Mauritania/Senegal - 28 October, 2000

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Travel Distance

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Today turns out to be quite an interesting drive.  In the morning Lars goes to the Internet Cafe to once again try to upload the updated website pages, while Jacqui goes to the post office to see if we have any mail.  We are successful on both accounts.  Jacqui comes back with three letters from Lars' parents and Lars is able to get the connection and update the website.  The letters are very welcome and it is great to hear from home (keep those letters coming!!!) - thanks for sending them.  While these things are being done, the truck is being cleaned (need to wash off the salt spray from the beach drive) and fueled-up.

At 11:30 AM we head off for the border with Senegal.  The landscape has started to change.  While it is still desert sand, there is now more plants and bushes.  They clearly get more water here.  We stop by the side of the road at 1:20 PM for a quick lunch and we are off again at 2:05 PM.  At 3:20 PM we arrive at Rosso and the border crossing with Senegal.  The border here is defined by the Senegal River, so we need to take a ferry.  We had just missed one, so we had to wait around until 4:50 PM when we drive the truck onto the small ferry.  (Sorry that there are no pictures here, but it is difficult to take pictures at such sensitive points.)  It was a very lively place, with many people hanging out waiting to cross the river either by the ferry or smaller boats.

The ferry chugs across the river and we arrive at the Senegal side at 5:10 PM.  The scene over here is a bit more active and there are people bathing and washing their laundry in the river (it is quickly noted that many of the women are topless while bathing!!!).  Many are also collecting water to carry home.  After a bit of fuss, we drive the truck off the ferry onto shore and start the formalities required to enter Senegal.  And there are a few hassles.  Besides getting all the passports checked and stamped, we need to purchase insurance for the truck.  They try to charge exorbitant rates and it takes a while to get them to be more reasonable.  In the meantime, we stay on the truck, but we are kept quite entertained by the locals who surround the truck asking us all sorts of stuff. It is a lot of good fun.

Finally, at 6:15 PM we are let through the gates after we pay a small "fee" to a man to open the gates.  We drive on as the sun sets and it starts to get dark.  We get a much needed pee stop - we had been stuck at the border for a while.  But our drive to St Louis is not hassle free.  We are stopped at four police check points.  At the first one, the policeman is asking if we have a present for him.  The next two are not so bad and we can quickly get on our way.  The last one is a real pain though.  He is trying all sorts of ways to get a "fine" out of us.  He resorts to saying that we need a license to carry firewood and charcoal.  After quite a bit of discussion, we are allowed to go on our way.  It takes a cool head to get through these check points.

We drive into St Louis at around 8:00 PM.  The town was France's capital for the region for quite a while and only recently was the capital moved to Dakar after independence.  The main part of town is located on an island and is connected to the mainland with a bridge that was transferred here from the Danube in 1897.  We are staying at a campsite on the beach a short way out of town and get there at 8:15 PM.  We quickly set up camp and help the cook group get dinner ready for the night.  We also enjoy our first beers in quite a while - and they are good.

After eating dinner at 11:00 PM, we hang out at the bar for a while and then go to bed.  We fall asleep listening to the waves crash onto the beach nearby.