At this point in the trip, we have also noticed some critters that appear to be under the surface of the skin in Peta’s foot and have gotten her some medications from the pharmacy here.  When we were in the pharmacy and I was explaining what the problem was, an ancient looking man was listening in.  He told me, with a twinkle in his eye, to be sure that when the head comes out not to cut it, that I must be sure to roll or wind it out.

Tomorrow we will leave for the Parc National des Oiseaux Djoudj just at the Mauritanian border and spend the night there before crossing the border.

We finally managed to drag ourselves away from Sekuta Camping.  We spent nearly a week in Serrekunda indulging in great restaurants, nice seascapes, interesting people, and cooler weather and after a few ATM runs we realized from the amount of money we were spending that it is time to go.  The ferry was very quick and uneventful this time and we even got through immigration speedily for both The Gambia and Senegal.  All of the Gambian officials were asking why our stay in their country was so short when in fact it was far longer than we intended because it was so enjoyable…well after our first two days that is.

Leaving one great beach area, we headed straight for another in Senegal, Popennguine.  Our little campsite has its own steps down to the beach and a whole array of great looking restaurants; this would have been even more convenient than Sekuta Camping; if we had only known about this earlier.  All of those days of down time leaves us a little bit behind so I think we will go straight for Mauritania.

Car troubles in Senegal

After leaving Djenné we were held up a few days in Bamako while David recovered from malaria.  The past few days kept us on our toes, we didn’t wander too far just in case he needed to go to the hospital.  Once recovered, it was a surprisingly quick and uneventful trip through the rest of Mali until we reached the border with Senegal… and then problems emerged.

With the amount of stress we are putting on poor Priscilla, something was bound to happen.  The battery was the culprit once again. It is possible that the last mechanic’s work on the regulator fried the battery.  Luckily, we made it to Tambacounda which is large enough of a town to have car parts stores.  It was not the greatest selection and the Wolof man working the shop seemed unsure if we were to add sulfuric acid and distilled water to the battery.  We were later led to a workshop, not a store.  We sat there for a few hours while mechanics banged and took apart poor Priscilla; we were just happy to at least be in the shade.

The mechanics decided that the regulator is fine, the problem is the alternator and then finally they decided that all of that is fine and we just need a new battery. This guy tried to sell us the same battery that we nearly bought from the Wolof, of course this time for a considerably higher price.  He insisted that this was a very different battery and pretended to not know of the car parts store that is around the corner from him.  After a good deal of haggling, we got the price down and left towards the border with The Gambia.

I’m sick of the theatrics of haggling here.  The Chinese do it best; more comical than anything.  Africans are more like the Egyptians, they take on an angry or offended air when you question their price or quality.  It is so much easier when there is just a set price; decide how much profit you want and lets just be done with it!