Senegal: Joal Fadiouth

 For my final night/weekend in Senegal, my friends and I took a trip out of town. They don’t have their car yet, so we hired a driver & car to pick us up, bring us to a small town, and bring us back north again. They dropped me at the airport on the way home. For all that - and his overnight stay! - we paid something like $160 USD. Senegal is pretty inexpensive to visit!







Our trip took us to a pair of towns called, jointly, Joal Fadiouth. Our first trick was getting out of Senegal - traffic was awful even at 2pm on a Friday, and it took us 90 minutes to go about 5 miles. We had AC in the car but I could see the outside temp hit well over 100 - the hottest temp the car showed was 45c, or 113f, while we were stuck on the road. Once we cleared town it was another 90 minutes, but much more interesting views! 

We stayed in a nice little hotel that had ocean/beach access (through a gate in the wall; I suspect the wall is necessary to hold back storm water and high tides) and a pool. Once we arrived on Friday we walked on the beach a little, then had dinner and struck up conversation with a traveler from Spain. Our rooms were very basic but clean, and fortunately the AC worked and the electricity stayed on all night!









Saturday we had breakfast at the hotel, then walked 20 minutes over a bridge to the island town Fadiouth. We had to pay 5,000 CFA - the equivalent of about $7.50 - to walk across the bridge, and from there we walked around the town and over to the mixed (Muslim + Christian) cemetery, on a separate even smaller island. Both islands and all construction are based on piles of seashells. 

We left the islands and had lunch at a nearby restaurant before walking back to our hotel. A dip in the pool felt amazing, and then we got in the car to drop me at the airport and return my friends to their new life in Dakar  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July = Family time

Image
 I’m spending time with family and have been getting some real summer in!  I flew to meet up with my SIL and niblings, and we four went to see my parents. We got in lots of beach, park, and library time, along with some summer food faves like lobster rolls, frozen lemonade, and ice cream. Plus a very successful sea glass-hunting expedition! Then I flew with them to their home in much hotter places, but I get to see my brother and enjoy a few more days with the kids.  One cool game we played is called Dixit. Everyone is dealt a few art cards, and one person picks a card and says a word that their card evokes for them. Then everyone else chooses a card from their hands that evokes the same words or feeling. We didn’t bother with scoring but it was pretty fun, and great to get a glimpse of how their little brains work. This is the set of cards we used for the cue “patience”: And the adults are having fun working on a backlog problem my brother has from a cocktail subscription kit! 
Read more

Elephant visit

Image
  It’s been amazing and I’ll post more later when I’m on better wifi. We’ve stayed at a posh lodge on the Lewa Conservacy, did a walking safari & camped two nights (supported by 13 camels and 8 Maasai tribesmen), visited a school and village, then flew north to the Samburu region.   It’s a lot to absorb! Today, to get something up here, I’ll share about yesterday’s visit to the Retiti Elephant Sanctuary. Young elephants sometimes fall in wells, or their parents die, or they get separated from their herd somehow. Community members spot them and call the Sanctuary.  Sanctuary staff come assess the elephant calf, give immediate assistance if needed (getting them out of the well, for example), and wait 72 hours to see if the mother/herd return to collect the baby.  If not, they’ll take the calf to the sanctuary for as long as 5 years, feeding them, reintroducing them to the wild, and eventually helping them integrate with a herd. They give lots of chances for the younger ones to find t
Read more

Two weeks of not so much!

Image
 It’s official - I’m kind of bored. I’ve had the last two weeks at home between trips, and I haven’t really done much with the time.  I’ve gone to four water aerobics classes I did a short overnight to the coast I read a few books.  I did a puzzle  I went out for dinner a few times I went on a nature outing I started a film class I went to the blues festival I went to a 4th of July potluck I made a berry cake & a summer slaw I did a Tuesday night singalong I'm also grimly marching through a book for my book group and am so happy it’s due tomorrow.  The thing is, I could have done all of the above AND been working; I haven’t yet found things to do in the daytime that are more than filling/killing time.  Well, I kinda figured this might happen, and it’s okay. I just want to be truthful about it! Monday I head out of town for ~10 days. Then I’m home 2 weeks before leaving for 4-6 weeks. Then I’m back for ~2 weeks before another 4-6 weeks away. So… I don’t know when I’ll have time
Read more