Day 64: Dakar – Wild camp in front of the border with Gambia

It takes us significantly more than two hours to get out of Dakar. First, a stuck truck brings one of the central roundabouts to a standstill. Then we take a slight detour in order to make some progress and not suffocate in exhaust fumes, but unfortunately we miss a descent to the southeast and it takes another half an hour until we are on the right route.

It should be noted again that Wolle took the traffic very coolly – but we are still annoyed by Dakar.

But we were spared the student demonstration. At the start of the presidential election campaign there was probably unrest and the university has now been closed for six months.

In the last few days we have also seen slogans on walls, one of which reads: “Preserve local schools. Every closed school opens a new prison.”

The rest of the route towards Farafenni (Gambia) goes smoothly. The road is good, the traffic is not so dense that it is difficult to overtake slow trucks.

The landscape is green, bushes and fields – it's harvest time. The most amazing thing are the gigantic baobab trees, which tower over everything else like mighty skeletons and which gradually develop a little green. There are still fruits hanging on some of the trees and we realize that these are the green fruits that we recently photographed on the side of the road.

We look for a wild camp a few kilometers from the border near some stone circles. There are a few of them, especially in Gambia. Grave sites around 1,500 years old that nevertheless have something cult-like about them.

We find a nice place, finally cook for ourselves again and even manage to finish everything, including washing up, before the mosquitoes come. Nevertheless, we will get a few bites despite spraying and appropriate clothing. Since the malaria mosquito is active at night, the crepuscular mosquito is hopefully harmless.