The land of the baobabs

4:00 a.m.... at the airport well before expected because fortunately there wasn't much fog and so we didn't have any major problems. All that's left is to wait for check-in time, dozing in the uncomfortable armchairs of the group lounge, sipping coffee, chocolate and anything else we can find to stay awake. Finally departure time arrives and take-off happens more or less on schedule. After about five and a half hours we arrive at Dakar airport and, once customs formalities are dealt with, we go out and join the Volando group. The first thing that struck me on arriving in Senegal was the cool air and not the humid heat you imagine when thinking of Africa, but obviously you have to bear in mind that it is winter here too, and Dakar is right on the Atlantic coast, so it is breezier and milder.

During the bus ride to reach Saly I finally begin to realise that I am in Africa, when, having left the city traffic behind, we find ourselves in the middle of the savannah in an endless expanse of baobabs... a truly extraordinary sight! After a couple of hours by bus through a rather barren and desolate landscape, we arrive in the small seaside town of Saly Portudal. The first impression is not the best... perhaps because we were expecting something different, more touristy, more modern, I don't know.... but generally that's not what we're looking for, so it's fine as it is, also because we're in Africa, not in Riccione!! Saly is barely more than a village with several hotels, a few shops, a casino, pubs, a few small restaurants, piles of rubbish here and there.

In a corner between two streets there are goats and donkeys looking for something to eat among the refuse and the few tufts of grass and brambles there are. Our hotel, the Royal Saly, is very beautiful, new, very well kept, made up of several two-storey buildings scattered across a large and beautiful garden, very green and beautifully maintained. The rooms too are very beautiful and enormous. The duplexes (where we were) are even on two floors with two beds downstairs and two upstairs, a bathroom and two terraces. After settling in we take a look around; near us is the reception, and a little further on the restaurant, the bar and the pool; behind, one can glimpse the amphitheatre where the evening shows are held, and the beach with sun loungers and parasols and a volleyball court.

The sea is very calm, it doesn't even look like the ocean, but the water is freezing! The beach, on the other hand, is beautiful and very long. You can take endless walks... it really is the perfect place for Cristina, who usually walks for several hours every single day! Towards evening we leave the hotel and take a little stroll around the town; obviously we are immediately "accosted" by locals who want to sell us something, but we are extremely tired (after all, we haven't slept for almost 2 days!) and we are really not in the mood to haggle, let alone converse in English or French, which we can barely speak under normal conditions!! We see that there are some small shops along the road and about halfway through the town there is a kind of market with lots of shops all selling souvenirs and local crafts; unfortunately it's a bit late and they are already packing up, so we go back to th

e hotel. Immediately we realise that the temperature keeps dropping and at dinner we are all freezing cold. Maybe it's the tiredness?! Let's hope so.... all we can do is go to bed and hope that tomorrow will be warmer.

- Friday 25 February 2005

In the following days we realise that it hadn't been tiredness that made us feel cold that first evening but really the climate of that period!! In fact, even though during the day it was lovely, in fact it was definitely hot, until 10:30-11:00 in the morning and after 17:30-18:00 the temperature was noticeably lower or at least that's how it seemed, probably because of the strong cold wind blowing from the sea. The only flaw we found with our hotel, in fact, was precisely that of not having even one closed room, or at least one well sheltered from the wind, where we could spend the evenings and have dinner peacefully without having to dress in everything we had in our suitcases. The restaurant and the bar in fact have only a roof and walls on one side while on the other side there are only very tall columns, so both are always very windy.

The same goes for the reception, and the amphitheatre, where the shows are held, is even without a roof and in the evening watching the shows was a tough contest!!! After a couple of days of absolute relaxation on the beach, our desire to get to know the place and to see a bit of real Africa pushed us to take part in at least a couple of excursions which I'll tell you about in the following chapter, and finally this time too, reluctantly, the moment came to go home. In the meantime in Italy it had snowed a great deal everywhere and we were a bit worried about the car journey home but fortunately the roads were clear and we had no problems.

Excursions: The first one we did was an excursion that first took us to visit a very beautiful and colourful local market, then we headed to the Pink Lake where we left the coach and took some 4x4 jeeps with which we went around the perimeter of the lake and the surrounding areas (how cold it was sitting in the back of the pick-up's cargo bed!!) until we reached a small village which we visited, the deserted and very beautiful beach lapped by the high waves of the ocean and the white sand dunes where the Paris-Dakar ends. We had lunch in a restaurant near the lake and then made a short stop for those who wanted to try the experience of bathing in the very salty water of the Pink Lake. It was a beautiful excursion but even more beautiful was the one we did on Wednesday.

We set off from the hotel in a 6x6 off-road truck, we crossed Mbour and its market and then headed inland off-road through the savannah, admiring the thousand-year-old baobabs, among which one with a circumference of 37 metres that you could even go inside. We stopped every now and then to visit some huts of the locals and some camps of the nomads, leaving them a bit of food and soap that we had bought beforehand. Here I was able to take some beautiful photos of some beautiful children of all ages, from some just a few months old carried on their mother's back to others a bit older but still beautiful, then we visited a school where I left a backpack full of notepads, pens, chalk, highlighters and also a stapler brought from home. Finally we headed to the Saloum delta where we took a short boat ride.

After lunch we travelled through the savannah a bit more, admired the giant termite mounds, other villages and finally the day ended by passing through Joal-Fadiouth with a stop at the port to see the fishermen returning at sunset. As I already said, it was a very beautiful excursion that allowed us to see a bit of the true face of Senegal and its inhabitants. Their way of life, their poverty and their culture, the beautiful faces and smiles of the many children we met are the things we will carry in our hearts forever. This time too, Africa sickness made itself felt, even if more mildly than usual, so I really hope to return there soon. BYE AFRICA....UNTIL THE NEXT ADVENTURE....