Week 5, Senegal
November, 22nd:
Woke up round 7.30, a bit hung over (although i did not drink that much)...
Breakfasted, showered, rinsed some cloths.
Updating blog now at the reception of the campsite...
Waiting for our cab to the old town ...
Old town was nice, but not that spectacular.
2 nice mosques and some good photo opportunities.
Had lunch in a very crowded, but cosy lunchroom ...
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| Fish didn't agree on being eaten ... |
Bought myself a Senegal football shirt (Ben too)
By 3.00h we took a cab back...
Dip in the sea and some relaxing at the
Last night there was a quite one for me. Was not in the mood for cardgames or beer drinking, so... went to my tent for an episode of star trek and an early night.
November, 23rd:
Rose at 7, breakfasted, packed our gear and on the way to Dakar
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| Everywhere kids waving and shouting ... |
After several stops we arrived in Dakar in a campsite. Truck had to be squeezed in, but ... a nice and cosy place.
With some cold beers and wines we chatted away the evening ...
Was shocked to hear the news about the elections in the Netherlands ... Wilders as Minister President ... see how that goes ... does he even have qualified staff for the minister posts? Let's see...
Anyway, slept good until somebody started to snoor heavily ...
November, 24th:
Breakfast at 7 and now updating blog and an attempt to publish week 4 ...
Laterz ...
Publishing failed. No netwerk.
Decided to go to Goree Island. Ben and I walked to the ferry port (almost 6 K) and took the ferry to the island ...
The island is a little paradise of rest and culture and history (also "our" slave history) ...
foto
At 3 we returned to the main land and took a cab back to the campsite (with Andy and Lynn whom we met on the island)...
2nd attempt to publish a bit of blog, but ... unfortunately ...
I'm getting a cold beer now.
Laterz ...
(Some of the group went to the bar across the street and hung out there until 5 pm (glad i didn't)).
November, 25th:
What a day!!!
Slept in till 7.15, showered, breakfasted, finally managed to publish week 4 of my blog, then went to medina (=the old city) of Dakar.
We (US Dave, Andy, Lynn and I) went to a fairly new mosque and we were invited to take a look inside, so... dressed in traditional moslim clothes, we got a tour like you would not believe. Our moslim brothers really care about their religion buildings. Take a look:
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| Saint Andy |
Round 12.30 we went further to get a cold drink and then on our way to a very good local Senegalese restaurant ....
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| Lynn was particularly interested in some of the ingredients |
And then it happened...
2 guys on a motorbike. One driving, the other one grabbed the purse of Lynn with her phone and some money in it.
Dave ran after them, the whole street shouted like "stop the thieves", some threw stones at them, but they escaped.
Shocked!! I guess it's every travelers nightmare...
Lynn behaved strongly!! We still went to the restaurant, had a big beer, ordered some (really good!!) food, ate, and decided to report the whole event to the police and so we did.
Took a cab back to the campsite, told our stories (everybody shocked), had another beer and tried to get relaxed again...
Diner time now...
Laterz ...
The evening was quite, with a rum & lemon-juice cocktail.
Slept good.
November, 26th:
Rose at 7.15, showered, breakfasted, and by 8 we were on the road again towards Palmarin, but first a look at Lac Rose (Pink Lake).
It wasn't pink and we spent about 1.5 hours there, because the truck needed some repair.
Then further. 1 more hour of bumpy roads, then a relatively smooth road to the campsite of Palmarin, where we are now.
It was Ben's birthday so...
Congrats bro!!
Round 3.30 we stopped at a supermarket for shopping (today is my cookgroup). They had everything except potatoes. Guess what we needed .... yep!
Round 5 we reached the campsite where we had a little birthday party for Ben.
Slept good (D'uh!)
November, 27th:
Slept in till 7.45, showered and did some laundry (just rinsing, so that the shirts would last another day), late breakfast, and now updating blog at the central place of the campsite (with good wifi!!).
Round 11.00 took a walk towards town to see if we could get potatoes for our fishcakes (we have cookgroup today)... and found them, so... 1.5 hours later we were back with potatoes, watermelon and Ben bought a dress for his GF.
Had a little lunch and tried the sea ... too dirty, so... the piscine it was. Very refreshing pool.
Round 4.30 we started cooking and round 7.30 we ate. The group liked it, i didn't.
In general: i hate cookgroup. It's stressy, and we are being checked constantly .... it's the one day in the week that this trip is not nice.
Anyway, we had to get up by 4.30 next day, so i went to my tent by 9.00, but did not sleep very well (too frustrated from cookgroup) ... so the 2nd night of bad sleep.
November, 28th
Rose at 4.30, took down tent and sleeping gear and setup kitchen for breakfast. Fried eggs it was, and by 7.00 we were on our way to the Gambian border.
Long drive, short stops, but by 2.00 or so, we were in. Gambian people are even friendlier than the Senegalese ... felt at home straight away, but... we had some mileage to go,so ... on it went.
At first the roads looked quite ok, but about 10 KM before we would reach the campsite there was construction work being done, so... detour... a long one over very bumpy, dirty roads, in the dark ...
By 8.30 we arrived here at the campsite, setup kitchen asap and we ate by 9.15 or so (bravo cookgroup, despite the request to get some canned food from the truck was ignored (that was "impossible" (bullshit obviously, but there some strange rules in this trip ... last word has not been spoken about that)).
Anyway, by 10.00 we had done the truck clean as well, and Ben and i sat down the beach, finished a bottle of rose, while complaining about some things about this trip we do not like... more about that later perhaps ...
Went to bed by 11 and slept like an idiot (i.e. very, very good).
See you all next week.
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