Dakar, Senegal, West Africa

Even though it’s the capital of Senegal, it is everything we expected an African nation to be; dominated by males, very pushy stall holders, appalling road structure and nothing to see … each ‘taxi driver’ promised to take us to ‘the monument’ which we’d seen on the Port Guide was a monument to slavery, something I’d prefer not to have rammed down my throat.

However, I have stood on the continent of Africa and that’s another tick on my bucket list.

The free shuttle bus took us from the ship across a chaotic port apron to Independence Square (which wasn’t square!).  There were a lot of other frightened looking travellers from our ship milling about.  We tried to go off the beaten track whilst staying safe but nothing was any better or different so we hopped on the shuttle bus and came back to the cleanliness and luxury of the ship.

Some enterprising souls had acquired a permit to provide a pop up shop, well a pop down sheet on the ground, on the quayside full of souvenirs and nik naks which had a far better look on than any of the closed shops in town.  Despite each of them professing to have hand made everything on the stall, all 21 stalls sold exactly the same thing … cloth dolls, bright t-shirts, fridge magnets, wooden bowls and African masks.  Of course, the cost of everything is negotiable and I do enjoy a good haggle.  We only got a couple of fridge magnets for friends but we felt as though send given him a fair rate … we asked what the currency was and he said ‘whatchoo got?’ So we paid him in Euros!

We’re going to have to do some laundry soon, the pants drawer is depleting but we have 6 days at sea soon, that should keep us occupied for a bit 😊

Sometimes the simplest things stop you on your tracks though, and make you realise how lucky you are … a chap in a wheelchair who had lost the full use of his whole left side, his waitress was cutting his food, I wasn’t impressed with my dinner last night but at least I could cut it myself 😕

Winds are still fairly strong but we’ve seen shoals of flying fish and other travellers have reported seeing a whale and a sea turtle.  We seem so far from anywhere when at sea that we spend ages just scanning the horizon … the earth is a really really big place! ❤️