Surprise, surprise! We actually get on the road at the time we planned and after between 35-40 minutes we are actually where we are supposed to be, the Bandia Nature Preserve. After paying for our "safari," we climb into a four wheel drive truck with 3 rows of stadium seating benches on the back. We have a guide, but she doesn't speak much English, so Aaron is the translator.
I'm glad we got there as early as we did, as it was quite hot sitting up there on top of the truck. It wasn't too bad when we were moving, but when we found some animals we'd stop to take pictures and it got quite hot.
The first animals we found were some ostriches. There were three of them together and we got quite close.
We were really close to the giraffes. It was really exciting. Our guide pointed out the male, the babies and the rest. The male is the "tall, dark, and handsome" one. They all pretty much just stood there and stared at us. Then the male started walking down the road in front of us. Our guide says they call the way a giraffe walks the "regal walk." They look so elegant as they walk. Its because they, unlike other four legged animals, move both legs on one side together. I had never heard that before and found it pretty interesting.
Apparently, there is some African folklore regarding the baobob tree. Most villages had their own "griot;" a person who told tales of births, deaths, marriages, battles, hunts, affairs, and hundreds of other folktales. Their function is to keep an oral history of the tribe or village and to entertain with stories, poems, songs, dances, etc. Upon their death, the griot is "buried" in the baobob tree.
As we're driving along we see a whole bunch of ostriches. (You can see part of the Baobob forest in the background.) We stop to take pictures and to watch them. And then, very quickly, our driver begins turning around, as all of the ostriches start heading toward us. Our guide says they can be quite mean. A few of them follow us for just a few seconds and then they go off into the field. We have retreated and the ostriches have won!
We wander through the brush a little more till the truck stops. I notice a huge footprint in the dirt. I ask Aaron to ask our guide what animal it is from. Apparently, its from a rhino and our guide and the driver leave the truck to venture off in different directions to see if they can "track" the rhino. Eventually, the driver finds where the rhino is and we move the truck a little bit down the road closer to where it is hiding in the brush. Our guide tells us if we want to see the rhino we will have to get out of the truck and follow her into the brush. With a little bit of fear and wariness we follow her into the brush. We tiptop quietly up to about 25 feet from the rhino.
We stand there for maybe 30-45 seconds when all of a sudden our guide turns and quickly starts walking back to the truck, motioning all of us to follow her. Apparently the rhino has seen us and she is afraid he may come after all of us. We get back to the truck to discover Aaron, Julien, and Cheikh are still back there taking pictures and looking at the rhino. What goofs!!! Its probably about another minute or so before they come back to the truck. We were more scared for them than they apparently were! Don't you love the (it seems), "What?" expression from Aaron???
The only animals on the nature reserve we haven't seen are the zebra. We drive around a little more but do not find any of the zebras. Because its the rainy season and the trees and brush are full of greenery, its very easy for the zebra to hide from us. Disappointing, but we still had a good time!
As we head back to where we started, we see an "animal crossing" sign which reminds Aaron of a story about his mom. They were driving down a road, many years ago and saw a "deer crossing" sign. Patti asked Aaron, apparently in all seriousness, "How do the deer know to cross here?"
We get to almost where we started and our guide tells us we can get out to go look at the turtles and crocodiles by the river. We see a couple of baby crocs on the riverbank and a couple of big ones in the water. Nearby is a gift shop, a restaurant and a bar. At they bar they sell ice cream on a stick. I decided to get one and eat it as I walk. Far be it for me to ever turn down the opportunity to have ice cream!
Finally, we make it back to the van and we begin our ride back to Dakar. We have to stop about half way back to let Julien out. He is going back to Thies for the funeral of a neighbor.
Funny story....Si has been trying to speak French the whole trip and Julien and Si got to speaking a little bit of Spanish. Julien says, "my Spanish is better than Si's French." ahahhaha, pretty funny!!!
As we get nearer to Dakar the traffic comes to a virtual standstill. We sit, move a car length forward and sit, again, and again. We pass numerous stalled cars that have overheated; this being the source of all of the traffic. What a mess. The slow traffic does however, allow for all of the people selling stuff to approach everyone. They are selling everything from newspapers, phone cards, kleenex, sunglasses. I even saw one guy selling games. Monopoly and Scrabble. Interesting!
As we get closer to Dakar, we stop at a gas station to fill up the van. Here's something you don't see in the states -- the guy pumped our gas for us! And as we're at the station we notice that there is a big pot hole in the road running past the gas station. Everyone is now using the one side of the pump as the new road going south, and the north bound traffic is using the curb to get by. This too, is helping cause the slow traffic.
We arrive once again at Aaron's apartment and now, once again, have to carry all of our luggage up the stairs to the apartment. This is getting harder and harder for us "old folks" to do. Chris and Jerry go on to the hotel as they want to rest up before dinner. Si and I have decided we are going to stay at the hotel too, so that Aaron and Jeanne can have their bedroom and to help with some of the crowd in the apartment. Plus, we are less likely to have the power outages at the hotel. We decide to pack our suitcases that are staying till we leave on Friday -- all our dirty clothes and stuff we don't need, so we can leave that stuff here at Aaron's. We will just pack a small suitcase for a couple of nights stay at the Sokhamon.
Everyone is hungry so Si and Aaron go to Chez Joe to pick up some food. They have hamburgers and they are made with an egg and the french fries on top of the meat. Yes, altogether between the bun. Interesting. I had hamburger, no egg, and fries on the side. It was really pretty good.
The cook at work!!!I had been thinking about what I wanted to take back as a souvenir from Africa and had decided on a ring made by the jeweler that made Aaron and Jeanne's wedding rings. I mean, how cool is that, to take the jeweler a picture and he makes it especially for me? So, later that evening, Aaron, Jeanne, Si and I decide to walk to the jeweler's place to order my ring. Its "rush hour" as everyone is trying to get stuff done and get home before sunset, so they can break their fast (its Ramadan). As we are crossing one main street, Jeanne steps off the curb, I follow and turn around from the other side to see Si almost get hit by a car. Apparently, they slow down for everyone except "toubobs." The guy stops and Jeanne has a few words with the driver. If it hadn't been so scary, it might have been funny! We get to the jeweler and he does all the measuring, looks at the picture and gives us a price. It came to about $30-35. We pay half and he says it'll be ready on Friday. I'm impressed.
We head back to the apartment and avoid any near misses this time. Whew.
For dinner, Aaron decides to take those of us who want to go to a place he calls "Bob Evans." He calls it this because of their menu selection. They have a little of everything, from breakfast food to sandwiches, to dinner plates. Everyone gets an omelet, except Don, who gets a vegetarian pizza and me; I got a crepe. It was supposed to have strawberry and vanilla ice cream and fruit. Somehow, the fruit got left off and Aaron had to have a little discussion with the waiter about making the bill right. Basically, he told the guy, fix the bill or it'll come out of your tip! But , the wait staff here in Senegal don't live on tips the way Americans do, so not sure if he cared. I think he fixed the bill but not really sure.
To be continued...................
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