Cut to Africa, STA Explorer Adam, arrived safely in Dakar, something you can read about here. The post takes in the journey, filling out forms (in French) and collecting Mali visas from the embassy. There is also a fairly open description of Dakar itself that is particularly useful should you be passing through that neck of the woods.

This is then followed by the post La Gare Routière which gives a brief experience of some local nightlife and then an assessment of the chaos that is Dakar’s bus station,

“What a place - hundreds of vehicles, mainly sept places (seven-seater Peugeots or Renaults) and mini-vans (that squashed between 20 and 35 passengers in for a ride of unparalleled uncomfortableness) all lined up in a parking lot, with hundreds more drivers and “fixers” wandering about drumming up business.”

Adam noted that after organising their ride north they actually paid a ‘fixer’, apparently this is not something you need to do, just talk to the drivers. This post also comes with apologies as he tries to get the knack of a French keyboard.

The third post since arriving details what should have been a four hour journey from Dakar to the UNESCO protected colonial town of St Louis. Six and a half hours later they got to their destination. You can read about Adam’s initial impressions of what he described as an African Cuba in this post and share in the moment on his first night in St. Louis where he realised his journey was just beginning,

“We sat on the roof for the first evening, watching the sunset and having some home cooked octopus and rice, before a nightcap of mint tea (great stuff). I think that was the moment I realised we were truly in Africa, and the adventure was about to start.”