The charm of St-Louis

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I'm now in St-Louis Senegal, which was the old colonial capital. It still has a lot of the old French colonial charm. St-Louis was a welcome sight after the trip from the Mauritanian Border.



I left Nouakchott in Mauritania on the morning of the 4th of January.



We left Patrick and Chris behind. Patrick still wasn't feeling well - so he didn't want to travel.



We caught a pick up truck to the border - the journey was relatively uneventful.



The fun started when we got to the border. Leaving Mauritania can be expensive, the guards demand all sorts of 'taxes'.



At the border we were besieged by touts trying to get us to change money. We waited.



Crossing through a gate we handed our passports to the guard, who then passed them on to a man holding a briefcase, not wearing a uniform.



Nat did all the talking, he's French so it was easier for him than for myself or Masa.



The man with the briefcase demanded 10 Euros each for himself. Nat said we had no Euros and offered 1000 UM.



Eventually the man accepted 1000 UM and gave us our passports back. Although it took a lot of bargaining to get the passports back, Nat had to demand the passports back several times. The official had plenty of other taxes he wanted to sting us for.



Once we had our passports we made for the Piroques (small boats); which are the transport accross the Senegal river to the border post on the other side.



Patrick had obtained a list of charges from a Dutch guy in Mauritania. We carried this list with us to check we weren't being overcharged. The minimum charges were supposed to be: -




EXIT TAX 2000
FERRY 2000
POLICE 1000
CUSTOMS 1000
COMMUNITY 500

That's a total of 6500


We paid -

EXIT TAX 200
FERRY 266
POLICE 1000

That's a total of 1466



Interestingly enough talking to other people that have crossed the border the amount you pay seems to be a lottery - one person paid 1000 another 10000.



Nat said to get on the boat - so we did. At this point the official was getting aggressive - the official threatened Nat with arrest and physically tried to stop Nat from putting his backpack on the boat.



Despite that we managed to leave without paying many of the charges that were demanded. Once the boat had left the shore we were safe from any more demands for money.



At the other side we were again besieged by money changers and touts. One in particular kept hanging around and following us. We waited a long time for our passports to be stamped.



Eventually we left the customs area to get a taxi. At this point the guy who had been hanging around demanded money. We gave him nothing. In fact he wasn't the only person to demand money. Everyone at the border seemed to be demanding money.



We got a taxi to St-Louis and found an Auberge for 4000 West African Francs. (The exchange rate is 600 Francs to a dollar or for those of you in Britain just remove 3 zeros from the price in Francs to get the sterling figure).



We were tired and running out of cash. We went to a cash machine to find it not working. That meant that we had 3000 Francs between us, and we wanted to eat. Someone showed us a restaurant but it was too expensive. We walked around and found a hole in the wall place that gave us a meal for 500 each. It was a hovel and certainly wouldn't have passed any health and safety regulations in Europe.



The next day, that is yesterday we took it easy.



We changed accommodation, we are now staying in the flat of a local family for 2500 Francs each. During the day we walked around the town and along the side of the Senegal river, and ate local food in cheap market stalls.



In the evening Patrick appeared again, but he had gained 2 more people, a French Canadian couple. He managed to only pay 1000 UM at the border despite his lack of French by simply repeating 'Pas Vrais' to all the demands. Maybe he was lucky and got a less aggressive or greedy border guard.



Today the 6th I booked a tour for one of the National Parks for tomorrow. The others won't be going - they can't afford it. The park can only be got to by private transport or tour - there is no public transport. Nat, Patrick and Masa are leaving St Louis tomorrow to go to Dakar. I intend to stay till Sunday morning, because there is a Jazz Festival on Saturday.



Today we walked a few Km's down the coast to the point where the River Senegal meets the ocean. It was a pleasant walk along a sandy beach with very few people on it.

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Photos

St-Louis
Auberge des Arts

Crossing the border
Crossing the Senegal River at Rosso which is the border between Senegal and Mauritania

St-Louis
On the river front, where the fishing boats leave from

The Lads on the beach
From left to right.
Masa, Nat and Patrick