Somone Lagoon

On Thursday morning we took a taxi to the next resort of Somone which has a large lagoon. We walked along a beach next to the lagoon and were approached by a pirogue the driver asked if we would like a trip around the lagoon so we decided to take a look. We set off along a shallow lagoon so shallow that we watched a lady walking across the middle of the lagoon. There were sand bars here and there so not too deep. We first stopped off at a bonsai baobab which our guide said was a sacred site. It looked as if it was covered in small white flowers but as we got closer we realised they were shells which people had put onto the branches. We travelled on through the mangroves then in the distance we saw a couple of animals running across a mud flat our guide said they were hyenas, we were doubtful and afterwards thought they could have been jackals. The guide pulled up to a shallow area where we got out of the boat and walked for a while on the sand banks. There was a small island with loads of pelicans on it but unfortunately we didn’t see any flamingos as we had hoped. When we got back to shore we were taken to his restaurant where we bought a drink. Bradley decided to have a play on the drums and was joined by one of the waitresses. From here we took a walk around the shore into the next bay. When we arrived back we were taken back across the lagoon to the beach and then we headed back to our apartment for lunch.

Bandia Game Reserve

When we were about to eat our lunch Pascal from the office arrived asking if we would like to go to Bandia Game Reserve as he had a group of French leaving at 3 o’clock which we could join. We were intending to go so we quickly ate lunch and were picked up on time and then had a twenty minute drive to the game reserve. The reserve was very much like Fatala which we had visited with Mike and Jenny back in February however there were much more animals to see. We were allocated a guide who sat in the back of the jeep with us and we set off down the sand tracks into the bush. It didn’t take us long to see a group of Impalas feeding from bushes. As we drove on further we saw some Rhinos laying down in a shade of trees and then a group of Giraffes, one was a very large male who just stood his ground looking at us. Next we saw some more Antelopes as well as Zebras grazing together. Bradley was pleased when we spotted some Ostriches as these were what he wanted to see. I found these hard to get a good photo of as they ran when they heard the jeep. The driver then took us to a large baobab tree within the reserve, he explained that in olden days they were used to bury the dead beneath. Within the roots of this tree there were quite a few bones scattered about. We continued on crossing a bridge over a lake which had crocodiles basking in the sun and then Abigail spotted some warthogs running with their tails up in the air. We finally made our way to the exit stopping of at an enclosure containing Hyenas and another one with some giant tortoises in. We finally walked to the restaurant area which overlooked the lake with crocodiles in it. We left the game reserve and were back before 7 o’clock for a late dinner.

Mbour Market

On Friday we decided to take a visit into Mbour to check on a set plase for a trip to Dakar and also to have a look around the market. Our driver took us to the centre of the market which was close to the beach. We walked to the beach it was full of people and boats just landing their catch of fish. There were various sections were people were cleaning, gutting and selling fish. We watched a woman cutting the fins of some small sharks one of which was a hammerhead shark. By now we had attracted some attention so had our first local bumster chatting to us. He accompanied us around the rest of the market whilst we bought some veg and prawns. We then made our way back to the main road to jump in a taxi still with our bumster in tow. He was not amused when we jumped in a taxi without giving him any money saying we didn’t ask him to walk with us and him thinking he was showing us around. We stopped of at the supermarket to pick up the turkey and sausage meat we had ordered and a few other bits and were back for lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach.

Christmas Day

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KIRSTY!

Christmas day and Paul and I waited listening for the kids to wake up, it was nearly 7 o’clock before we heard them moving around. They eventually came into our bedroom carrying a large stocking each saying Santa had been and Rudolf has ate his carrot. We had decided to buy stockings from Hawkins Bizarre which were all ready made up. They were soon rummaging in their stockings and opening boxes to see what Santa had brought them. We were very impressed with the toys in the stockings and thought they were very good value for money. We decided to have a pancake breakfast, put the turkey in the oven and then go for a walk on the beach before opening the rest of the presents

Once back home we opened some snaks and poured us all some wine before starting to open the rest of the presents. Bradley was pleased with his new Crocs and Sonic Nintendo game, whilst Abigail was pleased with the Trinket box which Lynn had given her and the DVD Princess and the Frog. After opening the presents Paul took the children for a dip in the pool whilst I set about shelling the prawns to prepare a prawn cocktail, and cutting the vegetables. At around 2 o’clock we sat down to our Christmas dinner with less vegetables than usual but we were happy to just have a fresh turkey.