28th May - Zebrabar last day

Today I (Nicki) have little to report as I lay around reading a trashy novel for most of the day! This was after breakfast, where I sampled the homemade brown bread, the first brown bread I have had since England. David couldn't resist having a bit off the end!

 

OK then, it's my turn (David).  I'd been contemplating the knocking exhaust downpipe and thought I'd have a look at it.   Armed with some exhaust putty, I undid the bolts.  The first was fine, but the second one sheared off…  With no way of getting it out, I had to smear the exhaust putty around everywhere and do the other bolt back up.  Not really ideal and I hope the other bolt doesn't now shear off.   Stupid truck!

 

Like Nicki, I had a fairly undemanding day, but Ursula from Zebrabar asked if I could help her sort out a couple of things on her laptop.   I was quite pleased and surprised to find that I could, which earned us both a free drink, but more importantly meant I was one of the privileged few to see inside their lovely house.   It's a bit of Swiss design stuck in the middle of Senegal.  I sort of enjoyed my free drink, but I've been put off bottled Sprite ever since finding what appeared to be a decaying slug floating around in a bottle a couple of days ago, when I put it to my mouth.

 

Towards the end of the afternoon we dug out the 2-man canoe from the boatstore (not the leaky one we used last time, the other one) and paddled across the river to the immensely long, thin spit of land that separates it from the Atlantic.  It was only a few hundred yards, but it got a bit choppy in the middle, and we were paddling against the tide, so it was more arduous than it looked.   Once landed, we walked across the spit (about 300m wide, half sand and half conifers in sand) to the Atlantic beach.  It was nearly deserted, although I did see somebody a long way away who had come over on a pirogue.   I went for a swim, although I didn't go deeper than waist deep, because there was a wicked current running along the beach.

 

The beach was covered in flotsam and general rubbish at the high tide mark.  There were also a lot of dead fish, I think derived from fishing activity, as there were also some nets in the little lagoon before the beach shelved away.   We wandered through the dead fish for a while, and headed back.  The paddle back home was easier than the outgoing trip, although the kayak kept veering upstream for reasons we couldn't fathom.

 

Dinner was worth the wait.  Martin barbecued a big lump of beef fillet over the coals, and it was served up with potatoes, salad, pumpkin fritters, fried aubergine and all manner of other bits and pieces.   I was slightly concerned lest we ran out of meat, but even though Nicki and I stuffed ourselves silly, we still had some left over at the end, probably to the delight of the largest Zebrabar dog, Nico.   It's the best meal we've had in Africa and left us both feeling very satisfied.  We paid before bed, planning an early start in the morning.