Hydrobase

On Sunday, our first free day Dan, Alex and I headed over to the beach called Hydrobase. As we hailed a cab we admire the blue sky above us, rather than the haze the last week had provided. We took a cab over there about 1500 CFA (3.75$). The taxi pulled up to some thatch huts pointed over the edge of the sandbank and said that’s where the beach was. Anywhere else I would have thought this peculiar but I’ve just come to accept it as a part of Senegalese life to not know what the heck is going on, and just to go with it.  Walking over the crest, we stopped looking at our feet and took in the beach. Empty, blue water. We were ecstatic, the Senegal River, which St. Louis is at the mouth of, is a muddy mocha brown and had been fearful for the same result for the beach. We walked over to the water admiring that other than a group of about 5 Senegalese men playing soccer further down the beach, we were the only ones there. 

The day passed rather uneventfully, and while a few vendors did wander over through the course of the day (Sorry, I’m married, I don’t have any money, I’m not in the Peace Corps, I’m a student, United States, not Canada, not I don’t want to look at your statuettes, bracelet’s and necklaces for the “pleasure of my eyes,” perhaps another day, Thank you for the compliment, no thank you, good bye, another day, goodbye, Inshallah.) It was rather uneventful, which is exactly how one likes a day at the beach to be. Though perhaps I did forget the sun block, and got a little more red than I would like, it’s turning into a tan and I would rather have color, than be pale like before, which is just ridiculous when you are in Africa.

As we were swimming a man walked on the water’s edge with about 8 oxen, which we found rather amusing.

It was a bit of an adventure going home however. As we were the furthest down the beach, away from the few hotels that are there, no cabs were coming down a dead end road. We started walking back, hoping to catch a cab back at some point. Well, we walked, and waked, hoping for something but ended up walking all the way back in all, about 1 hour to get home. Something that I would probably never do in the states, but at this point the heat doesn’t seem so bad anymore (and it’s actually getting cooler) and I’ve gotten used to walking everywhere. We tried to go to the patessiere on the way home (which is open all night on the weekends and by the bars), but unfortunately was closed.  We settled on some Laughing Cow cheese (la vache qui rit) and a baguette for lunch and tucked in once we got home. All in all uneventful, but it was wonderful to spend an October Sunday jumping in the waves and reading on the beach.