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The trip did not quite start as planned on several levels. Franck set off with the 2CVs on the 4th of July, from Bamako on route to Dakar, I stood waving them off with still some work from Mali to finish off. However, I was regularly updated of the fun he and Moriba were having crossing the forests in the East of Senegal. Apparently there were a couple of small incidents, where poor pink 2CV had a small ceizure and could go no further without assistance. Stuck in the middle of a forest with no one else to be seen for 100km, Franck waited as Moriba set off to find a mechanic to help fix pinky. Loaded onto the back of a truck the pink 2CV made it to Dakar with the yellow one following faithfully. I arrived in Senegal on the 7th July by plane to join the group and start our voyage with out the 2CVs. They were sent off to the local Dr to get a check up while the 4 of us headed to Sine Saloum packed into a taxi to sample the land of Baobab trees, mangroves and "the sputnik". We stayed in a small campment called the Cordons bleus, not quite matching up to its title, we were entertained in an interesting atmosphere, at lunch, dinner and breakfast, we sampled the pumping tunes of 80s, pop classics and some dance music, while gazing out over the salt planes, we were even given a demonstration of how to have a sputnik - ok so this really confused my limited french, sputnik, space, the final frontier, no sputnik the sambuca shot coated in cocoa powder which can only be drunk in one while shaking it vigorously in your mouth - demonstrated by the wonderful lionel's wife. As this demonstration took place, I noticed the contrast of when the west infiltrates other cultures as I spyed a poster of "miss Sine Saloum 2013" hosted at Cordons bleus and supported by DJ Lionel (owner of Cordons bleus) suddenly the music, lights and sputnik were all explained. Not sure Miss Sine Saloum is what Sine Saloum needed introduced, however we had fun touring the local towns and villages on a quad bike (perhaps not the usual local transport either - think I need to get more into the culture). All in all had fun learning about the Baobab trees and why there are so many in Senegal - apparently they are not so useful for local construction so are left alone to thrive, their flowers make a nice juice though.
For bird and art lovers out there, we had a trip on a piroge (boat) through the mangroves, although not the best season for spotting wildlife we saw white flamingos, pelicans, herons and some small jumping fish. We also took a tour around a local village where we were introduced, or stalked by the local art lover/philosopher aptly named Picasso, he followed us at 10am with his nearly empty bottle of pastis and seemed quite taken with Laure. We speeded round the village and headed to the safety of the river, back to relaxing in the boat and taking in the fantastic views.
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