Music in Ngaule

From the beautiful town of Podor at the Senegal River, a bicycle ride took me to the fishing village of Ngaule.

Houses in Ngaule village.

Fishing boat in Ngaule.

There's a lot of music being played in this area and Ngaule is famous as the home of the well known musician Baaba Maal. While I was staying with some nice people in a small mudbuilt house, one of them, Borgo Sarr, played this beautiful music:

A really special traveller

A few weeks ago, Martin Naef travelled here in the region. He took pretty much the same route through the Sahara as I (travelled east on the other side of the Senegal River though). Right now, he's in the Congo helping to get a university for blind students off the ground. Martin is blind himself. A great inspiration for me to read what he's writing about his trip (and the other things he's written, on his homepage). His homepage and the section about his trip in Africa are in German and there's an interesting section about his life in English, too. Worthwile reading!!

Richard Toll

The first town in Senegal where I stopped was Richard Toll. Richard was a French colonial official who had a garden ("Toll' in the local language, Wolof) here, hence the name. My intention was to spend one night here and then continue to the next town along the river, Podor, but then I met Bakary. He works as a taxi driver in Richard Toll and I immediately liked him. He introduced me to his friends Sila and Mamadou with whom I've been spending most of my time in the last week. Our favorite place is in the shade of a tree near the Folie de Roger, an old colonial mansion which is one of the few tourist attractions of Richard Toll.

Friends in Richard Toll

Not many tourists find their way to Richard Toll; however, two groups of tourists have been arriving each week since a ship cruise along the river has been started a few years ago. My friends try to sell them souvenirs like musical instruments and selfmade jewellery and are thinking about opening a small tea stall.

Tourists at the Folie de Roger in Richard Toll

I find the gardens behind the gardens behind the Folie de Roger even more interesting than the old building. Inspired by the vast garden area there and the beautiful garden that Michelle, an American Peace Corps Volunteer, keeps near the hospital, Sila, Mamadou and I have started to cultivate a garden plot that Sila has left unused for several years. Today, we might plant lemon grass and beans around the maniok that is already there.

Vegetable garden behind the Folie de Roger in Richard Toll

Leaving Mauritania

Rosso Mauritania, the border town on the northern side of the Senegal River, has a rather bad reputation. It did therefore not come as a surprise when I saw several guys jogging behind the car as soon as they saw me on board the shared taxi. Immediately when I got off the car, I was surrounded by hustlers pulling at my clothes and my backpack and shouting at me. Everybody wanted to change my money, show me the border or sell me something. It was quite overwhelming. After a long 15 minutes, with only the two most persistent "guides" on my heels, I found a shopowner who looked trustworthy and who gave me a good exchange rate. He was really nice, offered me a cold drink after the transaction and asked me to take a rest in his shop. When I stepped out into the street after some time, the atmosphere had changed completely. The hectic, bustling and chaotic town had transformed into a quiet, peaceful place. I was stunned. I had already braced myself for a tough walk to the border gate but was now walking undisturbed along lines of people who prepared themselves for prayer. It was early Friday afternoon, time for the most important prayer of the week. People prayed in the open on roofs, between vegetable stands in the main market and in front of the border gate. Also the border guards were praying so I sat down in the shade and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. Even after the prayer was finished this atmosphere persisted and I was admitted through the gate to see the Senegal River. Half an hour later, I crossed the river on a wooden boat to enter Senegal.

Looking across the Senegal River from Richard Toll, Senegal at the Mauritanian side

Through the desert

On the way from Nouadhibou to Nouakchott in Mauretania

I decided to cross the Sahara rather quickly this time. The most important reason was that I'm really looking forward to getting into tropical regions. Nevertheless, it was impressive in the desert. The landscape kept changing from plateau mountains to sand dunes to grassland. I was surprised about how many plants I saw, most probably due to some rain that had fallen in the previous weeks.

At the ship cemetery in Nouadhibou

Visa stuff and Tiznit

Breakfast at the main square

The great mosque in Tiznit

Until I got the Mali visa, everything had been going almost suspiciously smooth: a fast ride to Almeria and there only a 1.5 hour wait for the bus to Algeciras, no problems finding cheap hostels in Tanger and Rabat and no difficulties in arranging to meet Houcine there. No stomach problems or any such thing. Also getting the Mauretania visa was easy enough.

In contrast to the Mauretanian embassy, I was the only person applying for a visa at the embassy of Mali. The visa application form was much shorter and easier to understand than the one for the Mauretanian visa. Nevertheless, I made an error and gave 18 January instead of 18 February as the expected date of entry into Mali. And this date is now the one given in my one-month-visa. This means that the visa was valid for three weeks from the date of entry and that I have to be in Mali by 15 February at the latest. Once in Mali, it should be possible to get a one-month extension but having only two and a half weeks for the trip from Rabat in Morocco to Bamako in Mali still means that I have to hurry up a bit now. I thus decided to leave Rabat the following morning and travel directly to Tiznit in the South of Morocco.

Tiznit is the last larger town before entering the Western Sahara. It's nice here and a good place to have a rest between the 12-hour-trip here from Rabat and the 20-hour-trip onwards to Dakhla, the last stop before the Mauretanian border. Tomorrow, I will enter the Sahara and then not see much green until I reach the Senegal River.

Rabat and Salé

Market in Salé

It's cool and rainy outside, perfect weather for writing another entry for this blog. This is my third day in Rabat and I've spent the morning waiting in front of the Mauretanian embassy where I applied for a visa.

The hotel where I'm staying is right near the main market area in the old city. Stepping out into the street, I can turn right where for the next 200 metres, mobile phones and related equipment are being sold (most people would probably not even look at the old mobile phone I used in Germany when there's so many iPhones on sale...). On the other side are a few restaurants and shops selling padlocks, clothes and many other things.

Yesterday, I went to the neighbouring city of Salé and strolled through the wonderful medina. Many of the narrow alleys have dead ends and depending on which colour the walls are painted in, you are walking in yellow, red, orange or blue light.

Salé's golden age was from the 16th to 18th century when pirates brought in lots of money. For an interesting article about the infamous Salé Rovers, click here.