Seven places from Saint Louis to Dakar

It’s been a long day in cars.

Car no. 1: taxi to gare routière in Saint Louis, 1000cfa.

Car no. 2: sept-place to Dakar, 5000cfa+1000cfa for baggage.

Sept-place are old Peugeot combi cars that have seven places for passengers. One in front, 3 in the back and 3 more in the further back. The further back is very uncomfortable no matter what your size. The sept-place leave when full. When I arrived at the gare routière the car only has seats in the back back. The supervisor suggested that I get the next car, so I can maybe seat even in front. I agreed. We waited 2 hours for car to depart. The wind was blowing sand all over us on that bus terminal. I discovered fruits are expensive in Senegal, 800cfa for 1kg of bananas, 500cfa for just two. 1000cfa for 1kg of tangerines.

The road was all dust sand and dry vegetation. At least the desert in Mauritania was surreal and empty, here I felt like it’s plastic bags, dry shrubs and sand and dust in the air. The car wasn’t comfortable. It had a very low suspension and any hump on the road, even such caused by the heat caused it to scratch the metal against the tar. At one point we took a sandy street and it shook us so badly that you felt every piece of the car wants to go its own way.

250kms took us over 5 hours (the official version was that it takes 4), the car doesn’t take the motorway which starts just before Dakar, it’s paid.

The new gare routière un Dakar is far from the centre. My Bradt Guide on Senegal mentions busses going to the centre but everyone said after 5pm they are no longer running. This I don’t understand. That’s when the highest traffic is!

I took taxi but it took me a while to get down to 3500cfa to Plateau district, the taxi drivers were calling 5000cfa. We even took the motorway and the driver paid 500cfa himself.

Dakar is more expensive than the rest of country, which shouldn’t be surprising: it’s the capital city. My Bradt Guide mentions an auberge that isn’t on Google Maps, as the cheapest place to stay. I went for it, not knowing exactly what’s up with Google Maps, because the guide is just fresh off the printing press. Interestingly, the lady who checked me in, was very interested in how I found this place. “Who showed it to you?” I’ll try to put them on on Google Maps, the place is alright, 2nd floor, room with shared bathroom and toilet is 10600cfa, room with private bath is 15000cfa. It’s the first time I have towel and soap in a room in 2 weeks! The auberge is called Chez Vieira. There is another auberge (Bradt Guide calls it not as nice as Chez Vieira) on the 1st floor, and it’s called Chez Nizar. If I understood the boy who tried to get me in there, it’s also more expensive, I heard 15000 and 18000cfa. But who can trust my French?

The auberges are on the corner avenue Pompidou and avenue Muhamad V next to a long-standing Dakar shawarma institution, called Ali Baba. I’ll try to put it on Google Maps.