I left Dakar at 6:30am on a sept-place to Mbour (1500cfa + 1000cfa for baggage), a dusty town on the coast. The gare routière in Dakar is away from the city and one has to take a taxi. Of course, at 6am when the centre is still sleeping (sun rises here around 7am) there was a taxi across the street from my auberge as if waiting for me. Try negotiating the fare at this time, you can’t beat the argument (it’s still night). From 5000cfa we agreed on 4000cfa and off we went, the driver avoiding the tolled motorway.
From Mbour I took a bus – ndiaga ndiaye – to Samba Dia for 1200cfa + 500cfa baggage fee. Those baggage fees are high! It was a jolly ride, the bus full of chatty people and we didn’t stop on our way as much as I feared we would.
In Mbour I met Samuel, a very friendly (formerly) rastaman, who’s looking for work in Salé, a town adjacent to Mbour, probably the biggest sea resort in Senegal, where Samuel says “in the evenings there are more whites than blacks on the streets”. Samuel is a Cameroonian who lives in Nouakchott, Mauritania but came to Senegal in search for work. He didn’t seem too happy a man, all that struggle to get a job, one can only try to understand. Samuel is dreaming about opening up a patisserie, which apparently brings a lot of money and all he needs is €3000-4000 to start his own and the best place would be Abidjan.
Arriving in a dusty village of Samba Dia I took a taxi brousse to the next crossroads for 250cfa. There was no baggage fare this time but my joy lasted shortly as for the next stretch of road – a couple of kilometres South to my destination of Ndagane – I was asked for 250cfa for myself and 200cfa for the rucksack. I got so annoyed that I actually paid 500cfa altogether and kept my rucksack on the seat as if it was another passenger. This way we set off earlier, the shark who managed the taxi stand didn’t get his extra money and my petty revenge was that my awfully dusty rucksack will leave some of the sand on the pristine seat of the very new Peugeot that this taxi brousse was. It was indeed a new-looking car and most taxis here one wonders how they even move, they look so bad.
It’s supposed to be one of Senegal’s highlights Sine-Saloum delta. The intertwined rivers of Sine and Saloum leave for the ocean a couple of kilometres away. The reason I chose Ndagane for the night was mainly the price. That was the only place I could find with less than 10thousand cfa for the night. I found La Palangrotte bushcamp on booking.com for 8300cfa, regular price according to the camp website 8500cfa. I thought I’d just show up and take my bed, especially that the website showed 5 rooms available.
On arrival in the village someone came up to me and offered accomodation. First a 15kcfa hotels then 10kcfa hotel then when he heard I pay 8kcfa for La Palangrotte he offered to lower the price to 8kcfa as well but when I said no he left me, showing a bit of attitude.
I walked, asking for my way, Google Maps pointing somewhere a bit off main road.
I asked some boys in a shop, they pointed the opposite way. When I didn’t agree with them they asked someone walking up the road and the man explained the way and told me he would take me there. His name was Matar. We walked and chatted, Matar works as a driver to the guests coming to Ndagane. We approached the gate to La Palangrotte and it looked dead empty and noone was attending the compound. Matar knew the owner and told me to call a lady called Binta who’s a caretaker of the grounds. I dialled, he talked to her and she said it was full! Matar said well it is a high season, one has to make reservation a few days in advance but when I told him booking.com shows 5 rooms available he told me to call Binta again and speak again. I called up, and there she goes it’s full, you don’t have reservation. I tried to speak up that the internet says you’re available and what if I make a reservation now, I’m standing by the gate. No way she went, c’est plein, plein, plein.
Matar said he knew some other places and he would help me find a room. We went to a house nearby, unmarked as an accommodation choice. The lady said désolée but there was no room. Then Matar called someone and there was a room, 13kcfa, breakfast included.
I don’t know if it was the heat, or the general fatigue, I got so annoyed with the “c’est plain” attitude I got on the phone that I made the reservation on booking.com. Let’s see how they will deal with their own fullness.
In the meantime I walked with Matar to Saloum Saf Sap guesthouse and I got a spacious room with spacious bathroom, with fuses for air-conditioner switched off, breakfast included for 13kcfa. In this dryland the place even has a swimming pool!
Remember the reason I came to Ndagane? Accomodation for under 10k! As we say in Poland, chytry dwa razy traci. The stingy lose twice.
While I was sitting and sipping water with Matar in my new expensive guesthouse I got a message from La Palangrotte, the full one. “Thank you for your booking, we are ready for you, when you arrive call Binta on this number….” Really? Really?!
I sent the message to booking.com explaining to them that I showed up and was told it was full. I sent the message to La Palangrotte telling them that I called Binta and she said that it was full. And I went towards the river to see if I can get a pirogue to take me on water.
Matar knew a piroguer and we called him but the man said in the evening he doesn’t want to / can’t go, that we should go in the morning the next day and that it’s 3 hours for 30kcfa + a 3kcfa entry fee to a village.
Of course I thought it a bit expensive so I said I was gonna think about it. On my way to the river another man came to me, his name was Elache (not sure of the spelling), a piroguer and he said he’d charge me 30kcfa village entry fee included and we could go immediately. I said to him 30kcfa is still much for me but if he agreed to go for 20kcfa village entry fee included I’d go. And Elache agreed.
The pirogue was very big for one person. The water was low, there were sandy patches around us where normally is water. It’s salty water as well. We could see oysters attached to the mangroves’ stalks. There were some pelicans, there were many herons, kingfishers plunges into the water catching fish, there was a single marabou stork, much smaller than his well-fed brothers occupying Kampala. It wasn’t a very picturesque ride.
He went to the village. I paid the entry fee and I walked with a guide names Lami. Lami was the president of the guides’ association. The village seemed very gray to me, the walkways were sandy, there were too many raw concrete walls although it was a nice walk. There was a mosque and a church in the village, there were some structures build by “the whites” as Lami would say. Some ladies would sell their home made marmalades (I had a fruit of baobab confiture the next day for breakfast, it was very tasty).
After we came back to the boat the sun was setting and only then the magic kicked in. The colour wasn’t orange or red, it was bright heather honey colour, barely yellowish. It was beautifully quiet, the herons were occupying the mangroves and we had a passenger coming back home on the boat.
For the peace and tranquility one may wanna come to this place, there are campements away from the main villages. The boat ride isn’t really worth the money unless of course you’re here for the birds. Now it’s a long way to Gambia, Banjul being only 70kms from here as bird flies, but over 200kms and a ferry ride away by roads.
My booking.com reservation was cancelled for free by their customer service.
Coming back to Maman 