03-2016: From Dakar to Niomoune…

Being back in town after a month in the rural Sine Saloum wasn’t easy thing. A little bit more thant 24h in the senegalese capital, even if we do like this town, are enough to convince us that we like better the countryside! A countryside we went back to happily after 24h of various navigation, new encounters and rebounds…

1pm, little stop at our friends’ Laurene and Seb, improvised mules so the counterparties of the crowdfunding campaign can reach France. 2pm, lunch at the maquis Le Seoul with Dao, to take some contacts and recommendations for Casamance, destination of the day; in fact, destination of the next day…

4pm, we meet and his clients in Dakar’s harbour, at the jetty. The big ferry is wisely waiting its passengers. Boarding planned at 5pm; departure at 8pm.

1st step: Dakar – Ziguinchor

Some travels in cabins of 2, 4 or 8 beds. Others, mostly senegalese people, travel in the seats area. Less expensive. A lot less expensive. And mostly, when you buy your tickets less than 2 weeks before departure like us, it is the only option left.

Arrival planned around 11… the next day! It is thus 15 hours that we spent between our seats and the several pontoons, where it is sometime party time (evening), sometimes like the end of the parties of the 80s (early morning) with slow music.

We didn’t expect this, but we actually slept ok. We were told that in the “seats” category, a lot seasickness were happening but it didn’t happen.

Another thing we didn’t expect, Justine went through without any problem (she’s afraid of water). Amoun Solo, as we say in Wolof.

And the best surprise, when we left the Atlantic to get in the river, was the dolphins that welcomed us !

We don’t want to be filmed!

3 weeks ago, we didn’t even think about going to Casamance, especially because of the boat trip, but also because a lack of time. It is when we met Xavier that program had to change. Not only he had the indelicacy to show us pictures of the tours he organize in Casamance, but he doubled this with the idecency of offering us to come with him of his next trip to do a swap for a quick reportage.

Already, the unexpected of travels was meetinf the providence, making us so happy. But it wasn’t over.

What neither Xavier nor us have imagined, it is the place of his clients in the equation… And the 4 clients (a retired couple that spend 3 months in Senegal every year, in a house they rent in Saly, a seaside resorts area, with 2 friends of them that were visiting them for 2-3 weeks), when they heard about us being with them, cooled down the atmosphere.

With a tact worthy a coconut falling on the sharp roots of the fromager (local tree with huge outside roots), mixed with a typical hypocrisy, they explained to Xavier that he could just forget the opportunity and send us back to wherever he wants.

Feeling this comes, we told Xavier that clients where of course more important and that we will manage to find an other HopTrip and “at worst”, we’ll take this opportunity to visit Casamance; that anyway, we will do a video with all the images we have and the one he could give us.

It was without counting on his ability to react and find solutions. He sent us in his village, with his cousin who has a campsite (bungalows) very green where he will meet us with the clients some days later. “You French people are complicated! – well, but not all of them!“

Paradise…

This is why, just after getting off the ferry, not time to recover: let’s hit the jetty of the pirogues, following Xavier’s instructions, to jump in in extremis in the “courrier” of 12:30. The next one is scheduled for Sunday..

The « courrier », it is the shuttle pirogue that goes from the regional capital town, Zinguichor, to the villages and islands of the river. Eddy-Charles, is the captain of our pirogue. He had been told by Xavier of our arrival and our destination. Yacinthe is the first mte, who danses with his huge green headphones, while wielding the helm.

The pirogue was full. Of passengers first. Of merchandise then, belonging to the passengers, or ordered by the villagers.  De passagers d’abord. De marchandises ensuite, accompagnant les passagers ou commandées par les villages, étapes de la traversée. Ice breads finally destined for fishing camps summarily installed on the river for a few months of the fishing season.The atmosphere is good on the boat… after the time of zenith (we finished the 4 hours and a half trip kind of red!). Everyone keep an eye on the kids, we share oranges, water or dried coco…

Over the steps of the pirogue, it was accelerating, lightened of its goods. Most of the passengers were going on the island og Nimoune, so do we. Two ceremonies were happening on friday and sunday: an “endow” first (african ceremony when two people get married, and actually the one of our host); and the first anniversary of the death of two women of the village the next day.

In both events, the concerned family compound welcomes the whole village (and even more) to offer them Bunuk (palm wine), but not only. For the anniversary (that follows the mass we have of course been assisting and which is really different from the traditionnal gloomy masses we already assist to, at first because we have the impression that everybody are professionnal singers, second because joy is expressed a lot more than at home), it is a beef, killed the night before that feed the whole assembly.

It is a great chance we have to arrive right for those two events because it is an opportunity to have a close look at our hosts’ customs. I won’t even dare speaking about authentic tourism as I hope the reader will appreciate by him/herself.

Life is evrywhere

And voila, despite de 24 hours boat trip in a row, including the pirogue on which Justine wasn’t really at ease first, the express “learning” of a third language (after the Wolof in Dakar, the Serere in Sine Saloum, we are now trying to learn few words of the Diola of Casamance), the succession of events had led us on the path of providence and luck, to the heaven we are in, in the campement of Valérie and Yacinthe, l’Alouga.

Life is beautiful. Time here stops; and yet, life is everywhere. You will soon discover the video of the place to understand better… 😉