As we entered Senegal, there’s something in the air. Actually, it’s at least three things. The thing that was most obvious is something that doesn’t come across on our photos – something that defined our time in Western Sahara and Mauritania as well: the sand.
We entered all these countries during the Harmattan, a season whose primary feature is a strong wind that carries lots of Sahara dust with it. And in Senegal, especially in Dakar, this led to a really gloomy atmosphere – you couldn’t really see the sky. It was muggy, and lots of people were wearing masks to protect themselves.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: The first city we visited in Senegal was not Dakar, but Saint-Louis.
Saint-Louis is an old colonial town built on a little island. It’s considered to be Senegal’s cultural capital and has a pretty relaxed vibe.
The beach looked just like in Nouadhibou, Mauritania though.
The second thing that was in the air was the anticipation of Senegal competing in this year’s Africa Cup of Nations. Senegal is clearly the most football-mad country we’ve been to so far. There’s people playing on pitches everywhere. Half of the male population wears football shirts, no matter the job. While we were in Saint-Louis it was game day: Reigning champion Senegal was playing its neighbor Guinea – so the Senegalese jersey was omnipresent. You could buy it on every corner. We watched the game in a bar and Senegal beat Guinea 2-0, but the game was very lame because both teams had already qualified for the next round.
From Saint-Louis we hit the road towards Dakar. Fellow travellers had warned us about corrupt policemen on the road who were making up fees and fines. So we didn’t take the big National Road but little B-roads along the coast.
We were stopped a lot on this route, but not by policemen: The road we chose had speed bumps. Lots of them. We made it to Dakar in good spirit though.
Dakar is just as big as Berlin. We found a little hotel right in the middle of it that allowed us to park our bikes inside their little yard.
Maybe our phones have some anti-dust algorithm to make pictures look less dusty? All of our Dakar photos look a lot less gloomy than our real-life impression.
In Dakar we brought our little Hondas to MAD Bikes, a work shop.
MAD Bikes owner Madou is an experienced rally racer (he finished 3rd on the Africa Eco Race!) so we knew our bikes to be in best hands. He performed a full service and we also got new tires (for those who care: Michelin Anakee Wild). Not out of necessity, our tires were still quite okay, but because of not knowing when we’ll be able to get good tires again.
Dakar knows,
Thiès is a Senegalese city with over 300.000 people – which makes explaining his name very easy for Thies here.
While in Dakar we also did the most tourist thing the city has to offer: we took a day trip to Gorée Island.
Gorée is just three kilometers off the coast of Dakar and there’s ferries going all day.
The island is really small, walking from one end to the other takes only about 15 minutes. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. Being there feels like being on a different planet than the loud and hectic Dakar.
The most important reason to go to Gorée is a different one, though. It’s an important memorial for the Atlantic slave trade. What you see below is the so called “House of Slaves” – the little door between the stairs {hardly visible in this picture) is called “Door of no return”.
It’s a very good museum with lots of information on various aspects of the transportation of enslaved African people. From the 16th to 19th century, about 12 million people got transported to the Americas.
Exhibit in the museum.
Earlier in Mauritania we had learned that slavery is still a big problem there these days. Mauritania was the last country to officially abolish slavery in 1981. Estimates however still range from 90.000 to 600.000 people living in slavery in this country alone.
After seeing the museum and hiking up to Gorée’s only hill (that features a canon placed there by the French just before WWII (not pictured), we returned to Dakar.
From Dakar it’s only a short ride to Lac Rose. It’s famous for two things: it used to be the finishing point of the world’s toughest race the Rally Dakar (when it was still held in Africa, by now it has been moved to South America and recently to Saudi-Arabia). It’s even more famous for it’s name-giving colour.
Lac Rose is a salt lake, the colour is caused by the Dunaliella salina algae. But when we there, the pink lake was not pink anymore. The locals said it had too much water at the time.
At the lake we bumped into a guy who calls himself “Babacar No Stress” and even has that printed on his pink tracksuit. He did stress us a little however to a look at the three salts he sells. Fair enough we did. Next man up on the beach was a guy who we call “Babacar Stress”, because he’s dressed up as an ancient fighter and likes to shout at you and jumps around.
With these impressions we turned our bikes south-east. We headed towards the Saloum delta which has a beautiful swamp-like landscape.
It also has the Nelson Mandela Bridge which made us feel as if we’re in Norway.
Our next stop was Toubakouta, a village we came to like very much. The people were very nice and we got invited to watch Senegal play hosting team Cote d’Ivoire in the round of the last 16. It turned out to be a real heartbreaker. Senegal lost the penalty shootout 5-4. Senegal’s dream of defending the title had come to an end and instead of celebrating everyone went their ways quietly.
Watched the first 10 minutes in the streets of Toubakouta.
Watched the rest of the game in this family home.
The third thing that was in the air during our time in Senegal was the tension of the upcoming presidential election. While we were there, it was still scheduled to be held on February 25th. There were slogans for the competing candidates sprayed on the walls, you could see people wearing supporters shirts here and there. We left the country towards The Gambia, knowing we’d have to re-enter on its southern side – not knowing what’s ahead for Senegal.
