Parlez-vous Englais?

The trip from The Gambia to Senegal turned out to be as long and interesting as we expected. It included transportation by 6 different vehicles (4 cars, a moped and a ferry). We brought only water and digestives for the trip and consumed only a little, since we would be sharing a bush-taxi with 5 other locals and hence no toilet for the whole day! It did not help when the taxi broke down and needed an hour long repair half-way from the Senegal border to Dakar. Not particularly funny when it is 35 degrees :-). But at the end of the day, we arrived safely to the Dakar peninsular and are presently staying in the small village of N’gor north of Dakar.

Despite the geographical and cultural similarities of The Gambia and Senegal, our trip to the two countries leaves very different impressions. While Gambians speak English inherited from their masters of the colonial age, Senegal are stuck with French as their mother tongue. Fortunately Danielle has excellent (read: some) French skills, so we manage to get around. The language barrier does in turn mean that no tourists visit Senegal, except a couple of French surfers. The lack of tourists consequently means that there are not catered for tourists in the sense of tours and sights and garbage fills the streets everywhere with no incentive to clean it up. Senegalese treat their country as one big landfill, leaving trash anywhere.

In our opinion Senegal is however still worth a visit. It has kept a lot of the French culture and food and does offer some great beaches and friendly people. Danielle is particular happy with all the seafood and consumes huge grilled prawns at least once a day. Senegal has also been a perfect opportunity for Carsten to challenge and enlarge his rather limited culinary preferences. Apart from eating and sampling great French red wine, we have been walking, walking and walking around the local villages and small islands at the Cap Verte Peninsula.

Tomorrow we are leaving for South Africa. It has been three great holiday-kinda-weeks and now we are looking forward to some adventure in the southern part of Africa. We will only be spending one night in Jo’burg and thereafter three days in bus before finally reaching the Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe.