Day 42: Boat trip on the Senegal River

Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Thu 16 Dec 2010 13:51
Day 42: Thursday 16 December 2010. Zebrabar, St Louis, Senegal. Distance driven 0 km.
 
Today is a public holiday (Temarik?), supposedly New Year's Day in the Islamic calendar but I don't buy that one. Muharram is the first month in the Islamic calendar and 1 Muharram was the day after the last New Moon. By my reckoning 1 Muharram was 8 December so today is 9 Muharram. I recall that 10 Muharram is a special day in the Shiite calendar so maybe this festival is something to do with that.
 
I must say we are getting used to living in the bungalow, getting up late and taking breakfast and dinner in the restaurant.  It is such an idyllic place here.  We have a little thatched cottage right on the waterfront with a little sand beach. Water heating and power is all solar and the whole development is tastefully laid out among trees on a sand base.  The waterfront is onto the Senegal River but only half a mile away is the Langue de Barbarie which is a long sand spit separating the river from the Atlantic ocean and we can hear the surf crashing on the ocean side of the spit.
 
We took a ride in a pirogue this morning down river to the Ile des Oiseaux and then across to the Barbarie spit and walked across to the ocean beach. On the sand there are millions of small crabs and we saw herons, pelicans, ospreys, gulls and sandpipers.
 
As today is a public holiday we have decided not to risk going to Dakar tomorrow (Friday) only to find that Customs officials have taken Friday off to make  a long weekend. So we shall go into Dakar on Sunday ready for Monday morning and relax here until then.