Travelling south to Delta Sine Saloum

After having visited Dakar, we were ready to go south for four more days.

Here’s our travel plan:

So the indications in blue are the cities we went through the first day to get to Les Paletuviers Hotel, the two red spots are the hotels we stayed in, the green one is the safari we did with lions and the brown ones are the roads we went through on our way back.

We left Dakar at 10am and made our way south until Mbour where we saw mosquées this «folkloric».

Until we arrived to Fatick, the road was ok but once we started to drive towards Kaolack, the road became a total disaster. We had to drive at 25-30 km/h because the road had no maintenance AT ALL. Just so you have an idea about what it was like, people preferred to drive through the sand paths which surrounded the main road because it was faster…

Look at the holes in the cement!!

I can’t understand that the only main road in all Senegal is kept in this deplorable state. It just makes me angry!! Even horse carts had problems…

Imagine what it must take for this old and heavy truck to get to Gambia…

When we finally arrived to Kaolack, the road until Toubacouta was even worse, so instead of lasting 2:30-3hours like we planned, it took us 5 (from Dakar to Toubacouta).

I strongly recommend to take a ferry from Dakar to Karang or a plane from Dakar to Banjul and from there, a car to wherever you go. It’s faster and more comfortable.

Anyway, the views were beautiful, we crossed several salt mines in Fatick and other parts with more vegetation that left us pictures like these 🙂

Once we arrived at the hotel, we ate something and we quickly arranged an afternoon excursion by pirogue through the mangroves to the island of the shells and the bird roost.

This was the hotel’s path to get to the deck…

A woman picking up oysters from the mangroves and fisherman fishing in a pirogue.

AMAZINGGGG!! Look at the views, the peace, the calm… we were completely alone!!!

We even got inside the small paths between mangroves and the tranquility was absolutely astonishing.

So we arrived to the island of shells, which as its name says, was covered in shells. We saw millenary baobabs and we also got great views of the river.

And after this little excursion, we headed up to the bird roost: Big mangroves where birds go to when it starts to get dark, to get a place to sleep out of the dangers of the lake’s shores.

There were other 4 or 5 boats watching this natural sight in total silence. The spectacle was not less than breathtaking…

About our way back, I’ll just post you two pictures. There’s no possible description!

Back to the hotel, we went to have a shower at our cosy rooms before having diner…

…and we then went to its restaurant (placed just in from of the river) were we had a nice and pleasant diner.

 

Les Paletuviers is an agreeable hotel placed in an unbeatable spot: in a region protected by UNESCO- world heritage, between the savannah (the bushes) and a unique mangrove-delta of 20 to 50 km and composed of islands, rivers, salt water sea arms and connected to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gambian border.

It’s not the kind of hotel where you get minibars and luxury services but instead, you have pretty senegalese decorated rooms with air conditioning and absolute cleanness and comfort. It’s also a key place to stay and make all these great excursions that they organize (on my next post I’ll show you more stuff to do here!).

So if you’re looking to travel south, get in touch with Karolien and she’ll organize the perfect trip for you. Check out their website for excursions, rates and other information:

http://www.paletuviers.com/en/

Hope you liked today’s post!! More fascinating things are coming up… Don’t forget to like us on FB!!

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xxx Claudia