Going Local in Senegal - Episode 1

Hello all,

Arriving in St. Louis was akin to being blasted with a firehose of rainbow paint. After the monotony of the sandy desert, the virbrant colours worn by men, women and children, the brightly coloured albeit peeling colonial buildings and wooden carts full or oranges, watermelons and bananas was a welcome sight. The hustle and bustle of a busy African town was aluring and also a little intimidating after the more heat induced lethargy of Mauritania. The island of St. Louis is charmingly entered over a rusting metal bridge. It will be interesting to see if its' replacement proceeds its' collapse. Signs for beer aroused Marc and Brians attenion whilst french patisseries and pan au chocolat called to me.

After much debate with locals we were led to a house with a pleasant courtyard on two sides where we were to sleep. Quick showers cooled us down enought to start sweating again in the humidity and we set off to explore. The Isle had a slight deserted feel when we wandered down tree-lined avenues as few women sat by the pavements or kids played in the street. One kid driving his goats home. Stepping off the isle we were faced with the local fishing village, a hive of activity in sudden contrast. Vast, brightly painted wooden boats were being launched into the surf by 30 people at a time with great skill that I could appreciate as its hard enough to launch in a RIB and these boats lacked the manouvreability that we had in Tofo. It is very easy for the surf to turn you over or fill the boat with water.

As the sun set over the ocean we tried to find a local place to eat but in the end Marc and I settled for fruit and Brian for a chili meat filled sandwich from a street seller. From now on all of us have to be wary to cover up having crossed into malaria territory.

The next day we drove to Zebra Bar bumping into the Saffers on the way which always results into a frenzied exchange of information even though we know we are going to be hanging out together for the next few days. The Zebra Bar is delightfully located in a bird sanctury on an islet surrounded by mangroves and woodland. They have kayaks to explore the water and one of my first actions was to swim across the lagoon to find the sea on the other side of peninsula. There the current was much to strong to swim. I felt like Robinson Crusoe as the only prints I could find in the sand was of birds. To buy fruit and veg you had to visit the tiny village across the mud plain where head-scarved ladies lie around under trees displaying small piles of tomatoes and other such things on their mats. The bakery was actually inside the bakery!

We spent 4 days here hanging out, bird watching, swimming, sitting at the top of the purpose built tower to survey the stunning view, attempting to windsurf, sunbathing, cooking various local delicacies like okra (texan style), kaths flat bread pizzas and goat skewers. It was really great. I had the luxury of showering every day which despite the swimming I took advantage of as in the bush I might go nearly a week without a proper wash which doesnt bother me but it is a joy to be clean. Cheapish wine meant I could have a glass with dinner.

Eventually it was time to push on and as Marc's car failed to start without assistance, ut next destination was unfortunately Dakar which we had hoped to avoid. The traffic in was insane and it was dark by the time we arrived in Oukham suburb and found the recommened garage. In a city it is surprisingly difficult to find a place to free camp, the saffers tent is ontop of their car so they can go anywhere. After a great deal of searching Marc asked a family if we could use their patch of land to pitch our tent. This turned out to the family of the Imam which is a Muslim religious leader. I was very curious as to his answer because even as infidels Muslims should lend assistance to travellers. Using the security man from the garage (next door) as a translater he kindly agreed. His wife was very intrigued by us and kept coming out to talk in pigeon French. We tried to hide the fact it was 2 men and 1 girl in the same tent!

The next couple of days was spent at the garage including sleeping there! The staff were very friendly and ammenable to this intrusion and the swiss manager let us use his private bathroom. The locals quickly became used to us wandering around, tourists dont normally come here and we found an awesome food lady. She was exremely friendly and had a small hut where she served chicken and rice for lunch and fish and rice with cabbage and sweet potato for dinner. She even fanned us in the stifling heat as we ate! The food had quite a chili kick but a cool drink of frozen bsap (sweetend hibiscus) served in a plastic bag soon sorts you out.

Back to the garage and after a futile day of part searching, we accustomed ourselves to a lenghty stay. Brian and the Saffers decided push off to visit a national park and hopefully we would see them later but even so that was likely to be brief. Marc and I are happy to travel quite slowly and a split had been coming for some while because they have other time and budget considerations. Nevertheless it was very sad to say goodbye.

I consoled myself with my first dive in a long time going with a local French club. The vis wasnt great but I still saw some unusual creatures. The DM was v laid back and we only kept in vague contact on the dive which is awesome after the way some dive centres molly coddle you. I shall look out for cmas dive centres again! Great to be blowing bubbles again and have the sea wind in your hair ; )

After trying some unamed local fish and rice dish at a street stall and refusing to buy insulin for a stranger with a very long winded excuse as to why I should buy it, I took a local mini-bus back to the garage where we still had to wait for the rest of the afternoon. Car now fixed but needed some wire to hook up the fridge. The guy came back at sunset and was a total sweetheart in sorting it out straight away. Ramadam finished today so I thought he would be eager to return to his family but he saw it through.

It was late when we drove out of Dakar and we stopped at the first field to camp and sleep. I was exhausted after a night of people talking outside the tent and a night of the mosque babbling some nonsense until dawn. At first light we pushed on to the national park and just caught the others for a quick chat and a coffee for me before we went on a game drive.

Not so many animals here and tameish so you are allowed to get out of the car and walk quite close to them which was pretty cool for rhinos and giraffes. Also saw several bird species, mongoose, antelope and monkeys. We spent the afternoon chilling by the waterhole and later they let us camp in the carpark.

In the morning we started for Gambia but had barely gone 100km before Marc started making worrying noises about the car battery and before you could say "please no, never again" we were on our way back to the garage in Dakar.

Take it easy,
Lots love
kx