Day 61: Dakar

We have no bed bugs and no (visible) cockroaches, but it was a bit stuffy and we slept restlessly. Nevertheless: We get out early. Quickly get a croissant, pain de chocolat and a kind of brioche from the “Eco-Boulangerie”. Grab a hot, sugary Nescafe at one of the small stands. Half way across the city to the customs and port office for the stamp in the Carnet de Passage (proper import and later export of the vehicle).

This requires: Passavant from entry with the 5-day notice period, the CdP itself, copy of vehicle documents (Carte Gris), copy of the driving license. The latter is missing, so around the corner a few rooms further and back. A few stamps, fill out a few fields, tear out a part and staple it together with the copies, enter Brigitte on a list and have her sign. C'est ça.

We continue to the campsite of Domi and Lio, whom we met in Noudhibou. The two of them are really unlucky and have been waiting for spare parts for 10 days, which are stuck at customs. We share the baked goods and get a coffee while our gas bottle is refilled. 10,000 CFA will probably become the standard price for everything... And we admit that we “slightly” underestimated the organizational effort of such a trip and it's imponderables.

After this stop we continue to the Guinean Embassy. Damn. Google gave the wrong location and we neglected to match it with iOverlander, so we loop again.

Wolle maneuvers us confidently and with sufficient jostling through the increasingly dense traffic. At one point we see a minor rear-end collision. First the policeman motions for us to drive on, then he's not going fast enough and we have to stop. Even that doesn't happen quickly enough for him and so the entire program follows: Carte Gris, insurance, driving license and passport are studied thoroughly.

But there is also that: When we get into the wrong lane on a double roundabout in the morning and ask a police officer how we are going to get to the Port Authority, we first get a long, detailed description of the route and then everything is briefly stopped for us so that we can get there first drive backwards and then change to the correct lane via the traffic island.

We just managed to get in at the embassy before the lunch break. Ian and Catherine are already in because they haven't been received an approval yet, even though the process has been completed and paid for. We tell the story that Wolle is going to Guninea without me. A bit of back and forth and then the payment process is completed online by an employee – who knows who now has the credit card details... In the afternoon Brigitte Approval arrives by email. Ian and Catherine have to leave without having achieved anything because (like us) they had given their home address as their address – so the Embassy Dakar does not feel responsible. But the problem also resolves for both of them over the course of the evening.

As a reward we have a fat, delicious lunch. All this stuff is exhausting. Then we return through the city to the hotel and have the car washed. Quite a happening because everyone is curious and wants to take a closer look at it. The car looks almost like new afterwards – although the surface now has a few damages. No wonder.

Unfortunately, we later discovered that the compressor is no longer working. Such a crap. Coincidence or sprayed/cleaned too hard somewhere? Since the indicator has been going off for a while, we decide to go to Toyota tomorrow and stay here for another day. We explore Dakar by car.

In the evening there is pizza around the corner. Big city is actually not our holiday dream. Somehow exciting but also loud, dirty, with bad air, heavy traffic, lots of construction sites, crumbling sidewalks, tripping hazards, piles of sand, cars driving against the direction of travel because it's faster on the roundabout – Hamburg is really pretty and clean and absolutely intact.