Sliding into Sénégal

Again she had to go help with translating and sorting out who was who and what they did in life and such. At the customs office, two officers were painstakingly noting down all the info about our drivers and their cars. They called on her to ask a few ‘nothings’ and carried on. She also sat there, in their air con office and made as if she had all the time in the world.

After that was the police/immigration who did not stamp the passports and these had to be taken back. So procedures were carried out amidst swarms of flies, hundreds of people and very humid heat. Finally, 3++ hours later, all done, Mr Bamba was paid for his services and big arguments were held about car insurance – the one they gave us for the CDEAO in Nouakchott is not valid, it seems – and they were on the roads.

There were numerous stops at first: customs, police and customs again but the road to St Louis was pretty decent all in all. They are rebuilding parts of it; parts of it are rather broken on the sides and parts rather perfect. They reached St Louis in good time and went on to find the Zebra Bar, a place they had heard of from various blogs and other readings.

Coen was too tired to pitch the tent and it was very hot and humid, so they opted for a cabin. The whole place was more like a backpackers’ camp, with small cabins, small bungalows, bigger ones, space to camp, ablutions etc. It was on the edge of the fleuve, in the nature reserve, far from the town.

Unfortunately there was a ‘bible’ camp also on the premises, so that evening they had children singing, people talking on a public address system and much animation. There was a slight breeze through the cabin and they managed to get some sleep. That next morning, Coen ordered breakfast from the kitchen, then they re-packed the car and secured the new cover on the roof rack and they were off.

The others had opted to stay and meet with the customs in order to try to do the customs’ formalities for the cars. The road was mostly in good condition but there were small towns and villages all along and they could not go faster than 70km/h. That was nothing compared to getting into Dakar. It was Saturday afternoon but the traffic was hectic and it got close to impossible when they left Thies by the by-pass. There is one roundabout at Rufisque that clogged the traffic both ways.

Fishermen coming back

Fishing village next to the Diving centre

They reached Oceanium after 16h00, and settling into the rooms allocated to them, caught a nap. They were told that there was a ‘popular’ party there that night. They had a shower and they went in search of a nice place to eat. They found Big Five Bistrot where they had grilled calamari and juice of corronsol. It was well prepared and tasty, the environment was peaceful. And then, the power cut and the restaurant personnel were quick to light candles while moaning that in this area power cuts were not known – this restaurant is close to the presidency!

They walked back to the Oceanium and everything was quiet, they thought that the party was off or something. They got into bed and lo and behold, the music started, seamless, loud and very rhythmic – until the early hours of the morning. Deep sleep was not possible but they did doze off. She only really woke up when the music suddenly stopped for good!

Ah, well, a few more hours of sleep and they were down for breakfast and then diving. The ‘boys’ diving were mainly level 3 and 4 divers and were not keen to take people who had not dived since last October. So, they had a dive leader all to themselves and a boat too, to go see Epave Cap Manuel. They did manage to find functioning equipment, and to size too.

The water was not clear, loads of particles floating about but loads of fish as well. To be accurate schools of them but that looked rather like clouds, just swishing one way and the other. They had small kingfish hunting them and the schools of fish were active, the movement was fascinating, better than what you see on tv, in spite of the murky waters. They saw puffer fish, octopus and other sea life too.

Gorée Island from the Dive Centre

 After the dive, they checked out, had a shower and waited at the bar for their other appointment – lunch with Abou Tall (her boss at the UNDP in Brazzaville). He took them to his house where they spent a nice afternoon with his family, eating typical Senegalese food and talking of old times and new times.

The next appointment was with Albert at the Sea Plaza, the latest ‘in’ place of Dakar. It had the trappings of the ‘mall’, with the expensive shops, a food court and a supermarket. They did a bit of shopping before following Albert home. He had kindly invited them to stay until they knew where and what and when.

Monday saw them visting a bit of town by taxi, mainly to find an optician to repair Coen’s glasses that had broken just before the dive. It was a tricky affair but they came right at this optician with Abou told them about. Coen also managed to have his car looked into by the local Speedy.

Later that afternoon, Albert sent his man for a fish that they put on the grill and had with boiled potatoes. It was excellent, the local version of Dorade. They all made an excellent meal that evening, the place was quiet and peaceful. They only retired after ginger/lemon tea.

Tuesday they went hunting for groceries and embassies and hardware.

That evening, the people where Hans and Elismé were invited them and Albert for a typical SA braai. They quickly put some braai necessaries together and went there after Albert got back from work. Elismé and Mariana were busy preparing the place and making the side dishes while the men grilled the meats. It was a jolly evening.

There was always some waiting to be done at the embassies but in the end the people did see them and listen to them and supply some kind of explanation or solution. The hardware was more of a mission because there is nothing like a ‘Builders Warehouse’ in these parts and when you did find some ‘quincaillerie’ they did not always keep what was required. All in all they managed.

View of Cote Ouest with 'monument'

 The car got a wash, was re-organised and sorted. They went back to Sea Plaza for some last minute shopping for the car and for the evening where she was cooking her signature fish dish; they also did not interneting there.

Albert has a meeting but said he would be back for dinner. This consisted of fish/prawns with creamy leek sauce served with potatoes or pasta. The fish was baked and the prawns were put to cook in the sauce. It came out quite nicely and the three of them had a nice meal.

After the meal Coen got Albert to fish out his guitar while he went to get his mouth organ. They played, and sang and reminisced about old songs. It was a lively evening but they were all quite tired and a lot of yawning was going on.

The next morning they were up at the crack of dawn, had breakfast and finished the packing of the car; sat with Albert while he was having breakfast and then took to the roads. Albert showed them the more efficient way out of town. It was a much less painful operation getting out of town at that time than getting in on that Saturday afternoon and very soon – sooner than they thought – they met up with the other two cars on the road.