The long route into Gambia

Day: 09

Location: Velingara, Senegal
Weather: HOT
Kilometers: 500
Hours: 13
Health: perfect
Accomodation: Centre Touristique
Price, room: 11K CFA
Price, petrol: 560 CFA / lt
Price, water: 500 CFA
Shower: oh hell yes!
Morale: 8
Total spend: 129K
Song of the day: “Where Is My Mind” – Pixies

AW: A few things happened today. We left this morning from Dakar in the 4x4. I ran a red light in the city so I had to pay a hefty 6K CFA bribe - it's just so hard to tell when they are serious about "laws" here. Then we picked up Momo at his pad in Yoff, which was really a picture of poverty. He pays 25K CFA per month in rent. He brought his boom box to compensate for the stolen car radio, and we were on our way.

We got the truck stuck in the sand at Saly-Nianiakhale, on the coast. I also allowed my phone (the one sending this post), my shoes, my shirt, and Guillaume's shirt to get hit by a rogue wave. Miraculously, the Blackberry phone survived the dunking in salt water. I'm not going to beat myself up about it given that global warming was most likely at fault.

The drive through Kaolack went smoothly, but the tarmack was cratered in a very nasty way thereafter. We were as ginger with it as we felt was appropriate, but the car took some pretty big jolts.

All the ATMs in Tambacounda were closed when we rolled through around 9 PM. Momo didn't mention it until the next day, but that would be our last chance to withdraw cash for some time.

We made it to Velingara by 11 PM but it was too late to meet Momodou’s family. Little hut with a great shower. The scenery was interesting but the crap road was a drag, so morale is a but lower today. Tomorrow we will cross into The Gambia.