Senegal trip (involves being towed)

Instagram recap reel of only the good moments, not the towing, freezing at night, or being extorted by traffic police 🤣

At the beginning of every foreign vacation I wonder if I will live up to my own plans and travel resolutions. Mostly standard stuff, like discovering all the stuff that’s new and different over there. And: sticking to a reasonable travel budget. For this trip, I also wondered if we’d camp in our tent, as I hoped we would, or if we’d get lazy and book hotels instead. I also had a serious concern: was our 1999 Toyota 4Runner actually roadworthy? (For answers to these questions: see the end!)

Ferry

We left early on Saturday morning to catch the ferry, which just left when we drove up to the harbor. We waited two full hours (not “fifteen minutes” as proposed by the port authority) but that’s okay because we had time. We ordered meat pies and lemon drinks by way of breakfast. Even though we were first in line, getting onto the ferry was a mad scramble in which we had to fight for every inch forward.

During this vacation—a camping/road trip through Senegal—I was hoping to read a few books. It’s so crazy how I never get around to that, even on holiday! I brought light literature that wouldn’t rock me right to sleep. Like a Sjöwall & Wahlöö murder mystery and the Pulitzer Prize winning novel “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer. I got a great head start waiting for that damn ferry. The ferry ride was very hot this time, as opposed to one month ago when we were all shivering because of the chilly wind.

Fathala & lion cubs

Our first stop was Fathala. I wanted to keep my expectations low, so I hadn’t done any research. I figured we just had to go see it sooner or later anyway. It turned out to be an incredibly peaceful and rather exclusive resort. I’ve never been to Southern Africa but I imagine the vibe in Fathala is similar to Namibia or Botswana. The safari drive was spectacular. It took no time at all before we admired a white rhino, five giraffes, an owl, an extremely endangered antilope species, and much more.

The next morning, we petted lion cups and posed with full grown lions. We had a debate about how ethical this is. Lions in captivity live a lot longer than those in the wild and they were clearly well fed. If not for the resort, there probably wouldn’t even be lions in Senegal. Still, it’s unnatural and a little depressing to see them pose for us like a circus act while the minders wave their sticks at them. There is no denying that.

Saly & car breakdown

Travel in West Africa is embracing heat, waiting, and taking things as they come. There is no hurrying because there is no schedule, no point in arguing over small slights or injustices, or any meaningful planning. Things just don’t work that way here. And frankly, looking at the world from this perspective, the western world seems terribly rigid and stressful.

I’m glad I was in that mind-space when, somewhere in the Senegalese desert, our car suddenly died. I say “suddenly” because it stopped working without a warning sign. But it wasn’t wholly unexpected. We’d wagered that our 1999 Toyota 4Runner, which we’ve only had since three months, would be okay despite clear transmission issues and unknown electrical problems that set off the alarm randomly.

Long story short, we stopped a taxi driver who agreed to tow us to a nearby garage. He didn’t mind helping us with this tedious process (as long as we paid him) and neither did his backseat passengers. At the “garage” the mechanic searched for well over an hour but couldn’t diagnose the problem, saying it was probably electrical and he needed to call another guy to look into it. We didn’t want to wait around in that place though. There were no hotels or safe places to camp. Plus, I felt that as long as we made it Saly, with our car, our vacation perhaps wouldn’t be ruined entirely.

So we paid to get another guy to tow us to Saly, 20 miles down the road. He did well and so did Rob, who remained in the vehicle to work the breaks. Stupidly, we messed up the address and were dropped almost a mile from our guesthouse. So we hitchhiked over there. Our kids were stressed. We were stressed. But we made it. The next day we found an excellent mechanic through a random referral and two days after that we had a functioning, rewired car! The repairs cost a laughable $260. How very, very lucky we were after all!

Slow travel

Besides worrying about the car, relaxing is most of what we did in Saly, presumably Senegal’s best beach town. I don’t have a bunch of amazing sights to recommend. I think Fathala took care of that, and is hard to top anyway. The beaches are nice, and it’s good to see they’ve implemented a preservation technique that reclaimed massive parts of beach so there is plenty of space for everyone.

So I don’t have a list of must-see sights. But when you’re not looking to see the next great work of art, fine dining experience, or physical challenge, a wonderful thing happens: you start looking at the small stuff. Like, the beautiful sunbirds that sat in the window grates in the morning. My daughter dancing West Africa-style around the restaurant because she beat us at a card game. My son losing himself in endless soccer matches on the beach. Both of them rolling in the hot sand to warm up because the sea was cold. Devouring an entire octopus for lunch. Practicing French at a local shop. Jogging around town and appreciating the new environment. Not having stable WiFi most of the time and just being present. Shopping for only the things we really need, like bread, eggs, Nutella, bananas and Flag beer.

Pink Lake

After four days in Saly, where we stayed an extra night to testdrive the car, we moved further north, past the frenzy of Dakar to another little oasis. Le Nomade is a hotel and campsite situated right on Lac Rose. The Bohemian vibes jumped off the Airbnb listing so I couldn’t resist booking it, even though it’s far from Dakar. We could still visit Dakar from there, I reasoned, to check out the music scene, but as expected we had no desire to leave this piece of paradise with its two swimming pools, tropical gardens, and unbeatable views. Dakar will have to wait for another time.

The pink lake, I didn’t realize, is an active salt mine and has water you can float in, just like the Dead Sea. Just be careful you don’t get scratched by the salt crystals at the bottom! We all came out rather bloody though some (Rob) worse than others (me).  The lake is a major tourist attraction, so right outside Le Nomade there are plenty of activities, like riding quads and camels.

My son’s wish for this trip was to ride a quad and they had a child size—even though it had stickers with the strictest of warnings not to ride it under the age of 16. This freaked him out a little so he hung on for dear life the entire time. Still, these 45 minutes of riding on beaches and sand dunes, all by himself, made my 12-year old son very happy.

Questions answered

What is better/worse in Senegal vs Gambia?

Things that are better: Senegal is much bigger, so there is a lot more to explore. There is a major music culture, lots of interesting and famous artists, and we saw live drumming sessions on the beach, which we haven’t seen in The Gambia. Also unlike Gambia, there is a taxi ride service like Uber but called Yango and another one called Heetch (though unfortunately we couldn’t log in with the first, and we couldn’t find a cab with the second). The food is probably better, with way more focus on fresh fish and sea food.

Things that are worse: we sometimes found the beach bars in Saly less than welcoming and the service not very good. Although we eventually found a few nice ones (especially Kokoja), we missed the easygoing vibes we feel in Gambia. Tourism here focuses on the French—nobody wants to speak English—and there are plenty of large resorts, while Gambia serves the British and Dutch, with smaller hotels and more personal attention. The bread in Senegal doesn’t taste as good as the bread in Gambia, and neither does the ice cream. Senegal is much more urban and dirty, whichbis part of why I avoided Dakar. In general, it seemed a bit more expensive.

Sadly, corruption among traffic police seems to be rampant in Senegal. They will stop you for any perceived infraction, like taking a wrong turn or switching lanes before reaching the toll booth, evening it’s truly just to get into the correct lane where you can pay. Fortunately, they don’t speak English and can’t be bothered to try, so speaking English can we a way to wear them down. We met friends traveling with a camper van who once had to pay a fine twice on the same day even though they don’t think they did anything wrong. We got stopped at a toll booth and ended up paying 6000 CFA, about ten dollars, just because we didn’t have the time or desire to argue. But it was clear corruption.

Will the old car survive?

Nope! Clearly my concerns were well grounded and we got stranded by the side of the road. It took two days to fix, which was better than expected. So even large problems, like really bad old wiring going all the way into the engine, can we fixed! What a relief! Obviously, I wouldn’t have taken this car if I could do it all over again, but I’m at peace with the fact that I ignored my instincts and did it anyway. It made the trip more adventurous and we felt very accomplished by carrying on in good spirits despite our worries and constraints.

Can we have a budget trip?

We blew our budget, as usual, but it depends on how you look at it. We got pretty close if not counting the kids clothes we bought, which they needed. I’m also not counting the $700 painting we bought from an impressive Senegalese artist, because it counts towards our yearly art budget. I didn’t count the $380 total car repair related expenses. Still, it was hard to recover from the Fathala bill. And I guess we enjoy eating fresh seafood at beach restaurants just a little bit too much. But I think this was our cheapest vacation in a long time.

Will we truly camp? Will we cook?

Yes and no! We camped in our tent only two out of eight nights. And even that wasn’t a huge success because it was unexpectedly cold and we didn’t bring sweaters!! Then again, we did a lot of cooking (heating up things from bags and cans) and slept in very modest places throughout the trip, with shared amenities, so it felt like camping. And I really, really enjoyed that. Sleeping in a tent is not my favorite thing because it’s not very practical, but I love the outdoor life and the community around it.

—————————————————-