I fall almost off my chair when I read the email in Nouakchott: My dad wants to visit us in Senegal. What a nice surprise! When we get to Senegal we have only a couple days left to make it to Dakar, in order to pick my dad up from the airport. We are never going to make it. Luckily we find an affordable ride from the Zebrabar, close to St. Louis, to the airport.

Arthur relaxing at the Zebrabar

We drive back in the direction of Dakar and run into a group of Vultures, having a feast. The thirty birds are sharing a cow. We end the day in a ‘campement’ by Lac Retba. This is a salty lake that is supposed to look pink. We mostly enjoy the rotten smell, which we fortunately get used to. Tonight we sleep in a real African hut, with a true, cold bush shower.

Antoine after a bush shower

To be a real tourist for one more day, we visit a turtle farm. We have a tour with a very knowledgeable guide, who tells us everything about the difference between turtles and turtoises (the turtle lives in and around the water, the turtoise stays on the land). We see how they grow from the size of a coin to big enough for a human to sit on. This is really fun! By the end of the day we pay a short visit to the island of Ngor. The ride in the overloaded pirogue back to mainland is most memorable. As we ride, water flows into the boat. The ride is not very long and just before we really sink, we hit the beach hard. Pffff…..
Back in Dakar, we need to keep thinking about the continuation of our trip, so together we find the Gambian embassy. This is in the center of Dakar. A short walk around gives us an impression of the craziness tourist guides are always mentioning when they are describing Dakar. With every step we take we run into a vendor of phonecards, towels, scrabble games, pants, necklaces and so on. It is hard to stay polite.
It is sad to bring my dad back to the airport, but we have the memory of a very special visit. One that I could never have imagined to take place.

We have now been in Dakar for a while. We have received a package with a brand new stove, gotten several visas add updated the website. Now we are anxious to go on, very very anxious! We are not sure of our route yet, since robbers seem to be enjoying themselves with European tourists in the southern region of Senegal lately. We would really like to visit this region, the Casamance, but above all we want to be able to see the rest of the world as well.

We really enjoy your messages to us a lot, as we sometimes feel a bit lonely and far away. We do receive sms text messages, allthough we do not answer phone calls. We regularly check email and responses to the site.