Nothing

The rest of the group went to a bird sanctuary yesterday. I lay in bed till it was too late for breakfast, went for a walk, found a cafe, sampled their ware, wandered a bit and spent a few hours chilling in my room. Full stop, end of story. I had a great time and enjoyed some time off the bus and had the albility to switch off. 

Of course I was wide awake and ready to go by dinner time so followed the leader to a place called ‘La Kora’ which was great. My filet of capitane fish with a wee salsa and pickled veg atop a mound of rice was delicious. The fish was perfectly cooked, so fresh I could taste the sea, and falling apart. It was amazingly good. The wee salsa of capsicum, tomato, onion and cucumber marinated in oil and lime gave a crunch and some zing to the fish. I didn’t eat the rice but those veges were delicious, crunchy, slightly pickled and sweet just finished off a divine meal and a lovely day. 

Today was an early 6:30am breakfast start. We piled into the bus and drove off heading south at 7:00am which seemed like a drag at the time but has been totally worth it.  A

 The road south was remarkably good, one lane each way but easy going. The scenery pretty much unremarkable and quite barren. The thing that bothered me the most was the huge amounts of plastic rubbish every where. Here street vendors sell small bags of mineral water. You get them with a plastic straw and there are thousands of them just dumped on the road side. In some places they have made an attempt to contain them but it seems futile. Its not only an environmental nightmare but looks awful too. 

At one point we stopped to gawk at a huge old Baobab tree. So old that the trunk had hollowed out so much that half the group went and stood inside it. The Baobab is one of Senegal’s national symbols. The other is the lion. 

There was a blind man next to the tree selling wood carvings. I looked at buying one but it was badly made but bargained him down and bought it anyway. Anyone want a badly made wooden statue?

From the tree we drove on to the city of Touba to visit the Great Mosque. It was indeed great, full of amazing tile work, pillars and massive minarets it was super. The frequenters of this Mosque go to pray in the tens of thousands at 2pm on Friday. Today was Friday but fortunately we were there well before 2:00pm and had a good look around. We were taken round by a ‘Baye Fall’, one of the elders of Mourdsism, a Moslem brotherhood established in 1883 by Amadou Bamba. On his death the mosque was built alongside his burial site. It is visited by over 3 million pilgrims from around the world each year. Bourdism is the predominant form of Islam in Senegal and because of its peaceful African vision of Islam has become the bastion that protects Senegal from radical Islam. 

Our visit over we are back on the road again for a short time before stopping at a Wolof village. The Wolof people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Senegal. After the villages we had visited in Ethiopia this one was very sedate and although basic with thatched huts etc the people all followed western dress style. However despite the dress style the majority of them looked grimy, the few immaculately dressed woman stood out and glowed. I noticed the washing on the line (all done by hand) and it was spotless. How on earth they get their whites so white just by hand washing I don’t know but I’d love them to come do my washing. 

There were heaps of children who were very wary of us to start with. We are probably the first western group that has visited the village and most of the kids were trying to hide behind trees. That is until I shook their hands, taught them how to high five and took photos of them, then they were all smiles and giggles. 

With lots of “bye bye’s”, hand shakes and high fives we were back on the road again until we got to Kaolack, described by some as the armpit of Senegal. Most cities and towns have at least one redeeming feature. Whatever this place had is not visible for it is ugly, grubby, sandy, dusty and devoid of anything attractive. We had an edible lunch at a roadside restaurant and then were taken to our hotel. 

The Relais de Kaolack we expected to be a dump like the township but were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in a wee oasis, complete with bar, outdoor restaurant and a pool. It was a warm 38degrees so the swimming pool was well used in our ‘relaxing time’ and the deck chairs perfectly placed to allow us to blob. Heaven at last. Watching the sunset was the icing on the cake.