October 8, 2019
Senegal Day #5: Starting to Explore the
UNESCO World Heritage City of Saint-Louis
April 16, 2019
SAINT-LOUIS, Senegal – This afternoon I got out to wander around Saint-Louis, a UNESCO World Heritage city established in 1659 by French traders on an uninhabited island called Ndar. It was the first permanent French settlement in Senegal. I then set out for the Mauritanian border, seeking to visit a new country.
Got up at 12:34 p.m. Oh I was so tired. Hard to even contemplate getting up. This has been a terrible week for me in terms of severe fatigue.
Headed downstairs to the Hotel de la Poste lobby at 1:28 p.m. Asked about buying a bus ticket to return to Dakar tomorrow. This turned out to be quite an adventure!
To book a bus seat by phone, you have to pay for the ticket electronically. Here in Senegal this is mostly done by “Orange Money,” a service offered by one of the cellphone providers.
I gave cash (F5,000; $8.60) to the hotel clerk, who went to the nearby Orange Money kiosk to add the money to his account.
Then he sent the money by phone to the bus company, which sent a confirmation by text message. I took a photo of the clerk’s phone screen showing my confirmation for tomorrow’s 3 p.m. Senegal Dem Dik bus.. Whew!
That chore completed, I departed the hotel at 2:05 to begin exploring of Saint-Louis, population 178,000, a former French colonial city that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was the first French settlement in West Africa. The city center is located on an island in the Senegal River.
The island is connected to the mainland by the Pont Faidherbe, designed by Gustav Eiffel for the Danube River in Europe but moved to Senegal in 1897.
“Saint-Louis was the capital of the French colony of Senegal from 1673 until 1902 and French West Africa from 1895 until 1902, when the capital was moved to Dakar,” according to Wikipedia. “From 1920 to 1957, it also served as the capital of the neighboring colony of Mauritania.”
Saint-Louis became the leading urban center in sub-Saharan Africa. But “Following independence, when Dakar became sole capital of the country, Saint-Louis slipped into a state of lethargy,” according to Wikipedia.
Place Faidherbe, the city’s main plaza, is sadly a sandy wasteland surrounded by formerly grand colonial public buildings.
Sadly there are just a few grand colonial-era buildings left in the city center.
At 2:31 I reached the Senegal River, busy with fishing-boat traffic.
I crossed the two-lane bridge onto a narrow (328 yards; 300 meters) sand spit, the Langue de Barbarie. It separates the Senegal River from the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Western Saint-Louis includes the seaside neighborhoods of Ndar Tout and Guet Ndar.
Stepping onto the Langue de Barbarie, I passed a World War I memorial amidst the hordes of fishing boats parked on the western side of the river, coconut vendors, as well as horse and donkey carts.
I reached the beach at 2:36 and turned north past dozens of colorful boats and young boys playing soccer at water’s edge.
Next I veered back inland through the narrow, sandy streets of decrepit buildings, goats, and what appeared to be gross poverty.
Back on the beach, a couple of goats wandered by as I watched men pull a wooden fishing boat out of the ocean.
Next came buildings crumbling into the sea and a series of shacks perched atop a rock wall.
I crossed the slim Langue de Barbarie back to the Senegal River, where boys climbed atop fishing boats near a shoreline sadly covered in garbage.
The piles of garbage grew bigger as I continued north along the river. Just horrendous to see this.
At 3:25 I reached the traffic circle marking the northern edge of developed Saint-Louis.
Although Saint-Louis is situated on the Mauritanian border, there is no official border crossing. That’s located at Rosso, 62 miles (100 km) upstream.
I wanted to check Mauritania of my list of countries visited, so I began the 1.2-mile walk to the unmarked, unpatrolled border, hoping I’d be able to cross.
