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SENEGAL
'The truth is like gold, keep it locked up and you will find it exactly as you first put it away.'
Senegalese Proverb
It's great to know that so many people are following our journey.
Thank you Andre and Marianne for your kind message it was lovely to meet you in Ronda and share your enthusiasm for travelling and of course for Land Rovers! We hope you get some positve help with your tent.
Gill. Great to hear from you and we look forward to meeting you in Kenya.
Tony and Liz
Hope it is good news with Melon's scan and give our love to everyone at the stables.
2nd November
We head out of Nouakchott on a very straight road toward Rosso the main border point, where a ferry crosses the Senegal River. However, having heard that the crossing here into Senegal has become notoriously difficult for overlanders, we decide to go over the border by the bridge at Diama near the new dam.
There was an immediate change on the road leading out of Nouakchott. The orange sand on each side was full of trees and there was plenty of grazing for the herds of large horned cattle. Horses were now common pulling carts instead of just donkeys and villages and settlements lined the whole route. People were everywhere.
We somehow missed the turning for Diama and suddenly found ourselves outside some large, metal gates at Rosso and a huge crowd of people, all waiting to get through to catch the ferry or the pirogues that also continually cross back and forth over the river. There was no going back as we were hemmed in by people and were assured anyway, that the road to Diama was in a very bad condition due to recent rain and strong winds! Once inside the gates, the formalities at the Mauritanian side were fairly straight forward but after getting our passports stamped and a ticket for the ferry, we had a long and very hot 2 hour wait for the ferry, which wasn't due to leave until around 3.30 p.m. We met two German guys also in the line of waiting vehicles, one who lived in Senegal and another who made frequent trips over to West Africa. On this particular visit, he was keeping a promise to deliver some footballs, shirts and shorts to a village in Gambia.
The riverside was a buzz of activity, women making a splash of colour in their brightly coloured clothes and carrying baskets or big bowls full of various objects on their heads. Their colourful way of dress was far more figure hugging and revealing than in Mauritania.
We watched the ferry finally approach and in no time at all it was crowded with people and animals, all trying to find a little patch of shade amongst the vehicles. The women put wet pieces of cloth over their heads and shoulders whilst others kept cool by buying little plastic bags of ice to rub over their arms, hands and face. The metal of the boat was too hot to sit down on but a man next to me kindly lent me a foam mat so that I could have a more comfortable trip.
We left surprisingly very much on time. The crossing took approximately half an hour but the formalities on the Senegal side took nearly 2 hours and were very frustrating. We were both glad however, that we had not missed the experience of the ferry crossing after all.
It was almost dusk and we had to find the Langue de Barbarie and the highly recommended Campement Zebrabar on the road out from St.Louis. Many of the roads were far worse than in Mauritania with numerous potholes and raised areas of tarmac but after many stops and instructions, we discovered a track and hoped we were taking the right route, as many of the Zebrabar signs were broken. We finally arrived at about 9 p.m. and were kindly invited to share an evening meal with everyone around one large table. It looked a great place to stay, hot showers, a wonderful position and excellent food. The only down side were the huge, land crabs that came out at night and ran for your feet making a torch a necessity when walking after dark! Zebrabar was on the edge of a stretch of the Senegal River which we paddled across one day in one of their canoes, to reach a narrow spit of land which then led to the Atlantic Ocean. The waves were huge and made a tremendous noise, no wonder we could hear them crashing against the shore back at camp. In the evening we walked along the sandy river bank and could swim in the water which was really warm. Many other overlanders turned up during our time there and we caught up with Jean and Lieve. We hope you get your 6 wheel Land Rover fixed Manfred and enjoy the rest of your trip with Hasna and Christian. Martin and Ursula, a Swiss couple, have been running Zebrabar for the last 10 years. They make you feel very welcome and are always ready to give help and advice if needed. Both their young children were born there and go to school in St.Louis. We would certainly recommend this excellent campsite.
3rd - 5th November
North from the Langue de Barbarie peninsular takes you to the oldest French settlement in West Africa, St.Louis, the oldest part of which is on an island and reached by a large bridge. We really warmed to this city and loved the easy going atmosphere and the old, colonial type buildings. Many of these had been renovated and painted in different pastel colours with shuttered windows, beautiful wooden doors and vibrant bougainvilliers tumbling over balconies. On our many visits, we left our Land Rover outside the Hotel de la Poste with a guard who quickly got to know us. This was where passengers from the old flying boats used to stay. We visited the market, had cool drinks in the bars, found a patisserie with a delicious onion pizza, cakes and coffee and finally managed to update our website!
6th November
We travelled north again today to visit the Parc National aux Oiseaux du Djoudj, considered one of the best places on earth to view birds migrating from Europe. The Parc includes a stretch of the Senegal River but also has many creeks, lakes, ponds, marshes, reed beds and mud flats as well as areas of dry woodland. It is one of the first places with permanent water south of the Sahara and is famous for its vast flocks of pelicans and flamingos. We camped for the night in the grounds of the Hostellerie du Djoudj just inside the Parc which we will visit tomorrow.
7th - 8th November
Tickets for the boat and entry to the parc came to 15,000 CFA. It was a 7 kilometre drive to catch the pirogue, which we shared for one hour with 5 other people. The river was lined with huge, white water lilies and other taller, purple flowers. We saw egrets, spoonbills and cormorants but the highlight was the pelican colony at the furthest point along the creek. There were simply hundreds of them on sandy banks and in the trees and we were able to get really close to these fascinating birds. A lovely, relaxing morning out on the river and then back on dry land a family of warthogs trotted along the track. We drove back to St. Louis to spend the afternoon there, making sure we wore our seat belts as we had narrowly missed a fine the other day from a particularly miserable policeman who caught us without them on. When we pointed out to him that many other people were not wearing theirs either, he informed us that we should know better! Back to Zebrabar where we joined the remaining people for an evening meal of salad, octopus and huge slices of water melon. Delicious!
9th November
We began our journey south through Thiès where we treated ourselves to an excellent French meal plus a delicious dessert at the restaurant Le Massa Massa recommended by Lonely Planet. Difficult to find, hidden away down a side street but definitely worth the hunt!
Beautiful woven baskets, bowls and mats, all woven by local women, were for sale by the side of the road as we drove on toward Rufisque. The town of Rufisque however, proved to be a 2 hour nightmare. We sat in queues of slow moving traffic belching fumes and smoke, whilst trying to find the Hippo Campement, only to discover that it had closed down. Light was fading as we drove on to the fishing village of Toubab Dialo where we took a room at the Sobo Bade, an unusual building of brick, stone and shells, perched on a cliff top overlooking the sea and surrounded by attractive gardens. Run by a Frenchman it also offered workshops in dance, writing, music and sculpture and when we arrived a drumming session was in full swing! We met a guy from Gambia there who showed us his beautiful musical instrument called the kora and which sounded similar to a harp when played. Sauteed prawns in ginger made a delicous snack that evening but then we had a very hot night in an airless room under a bright pink mosquito net!
10th November
We continued down the Petite Cote on the West Coast, stopping at the twin villages of Joal-Fadiout. Joal was on the mainland while Fadiout was a small island, reached by a long, wooden bridge. This island was composed entirely of clam shells that have accumulated over the centuries and nearly everything in the village was also partly made of the shells.
South of the Petite Cote was the vast Sine-Saloum Delta area where the Sine and Saloum rivers met the Atlantic Ocean. We camped at Djidjack by the beach, run by a very nice French couple who made us feel very much at home. We learned to approach the ablution block very cautiously however, as bats shared the shower and large grasshoppers and lizards ran around the toilets!
11th November
We caught a ferry that took us across the River Saloum to Foundiougne and followed a piste that took us to the remote fishing village of Missira and Gite Bandiala, situated in dense woodland. Arriving late afternoon, we were quickly surrounded by huge tsetse flies as soon as we got out of the car. We did not fancy staying to cook a meal amongst these, (although they disappeared as darkness fell) and so took a round, thatched hut for the night, where there were just as many other creepy crawlies! We ate in the restaurant around one big table with other guests and the French owners produced a lovely meal which included a huge fish for the main course.
12th November
No water in our room until the generator started up, so we took a walk through the woodland and saw red colobus monkeys leaping between the trees and many interesting birds. We left later for Kaolack, a regional capital and the centre of Senegal's groundnut industry. These nuts are sold in little bags everywhere. Kaolack is also said to have the 2nd largest market in Africa after Marrakech. It was certainly colourful and extremely busy and looked as if you could buy just about anything there as the shops and stalls were packed with goods. Leaving this town however, we encountered our most difficult policeman yet who was determined that we should pay a 6000 CFA fine for having a tent on our roof! We were just as determined that we would not be parting with any money as other vehicles were going by piled high with goods. It took a lot of patience, persuasion and 'play acting' but we finally won, retrieved our documents safely and were allowed to continue on our way.
There was a long stretch of road now before Tambacounda and no campsites mentioned in Lonely Planet. The main roads were appalling, the minor ones even worse. It was a bone shaking ride and our shock absorbers must be taking a battering! Nearing Koungheul we noticed a very new looking sign for Campement le Bambouck and decided to see if we could camp there. The people were friendly and very helpful, allowing us to camp in the garden and use a bathroom in one of the five, thatched huts. We cooked ourselves a lovely meal and ate it still in the daylight.......what a nice change! Everyone was fascinated with our roof tent, tables and chairs and the painter (huts still being finished) and the guard, insisted on helping us set things up and then had a look inside the tent. Another man from the village ploughing up a section of the grounds with his horse, also came over to talk. Lorries rattled by occasionally amongst the pot holes out on the main road but they didn't bother us, our surroundings were so lovely......what a find!
13th November
We arrived at Tambacounda where we found an internet cafe and then bought some rather nice, carved models of a man and woman from a guy who had waited very patiently outside for us to finish. We also bought a new gas bottle and camped at Dar-Salaam at the beginning of the National Parc Du Niokola Koba that we hoped to visit the next day.
14th November
We drove to the Parc entrance to enquire about camping but were told that we would not be allowed in without a guide and that nearly all the campements had been closed inside the Parc and many tracks were impassable, due to earlier, heavy rains. We decided therefore, to head for Kedougou, where we stayed at the Hippo Safari Lodge, 5 kilometres east of the town, down a dirt track and right next to the River Gambie. We had a wonderful view of the river and it was very peaceful and quiet. We were the only people there as they were painting the interiors of the little round huts for the new season but the owners, who arrived later to fish from the river, didn't mind us staying. The generator only worked from about 8 a.m. to 12 noon pumping the water from the river, so we had to be sure that we did all our washing jobs in the morning.
15th - 16th November
Kedougou is the starting point for visits into Bassari Country and we decided to follow Lonely Planets recommendations for a trip to Salemata, 83 kilometres west of Kedougou, a journey that took us nearly 4 hours. The 'good' dirt road (as stated by the book) was very hard to find, and turned out to be mainly huge pot holes and ruts which got worse the further we went, passing through the remote villages of Bandafassi, Ibel and Tiankoye. We met the headmaster of the little village school at Tiankoye (he only looked about 18) and could not believe that we still had another 23 kilometres to go!
We finally arrived at Salemata after crossing many streams and rivers using steep bridges but then made the unfortunate mistake of missing the STOP sign at the Gendarmerie situated at the beginning of the village. We had been so busy watching the pot holes and not for one minute had we expected to see road signs! The gendarme was not at all impressed however and it took some time of sincere apologies and persuading before he relented and we once again escaped a fine.
Salamata was very remote and so the market was small and the fruit and vegetables that were being sold were also in tiny piles. We bought oranges, tomatoes and bread and then stopped for a cold coke at a little hut, where we were invited inside and shown some plans for a new campement there by a very enthusiastic and nice guy, who was hoping to help run it. We were not looking forward to the long, return journey back to the Hippo Safari Lodge and the next day, we spent all our time cleaning the thick layer of orange dust from everything inside Moby.
17th November
We shopped at the busy and colourful market at Kedougou and then found the track out to the remote village of Dindefelo to visit the cascades there. The track again was very bad with deep ruts and flooded in places but when we finally arrived, the campement was small and friendly surrounded by forested hills just over 400 metres, beyond which was Guinea Conakry.
We visited the cascades that evening, a 1 hour walk and heard the chimpanzees in the hills as we returned. As it got dark, one by one, all the hens in the yard flew up into a large tree for safety.......we had never seen this before but what a good idea!
18th November
We left early with a guide for a 4 hour walk that took us to the top of one of the hills, along the plateau and past the last little village of Dondé in this far, south eastern corner of Senegal. The ascent was steep and our guide was like a mountain goat but at least it was shaded amongst the trees until we reached the plateau, from where there was an amazing view down to the village of Dindefelo.
We stopped to look at the village school on reaching Dondé. This was a small, rectangular, thatched hut with rows of desks and benches and a blackboard at the front. A metal beater hung in a nearby tree to call the children to their lessons. We were taken to an area where the plateau suddenly dropped away with a huge overhang and then down a hidden pathway (that we would never have noticed without a guide), to a maze of caves, now inhabited by some large bats but once home to a local tribe.
We rested at the top of the cascades, ate some oranges and sat and watched the many different types of dragonfly flitting over the rock pools. During our descent, a lady passed us going back up to her village at the top, still managing to keep a large bowl steady on her head! Although their water is available from the cascades they have to make the journey down to Dindefelo for other goods and carry them all the way back up again!
We saw many monkeys as we slowly climbed down and some large, red and black parrot type birds.
We were really glad to have experienced both walks and the chance to stretch our legs. It was also an enjoyable ending for our visit to Senegal, as in the next couple of days we would be heading for Mali.
19th - 21st November
We returned to Tambacounda, not a very exciting town and the groceries and melon that we bought there would probably have been cheaper in Kedougou. There were, we discovered, no campements, only hotel rooms and so, although it was dark by the time we left the town, we decided to return to the campement at Dar Salaam. We had to drive carefully to avoid goats, dogs and numerous people walking and even sitting in the road, plus people on bicycles without lights. We spent an extra day at Dar Salaam catching up on jobs and cleaning more dust out of Moby before setting off for Mali.
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