12/18/2023 Bikepacking Senegal Day 132 : Bienvenue au Sénégal

Yesterday was one of my toughest days emotionally. Thanks you to those who wrote upbeat comments retrieving me from the depths of despair. It seems like there is something yucky going on between Bogué and Kaédi. The road was awful (and mostly dirt), there were dozens of (albeit friendly) military checkpoints, the people were dejected and impoverished. Also, I saw dozens of old signs for Oxfam and USAID…

I wonder what came first, the foreign aid or the destitution? How does an organization like Oxfam identity these small regions where people need help? If you just look at the Rondavel huts, scattered trash, and roaming goats, you wouldn’t be able to differentiate this section from any other in Mauritania; The only difference was the abundance of the foreign aid signs… and the despondent faces. What happened? I’ll leave you to ponder that, because today we moved on to a more positive place.

Starting at Kaédi, everything has been great. Fantastic, really. The quiet campsite was bereft with thorns, but my sleeping pad survived. A lot of headwinds to the border post, and once I arrived, I got to practice some of that patience I’ve been working on. They needed to summon “Le grand patron” to let me out of Mauritania. He took his sweet time in arriving - but in the meantime, I befriended an English speaker named Aly who took me to a small building where I could change money while waiting for the big boss to arrive. Whenever I meet someone who speaks English, they are my instant-hero. I bathe them in grateful compliments, because even though my French is improving, it is still crap. And how do these guys learn such good English in just 3 years? Humbling.

Big boss was the black version of the sloth at the DMV in Zootopia. Every action required several seconds - picking up a pen involved careful examination of the pens current position, followed by maneuvering methodically to retrieve it. Kind of like a child might carefully control the crane at one of those arcade games where you drop the claw to pickup a stuffed animal. His reading glasses came on and off and on. Each time, carefully being pushed up his broad nose, only to be removed later, painstakingly folded up back into the case… preserving them for their next use 40 seconds later.

I finally got into the boat amongst many friendly people. By the time we were across the river, everyone knew which countries I had been to and where I was going. People are gossipy-talkative here! The boat ride was a breeze.

Once in Senegal, things started to get amazing. First, the passport was stamped without hesitation or questions. The man grabbed my hands and smooshed them onto the green back-lit panel. When you had to climb over sleeping dogs and trash, and a goat is nibbling your t-shirt, it takes you aback to be simultaneously using a digital fingerprint scanner.

Zero fuss, and I’m in. Free of charge too, because Senegal doesn’t require visas for US citizens.

After some friendly marriage proposals, I headed to a town to stage for a (probably) 3 day off-grid ride starting tomorrow. (I have updated the proposed route on the tracker).

In town, the second ATM I tried worked; supplementing my changed currency. Plus, the Central African Franc used here is also used in Ivory Coast, Togo, and Benin. It’s kind of like the Euro of this part of Africa.

In the SIM card store, I was doing well in French until the woman asked something I didn’t understand. I finally gave up and whipped out the phone… “if you go back to the USA you come here for me to take me with you,” she said. I guess this was kind of like another proposal. I know I mentioned that I was always surprised to talk to women in Morocco or Mauritania… but now i talk to the women more than the men; it’s like a switch flipped. Plus, guys and girls alike have been smiling and joking around. Seems like they have fun here in Senegal.

I think that first day in Mauritania set my standards for infrastructure nice and low (power outages, no Googlefi, broken ATMs, 36 military checkpoints, slow paperwork, spotty internet, confusing currency (10x price sometimes)) which was helpful to make it through the rest of the country. I’m very glad I went there, but coming into Senegal with no B.S., working ATM, no price cheating, smiles and joking, and a warm reception…. That takes me to my happy place.