Palmarin

Palmarin is a quiet spot in the Sine-Saloum Delta of Senegal.

We stayed in a straw hut at Yokam, a simple little place by the beach:

We came across a huge turtle on the shore one afternoon!

It was frightening to go up so close to it, but nothing will get in the way of me & a good photo! It was as still & lifeless as, well, a turtle... but after some minutes we came to doubt its state of being, and after some brave close inspection, saw that it wasn't alive after all. Poor turtle, RIP:

Palmarin is made up of four small villages. It could teach the rest of Africa something about waste disposal - the cleanest place I've come across around this part of the world.

Here we are getting directions on a stroll around town:

It was a relaxing stay, surrounded by a 180,000 hectare zone of endless salt plains & mangrove creeks:

Ile de Goree

3kms & 20 minutes by ferry from Dakar is the tiny UNESCO heritage island of Ile de Goree:

There are no roads or cards on the island, just narrow alleyways & colourful colonial brick buildings, literally a world away from the big city bustle & hustle of Dakar:

 Ile de Goree's role in history is as the port of banishments for slaves in the 18th century.

 In Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves), slaves were held here before being despatched. This Dutch building has been a museum since 1962, but unfortunately there were no English signs, tours or guides. 

Here is the door which all slaves walked through before leaving Africa forever:

Dakar

For the trip to Dakar, we decided to test out the local bus service. When we arrived at the garage, the bus was already half-full & so we were cautiously optimistic that it wouldn't take that long for it to fill up. Well after months in Africa, one can still make naive mistakes! But 3 hours of waiting later, we were off, and many stops & 5 hours after that, the 260km journey was completed! 

In Dakar, we were lucky enough to spend most of our time in the affluent, expat beach side suburb of Les Almadies. Here is the apartment we stayed in & the views from it:

Another little African luxury we got to experience was going to a real concert. The artist was Maurice Kirya from Uganda, he had a beautiful voice, it was nice just to hear some live music again. Some of his songs, storytelling & audience interaction were a bit cheesy, but coming from an African, it always sounds so much more lyrical & sincere:

Although it is a lot less overt than in Morocco or Mauritania, about 90% of the Senegalese population is Muslim:

Saint-Louis

Border crossing days always start early, and it’s always surprising when the car you’ve arranged actually turns up. We did the rounds of the city picking up various passengers, human & animal:

Rosso was an intense market trading town but the border itself was relatively trouble-free: didn’t get ripped off changing money or have to pay any bribes.

After a couple of short trips by ferry & horse, we arrived at the garage for onward travel, where cars like this awaited us:

Fortunately we held out for something a bit more roadworthy. Destination Saint-Louis, the first French settlement in West Africa. There were a lot of lovely old colonial buildings, and especially after coming from Nouakchott, it was so nice to be in a place with so much life & colour.

The change in weather & landscape from desert heat to coastal breeze also brought a sense of relief. The beach was definitely not swimmable though! I’ve never seen that much rubbish or goats or people dumping their trash in & around the sea.

The centre of Saint-Louis is situated on an island, life across to the mainland is vastly different, much more African: bustling markets, child vs goat vs donkey, roadside laundry & washing.

Local services: restaurant, hairdresser, shoe repair and public transport, the colourful 30 seater Hamdoolilah.

We stayed with Moustapha, who was a primary school teacher, so we had the chance to visit his school & sit in on one of his classes. I think it was one of sciences… it was in French, give me a break! There were about 30 students, pretty well-behaved (or at least only silently mucking around), dutifully copying from the board… a disastrous way of learning I think, but seems to be the African way. Spot the white man:

Nouakchott

Well Nouakchott (the capital) was a most uninspiring city, where we had to stay for 5 nights to obtain my visa for Senegal (Swedes don't need one). Of course when I returned to the embassy, it wasn't ready. Thus I was put to work & directed through several rooms to collect my stamps. The officials were nice though, as throughout Mauritania. 

Here is the Senegal embassy:

Nouakchott's one sight of interest is the Porte de Perche fish market. Along the beach were boats as far as the eye could see, and many men hauling in huge nets of fish, or running up & down with big tubs on their heads. Lots of women were just sitting around with their tubs of fish, waiting around for buyers or something I guess. Probably just waiting. Add lots of children, teenagers, hustlers & it was a colourful, if not smelly, sight. Unbelievably I forgot to take my camera!!! So here is as interesting as Nouakchott gets:

For the most part, it's more like this:

Even food was tough to find, there's only so many times a day you can eat shawarma. At least it gave us something to do, but walking around looking for a restaurant for over an hour every day gets tiring & on the last night we gave up & decided just not to eat. Mauritanians love their fast food. Here's some of the crap we ate:

But we did discover fish! Huge portions for around $4: