My "Saharagelber" 300TD

After only 6 hours sleep, we got up to depart again. Ramon and Alamata were very tired and did hardly sleep because of the mosquitos. We all had heard the hyenas at around 2am.

We drove back to the hotel from where Ramon and me took a boat trip to spot birds and reptiles like a dragon and crocodiles. We did spot a fishing eagle too. Then after some more driving that day we drove back to the entrance. On our way we saw a small crocodile in one of the big pools we had to cross. At the entrance we took the toys we did bring with us and started to hand them out to the sweet children who were playing. A man who saw us with all the children around helped us to divide the toys equally.
We said goodbye to the friendly fellows at the ticket counter and gave Alamata a ride to his village. Some other guide wanted to get in the car because he wanted to go in our direction. No problem of course!

Ploughing through the pool

Senegalese children

He told us about the lions which live here, but are usually hard to spot. I asked him about the food the people here were eating, as we did not see much else then fish and rice. Usually they indeed eat rice and couscous, and sardines on french bread.
So the small ’boutiques’ is more or less all there is, with all the small things they sell. The shop owners only sell something once in a while, so they can eat themselves. Life is pretty hard, around here. Then, unfortunately, we ran out of fuel.
I just waited too long, too bad. Now there’s air in the fuel lines. I throw in the last 20 liters I’ve got in the fuel cans . The car drives, but very bad, the crap from Mauritania clogged up the fuel filter probably. I got out and changed the fuel filter in about 5 minutes, let out the air from the fuel system with the handpump. It’s all so easy with a W123.

Rainy season in Niokolo Koba NP, Senegal

Changing the fuel filter, easy as W 1,2,3

We continued on to Kedougou, the uttermost south-eastern point of Senegal, already close to Mali and Guinea. Somehow the cars still drives terribly and up the hills we sometimes slow down to 20km/h. I decided to add the last 4 liters fuels from the Webasto fueltank. But that shouldn’t be the problem concerning the distance. I find out I didn’t put back the fuel cap, so that was a bit of a problem. We couldn’t drive back because then we would be sure we could walk further. We finally made it to Kedougou and there was a small gas station situated on a sandy surface, on a sort of village square. I manoeuvred through the people and the goats. All the people were staring at us, to which we are already accustomed now. I made a friendly chat with the service station attendant and asked him if he had a universal fueltank cap. He talked to a boy who started to run and came back with an old crappy rusty cap (it was an original Mercedes one though). 2000CFA was his price. I was tired of playing the game but started it anyway. I needed this thing. I told him I offered 200CFA so the game to end up somewhere in between could begin. I told him 2000CFA was waaaaay to much and he told me 200CFA was waaaaay to less. This guy thought I was in desperate need as he saw I was in urgent need of a cap. He didn’t lower the price and a bit irritated I told him we didn’t have a deal. ‘Well then, then don’t sell it!’ I murmered. He wasn’t amused either, he now ended up with nothing. We decided to take a nice resting campsite here in Kedougou, of course with a swimming pool for Ramon as he was often not able to swim in lakes because of the bilharzia risk.

Green as Kermit

We’ve got a nice cottage close to the swimming pool. We’ll stay here for some days and then travel to Gambia where Ramon and Melissa will take the plane. This whole idea of being here alone and travel to Mali let me feel excited. It’s odd to be alone soon, but I like the idea to go on adventure on my own!

Gas station between the goats

That night we had dinner in the restaurant of the campsite. The televison over there was turned on and played west-african music clips very loud. The locals in the restaurant gaped at the clips showing west africans doing silly dances in their simple houses or driving in their 10 year old Mercedes cars. These music clips seem to be taken with a video 8 camera and assembled with some tricks which are default in a movie maker software package. Clips like this were shown the whole evening, the participants showing of their posessions, with the same sort of tunes and a little different twist. It’s in fact the same as the rappers do in the USA, except that these people aren’t using sex and violence to keep the people watching. I did say simple houses, but it’s a real specialty here, to see they’ve taken the film in small houses sometimes even with a garden. For the west africans though, it must be strange to see that, but that’s probably what they want to see. They dream of a small house for themselves.
We met a couple in the restaurant from Spain, we chatted about Senegal and the things we did so far. The guide from our friends joined us too. We chatted about the Bassari country and that we wanted to explore it too. As the guide heard we weren’t travelling by 4×4 he started to explain this aread was impossible to to with a regular car. Yeah right, we heard that before. He kept on telling us that lots of stones, holes and water made the tracks impossible to pass. He made us a bit more unsure, but of course we decided to try for ourselves first, as our Mercedes is quite capable, and is not to be underestimated .

That night Melissa and me took a swim in the swimming pool under the sky full of stars. Very romantic.