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.
|