Traveling to Dakar wasn’t as hairy as I thought it would be. Good thing I learned that French though; no English, Mandinka, or Sarahule up there – Wolof and French only. I picked Heather up at the airport the night of the 15th, and we got a car down the coast a piece to the Sobo Bade hotel in Toubab Dialo.
The hotel was fantastic, with pristine beaches, rock outcroppings, rustic interesting architecture, lots of foliage and amazing food. And air conditioning! Click any of the pics to go to the whole album.
Our second day there we visited the nearby Bandia Forest, which is kind of like a huge zoo with no fences that you drive through. They had rhinos, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, water buffalo, hyenas (in a cage), ostriches, monkeys, impalas, crocodiles, and lots of baobab trees. Click any of the pictures to go to the whole album.
After three nights at Sobo Bade, we returned to the Gambia by taxi to Mbour, then sept place (station wagon stuffed with people) to Kowlack (never go there), then to Farafenni. We stayed at a nice guest house there (slept in pools of sweat because the power station blew up and there was no power), then got a car to Basse the next day. Actually the car was just to Bansang, but a nice guy from the Ministry of Education picked us up on the ferry and took us to Basse. That ferry blew Heather’s mind. You have to load a couple cars onto it, then everyone lines up and pulls the cable to get boat across the river.
We stayed the night in Basse, then the next day shopped for presents for the family and lugged our crap across the river to the car park, where we just missed the first car and waited for 4 hours for the next car to Diabugu to fill up. We got home late, but my family was really excited to see us. We distributed the presents, and passed out.
Over the week that we have been here, we have done the following (in no particular order):
Attended Monday school assembly and met some of the teachers
Learned how to wash clothes by hand (difficult!)
Learned how to pound grain and how to prepare green leaf sauce
Hiked to some nearby wetlands, hung out, and birdwatched
Biked to some nearby cliffs/bluffs, walked onto an outcropping, and watched a troop of monkeys swinging in the trees below us, then almost got caught in a storm on the way home
Took a day trip to Basse by bike through the bush, went to the bank, and biked home the same day (never done that before – we are so rugged)
Visited the market in Diabugu – got veggies for the fam at the market
Helped type up final exams with some of the teachers at my school
The Dude (our cat) caught a big rat and two lizards and we are very proud of him
My family killed a duck for us and the resulting lunch was *amazing*
Click any of the pictures to go to the whole album.
Heather’s and my health have been overall pretty good. My rash is still here only (see previous postings), and Heather had a little heat rash on her arms. It started raining and that helped cool things down a lot.
Tomorrow morning we plan to schlep our stuff out to the river (about 2 miles – on a donkey cart ideally) and get picked up for our boat trip down the river. Till next time!