In 'real' West Africa
Feeling the vibe shift in Senegal
SENEGAL
When overlanding – especially in regions where ‘proper’ campsites are thinner on the ground – a few places become known as something of a mecca and they draw in everyone who’s passing through. This is absolutely the case with Zebrabar, near Saint Louis in northern Senegal. Not only is it a beautiful sprawling campground at the beach with a lovely outdoor bar-restaurant, but it has the clever position of being the first feasible resting stop you come to after crossing the border from Mauritania. By this point most travellers are looking for a break, some comfort and maybe a beer.
I don’t want to keep going on about alcohol as if it’s the be-all-and-end-all. I promise we’re not driving around Africa on a daily quest for booze. But suffice to say that over a few days at Zebrabar, I watched several people arriving from the border and literally staggering straight to the bar before even setting up camp. I suppose this says a lot about the European culture. Not only is Mauritania a dry country but its neighbour Morocco doesn’t have a bar culture either, and many of us – big boozers or not – clearly do miss something about that convivial side of our social lives.
So here we were in Senegal. The day we crossed the border and drove through Saint Louis we immediately felt a different vibe. It’s nothing against Mauritania at all, but the culture and atmosphere are just quite contrasting. How strange it is that on either side of an arbitrary border line, entirely different worlds can exist. Although Senegal is still more than 90% Muslim, the approach to religion is more of a mish-mash (lots of people celebrate Christmas, for example) and it feels like a million miles from Arab north Africa. We’ve been to Senegal before and this was the West Africa of our memories – chaos, life and music on the streets, styles of dress across the spectrum, more of the swagger and hustle.
First things first, we were, sadly, quite excited about going to a big supermarket. This photo just happens to be of Jeremy perusing the booze aisle. And that’s the last I’m going to say on the subject!
Except for this one photo we took shortly after we arrived at Zebrabar... :)
The place was nicely busy with overlanding trucks and we briefly reunited with our buddies from the Mauritania desert trip, Claudio, Ramona and the twins. We had a lovely rest for a couple of days and enjoyed the birdlife around the campsite and the adjacent Langue de Barbarie National Park. Everything seemed so lush after the desert.
There’s a bizarre one-off situation that means you can’t get your vital vehicle document (the Carnet de Passage; CdP) stamped at the border as usually happens, and instead everyone has to go 220km to Dakar to do it within five days of arrival in the country. We didn’t want to drive down to the city in a rush so decided to do it as an overnight side trip on the bus and combine it with Jeremy’s birthday. It was a long sweaty journey involving a squashed minivan and multiple taxis, but we were quite glad not to be there in the mental traffic with Ivy.
After getting the all-important CdP stamp we met a colleague of Jeremy’s who is based in Dakar and had posh fish n’ chips for a pre-birthday treat.
The next day it was back to Saint Louis in time for some evening drinks and food for the actual birthday. Founded as a French settlement in the 17th century, the old town sits on an island, the whole of which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We returned the following day again to explore its streets of crumbly old colonial buildings some more, and shopped in the chaotic market.
After wandering the old town we crossed the bridge to the adjacent peninsula, which is home to an even poorer fishing community, Guet Ndar. To add to their problems, both this village and Île Saint-Louis are facing a serious threat from rising sea levels.
A man latched on to us and showed us around a little. He said few children stayed at school beyond 11, and that many homes were not big enough for everyone in their large families to lie down and sleep at the same time. The poverty was palpable.
Years ago, he said, he had tried to get to Europe by boat but the attempt failed, with some people drowning. The survivors were rescued then deported back to Senegal. It wasn’t the first time someone had said to us: “With your passports, you have all the luck.” We agreed. “I would love to see other places in the world, but I was born here and I will die here,” he said. That ‘simple’ travel document makes us rich beyond measure. We feel this privilege deeply, guiltily. Why should we have all the choices, and others not? This interaction was simultaneously friendly, interesting and uncomfortable. We wondered if he would ask for money or a ‘gift’, and how we would navigate this – because many people do ask, frequently – but he said goodbye without a request, compounding our guilt for thinking it.
We decided to skip the coastal route and drive through the centre of the country towards the border with The Gambia, a sliver of a country that cuts through the middle of Senegal. Being able to pick our own route and pass through little random towns and villages is one of the pleasures of having our own vehicle. We get a lot of stares and many friendly waves. Sometimes children cheer as we pass, which is joyful but also just feels weird. Is this what it’s like to be famous?
In some towns, like Ouadiour below, the ‘main’ road took us right through the middle of the busy market. With Ivy, it’s impossible to slip through unnoticed!
On the way down we spend a couple of peaceful nights in the bush. It had been a fairly brief stay in the northern part of the country but we had plans to fly out of The Gambia for an express visit to see the families over Christmas and wanted to find some of the country’s fabulous wildlife before we took off.
Fancy finding a “Mousty” 😉😂 Great pictures as always x
Whete are you going next? South? I wrote many stories on Gambia and Senegal, from last year, lets keep in touch! Here is Paradise Beach, a place to see. https://open.substack.com/pub/nomadicmind/p/paradise-beach?r=31fxoh&utm_medium=ios