Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Travel to Senegal's South East - Kedougou
Julienne organized a trip for the whole family to the south east of Senegal. My Senegalese friend, Serigne, and his family came along also!
Getting to the Kedougou region looks pretty straight forward on a map, there being a "highway" and all. Mapquest predicts the drive will take about 7 hours but than, mapquest thinks the roads are all highways. Many of them are and there were long stretches were we could keep going at 110km/hr (almost 70 mph) for 45 minute at a time. There were also long stretches where the road was so bad that we would come to a complete halt as we worked out ways through the pot holes. Plus, as one gets closer to Dakar, the number of slow trucks on the road increases so passing becomes more and more an issue.
But we knew all this going in. The drive worked out to be 12 hours total but we broke it up over a few days. The drive back we planned to do in one shot. That generally worked out but unfortunately, Serigne's car (which was continually having trouble) finally gave up the ghost and the engine caught on fire and basically trashed the car. We were 1.5 hrs ahead on the road when this happened so we added another 3 hours of driving to our already long day. Ouch.
Day 1 - drive to Tambakounda
Day 2 - short drive to national park then overnight encampment at entrance
Day 3 - drive to Kedougou, walk to Bedeck village, stay at encampement
Day 4 - wake and drive to 7 hr hike to Waterfall. Stay at new encampement
Day 5 - wake and do 6 hr walk to Pular village, cave, waterfall.
Day 6 - drive back to tourist hotel in Kedougou
Day 7 - Drive 17 hrs back to Dakar. (with rest times.)
Highlights:
The day 3 walk to a village lead us up a rocky path. I didn't actually realize we were heading to a village - I thought we were just doing a nice hike up a hill to see the view. (There are not really hills around Dakar so hills were a novelty) Then, as Skylar and I ran ahead, he called back to me. "Dad, look what I found!"
Traditional village. Actually, it was more of a living museum. If it wasn't for the imported clothing and plastic water jugs, it could have been 400 years ago. Mud huts with grass roofs, women cooking outdoors, children riding on their mother's back, women with sticks in their noses and topless grandmothers. I had a nice conversation with a young man who was aspiring to be an English teacher in the nearest town. We was in university in Dakar and was just home for the winter break.
The village, a group of Bedeck people, seem to have as their goal the continuation of their culture. So, the fact that the only way to get to their village (including with water) was to do a 20 minute walk up the hill made a lot of sense. In the valley below were the men working in the fields or possibly working in town so we just saw women and children, except one man. He was the official interpreter for the village.
Our other village visit was a much longer walk up a from the Gambian river valley to a plateau. I found the geology very interesting because the cliffs were all sandstone formations but from time to time, we would see volcanic rock. Finally, at the very top of the cliff, we came to some rock that I will call chemically bonded volcanic ejecta. It seems that in the area, there were very active volcanoes that ejected marble sized pieces of rock that froze in the air and fell as solid little chunks. The rock itself was very iron rich so over the hundreds of millions of years, during the rainy season, the iron turned to rust and fused the pebbles into a solid surface for the whole plateau. Very cool.
It also meant that in the village, instead of everything being sandy, it was all pebbly. This was so nice to be in a clean village! The family we talked to had a nice compound with 5 sleeping rooms. Most Senegalese life happens outside so the space under the tree is their living room and kitchen and mud room. The man had 4 wives and there was also a room for the children to sleep. Thus, 5 rooms and the man didn't have his own space - someone needs a man cave.
Turned out the kids in this village who wanted to go to middle school had to walk down the mountain. This was about a 45 minute walk to and from school (about what I did when I was in late elementary/middle school.) One activity they would do was write on the rocks with chalk - the names of their favorite soccer players!
Since almost all the houses in the region are grass roofed and these last for only about a year, we often saw young boys out walked back from fields carrying grass bundles on their heads. These, we were told, were either for their family or to be sold to other families.
On the hike to the second waterfall, we walked from a town heading up the creek. From time to time, we would see small pockets of children, boys and girls, working on washing cloths. There were some women but most of the laundry was left to the children. The main way of washing the cloths was to slam them onto the rocks like you are beating the rock for bad behavior. (Add this to the discussion of horizontal vs vertical spin washers and longevity of the clothing.) I wanted to know why there groups were spaced out?
My father had spent time in the peacecorps in Iran and spoke about how the people believed that if water flowed a certain distance, it was somehow clean. Our guide confirmed that in his interpretation, flowing for about 15 meters allowed time for the river bed to filter out the dirt from up stream. Plus, he added, kids liked to wash with their friends, not other people they didn't know so well. So, just like picnic goers in the USA, people like to spread out and have their own space.
Traveling with a Senegalese family was also a great experience. We share many things with them (college educated, traveled over much of the world, modern house with maids and guards). Also, they didn't have any family who still lived in traditional villages (which we know many people who do have family "back in the village.") So, many of the cultural aspects were interesting for them but what I thought was most interesting was comment from one of the guides. "We get lots of foreigners but almost no Senegalese." So, for the first time in Senegal, the Senegalese tourist was more the oddity than the Americans!
So, in summary, there were a number of cool animals especially the baboons. The geology was very interesting especially after only seeing the sheep-denuded, flat sandy scrub lands that extend for hour and hour around Dakar. The cave was cool and seeing the different types of termites was great. But the cultural aspects end up being those things that stand out as the best stories to tell.
Getting to the Kedougou region looks pretty straight forward on a map, there being a "highway" and all. Mapquest predicts the drive will take about 7 hours but than, mapquest thinks the roads are all highways. Many of them are and there were long stretches were we could keep going at 110km/hr (almost 70 mph) for 45 minute at a time. There were also long stretches where the road was so bad that we would come to a complete halt as we worked out ways through the pot holes. Plus, as one gets closer to Dakar, the number of slow trucks on the road increases so passing becomes more and more an issue.
But we knew all this going in. The drive worked out to be 12 hours total but we broke it up over a few days. The drive back we planned to do in one shot. That generally worked out but unfortunately, Serigne's car (which was continually having trouble) finally gave up the ghost and the engine caught on fire and basically trashed the car. We were 1.5 hrs ahead on the road when this happened so we added another 3 hours of driving to our already long day. Ouch.
Day 1 - drive to Tambakounda
Day 2 - short drive to national park then overnight encampment at entrance
Day 3 - drive to Kedougou, walk to Bedeck village, stay at encampement
Day 4 - wake and drive to 7 hr hike to Waterfall. Stay at new encampement
Day 5 - wake and do 6 hr walk to Pular village, cave, waterfall.
Day 6 - drive back to tourist hotel in Kedougou
Day 7 - Drive 17 hrs back to Dakar. (with rest times.)
Highlights:
The day 3 walk to a village lead us up a rocky path. I didn't actually realize we were heading to a village - I thought we were just doing a nice hike up a hill to see the view. (There are not really hills around Dakar so hills were a novelty) Then, as Skylar and I ran ahead, he called back to me. "Dad, look what I found!"
Traditional village. Actually, it was more of a living museum. If it wasn't for the imported clothing and plastic water jugs, it could have been 400 years ago. Mud huts with grass roofs, women cooking outdoors, children riding on their mother's back, women with sticks in their noses and topless grandmothers. I had a nice conversation with a young man who was aspiring to be an English teacher in the nearest town. We was in university in Dakar and was just home for the winter break.
The village, a group of Bedeck people, seem to have as their goal the continuation of their culture. So, the fact that the only way to get to their village (including with water) was to do a 20 minute walk up the hill made a lot of sense. In the valley below were the men working in the fields or possibly working in town so we just saw women and children, except one man. He was the official interpreter for the village.
 |
| These kids just wanted to hang out. The did little dance videos then I showed it to them. |
 |
| Sylvia and Skylar bought these little gords from this woman. The young man is her nephew (they are all related.) His necklace says OBEY. He's studying to be a teacher. |
Our other village visit was a much longer walk up a from the Gambian river valley to a plateau. I found the geology very interesting because the cliffs were all sandstone formations but from time to time, we would see volcanic rock. Finally, at the very top of the cliff, we came to some rock that I will call chemically bonded volcanic ejecta. It seems that in the area, there were very active volcanoes that ejected marble sized pieces of rock that froze in the air and fell as solid little chunks. The rock itself was very iron rich so over the hundreds of millions of years, during the rainy season, the iron turned to rust and fused the pebbles into a solid surface for the whole plateau. Very cool.
 |
| Here you can see the harder consolidated ejecta with the softer sandstone below that has been washed away at the cliff edge, forming a small cave. There is also the cave where we met a group of future Princeton students on a school sponsored gap year. Now Julienne wants out kids to go to Princeton. |
It also meant that in the village, instead of everything being sandy, it was all pebbly. This was so nice to be in a clean village! The family we talked to had a nice compound with 5 sleeping rooms. Most Senegalese life happens outside so the space under the tree is their living room and kitchen and mud room. The man had 4 wives and there was also a room for the children to sleep. Thus, 5 rooms and the man didn't have his own space - someone needs a man cave.
Turned out the kids in this village who wanted to go to middle school had to walk down the mountain. This was about a 45 minute walk to and from school (about what I did when I was in late elementary/middle school.) One activity they would do was write on the rocks with chalk - the names of their favorite soccer players!
 |
| We were slowly moving our way down the mountain but these two mom's passed us going up. Notice the woman with the baby on her back and the yellow bucket balanced on her head filled with cloths she had washed in the river. |
On the hike to the second waterfall, we walked from a town heading up the creek. From time to time, we would see small pockets of children, boys and girls, working on washing cloths. There were some women but most of the laundry was left to the children. The main way of washing the cloths was to slam them onto the rocks like you are beating the rock for bad behavior. (Add this to the discussion of horizontal vs vertical spin washers and longevity of the clothing.) I wanted to know why there groups were spaced out?
My father had spent time in the peacecorps in Iran and spoke about how the people believed that if water flowed a certain distance, it was somehow clean. Our guide confirmed that in his interpretation, flowing for about 15 meters allowed time for the river bed to filter out the dirt from up stream. Plus, he added, kids liked to wash with their friends, not other people they didn't know so well. So, just like picnic goers in the USA, people like to spread out and have their own space.
Traveling with a Senegalese family was also a great experience. We share many things with them (college educated, traveled over much of the world, modern house with maids and guards). Also, they didn't have any family who still lived in traditional villages (which we know many people who do have family "back in the village.") So, many of the cultural aspects were interesting for them but what I thought was most interesting was comment from one of the guides. "We get lots of foreigners but almost no Senegalese." So, for the first time in Senegal, the Senegalese tourist was more the oddity than the Americans!
So, in summary, there were a number of cool animals especially the baboons. The geology was very interesting especially after only seeing the sheep-denuded, flat sandy scrub lands that extend for hour and hour around Dakar. The cave was cool and seeing the different types of termites was great. But the cultural aspects end up being those things that stand out as the best stories to tell.
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