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Published: November 1st 2005
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We still ended up leaving Tamba really late, around 5:30 in the evening. To get to the park you have to follow the road to Kedougou until Dar Salam, then follow a dirt road to Simenti. Simenti is a small village within the park with several hotels. I was under the impression that we’d be staying there, within the park. The truck, however, came to a stop in front of a
campement in Dar Salam. They informed us that the park was closed and we’d have to stay here. It was annoying, but there was nothing we could do.
In the morning, me, Luke, Arona, our guide, and our driver piled back into the old Nissan truck to visit Niokolo-Koba National Park. We payed way too much for what it ended up being, but it was still cool. We drove around the park for several hours, stopping every now and then to get out and walk down short tracks to water sources. We didn’t see a whole lot because it is still the wet season, so all the grass and leaves hid the animals. At least all the greenery meant the scenery was gorgeous. We did manage to see a
lot of cool birds, some antelope (one with giant antlers), a foot long lizard, a bunch of wild pigs and piglets, and a caged leopard.
My favorite part was the monkeys. We saw red ones with bald shiny butts. One of them ran across the road right in front of us with a baby on her back. We also saw a bunch of smaller grayish-green ones. We saw some from the truck window, and then we stopped to walk to a water hole. Before our walk, we got to hand-feed one of the little gray ones some stale bread. When we came back, he was sitting in the tree next to the truck eating a banana. The guide asked who gave it to him, but none of us had. Turns out we’d left a window open, and he stole a banana, a bag of peanuts, and a shiny packet of squishy cheese. Oh well.
In the afternoon, we left the park and headed back to Tambacounda, because Luke and I needed to go to the bank. On the way there, we stopped several times so our guide and chauffer could buy stuff in the village markets. Apparently, bread,
tobacco, and meat are better and cheaper in the villages than in Tamba. Luke and I also discovered why the bread we’d been eating in rural areas was so different than city bread. In the villages, they make it out of millet, which makes the bread heavier (it reminds me of ciabatta). City bread is made of machine-ground wheat flour.
We made it to the bank a few minutes before closing time. It was much less crowded, so we were able to get in and out pretty fast. It was too late to leave Tamba, so we took Biram up on his offer to let us stay at his house. We dumped our stuff in his room, and Arona returned to work on the drum. When dinnertime rolled around, we headed back to the place we ate the first night. We joined Arona’s friend’s family around the big plate for my favorite dish, fish and rice.
After dinner, it came to my attention that I absolutely had to go to the bathroom. I wasn’t too excited about this idea, but I had no choice. I asked the guy sitting next to me where it was, and he got
Viewing hut
Here's our guide, Luke, and Arona in an hut overlooking the river. up to help me. He called over another guy too. I wasn’t sure why it was a two-man operation, but whatever. One of them got me one of those teapots the Senegalese use instead of toilet paper. The other one went and turned on a light in the little concrete building in the corner of the yard. They showed me in and shut the door behind me. I found myself in a small room with a hole in the floor and a showerhead near the ceiling. Shower and toilet. Very innovative. It was crawling with roaches and spiders and smelled about as bad as a Riverbend port-a-potty. I did my business in the hole, being very careful not to let any of me or my clothes touch
anything. In the midst of this procedure, I managed to turn my open purse upside down over the hole. My passport just missed the hole. I got lucky. Somehow, all I lost was a tube of chapstick.
After watching an episode of the Argentinean soap opera that’s so popular here, we headed back to Biram’s house. Arona and his friends got to work on the drum, and they spread a mat out
on the ground nearby for me. Over closer to the house, Biram’s entire family was resting on a giant mat. There were at least 20 people in the yard. After applying a heavy layer of bug spray, I fell asleep. Luke tells me that everyone else shared a traditional drink before going to sleep. As a thank you for letting us stay there, Luke (according to Arona’s instructions) bought milk, cheese, and mint candies. The mama of the house melted all these together into a nighttime drink.
Sometime in the middle of the night, somebody woke me up and told me to move inside. It had gotten really windy all of the sudden, indicating imminent rain. Biram, Arona and his gang, me and Luke, and this one random old lady all moved into Biram’s small room. Luke and I slept in our sleepsheets on Biram’s bed while Arona worked some more. An hour or so later, I started waking up and wanting to get on the road. We’d spent several days in Tamba, and I was ready to move on. Arona still wasn’t quite finished doing stuff with the cords and tried to get us to stay. I think
A bird...
If you're really curious, I think Luke knows what this is.. he’s just a really lonely man and wanted to hold on to the company of a fellow hippy (that’d be Luke). We were firm though, so he showed Luke how to finish the drum and then found us a taxi. After exchanging contact info, Luke and I left for the Sine-Saloum delta.
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Mommy
non-member comment
my shirt
hey, did you get me the shirt???? i think i should get to keep it. .. although to start with i thought you had the wrong picture with the heading.. i want to see this infamous drum. also, i DON'T want to experience the bathroom. you know me, i would have fell in it and then dropped the belongings of my purse in behind me.. your messy mommy, i love you, mommy