gross national income per capita).

Yesterday it was revealed that a father dubbed Britain's most gullible man has fallen in love with a third Gambian woman despite two marriages to West Africans ending in heartbreak.

David Tungate, 58, was devastated after his marriage to his first Gambian wife broke down shortly after he brought her home to King's Lynn, Norfolk. His second African wife, Ndey, turned out to be a bigamist who fleeced him of his life savings and left him close to bankruptcy. He is now hoping to find lasting happiness with Isatou Jarju, 30, a café owner.

"My new girlfriend is different," insists David, who was divorced from his British wife in 1992.

"It may be stupid but I always follow my heart."

Relationships forged in the tropical sunshine of West Africa are the ultimate holiday romances. Who wouldn't enjoy strolling down to the beach or pool every morning, sipping piña coladas from a freshly harvested coconut and lazing for hours in the sun with a new love?

Many relationships disintegrate immediately. Others struggle to survive once transposed from Banjul to Birmingham. Some were never real in the first place.