Kebemer to Thies - Day 180

Date: February 14th, 2010
Distance: 96km
Country: Senegal
Song of the Day: Smile Like You Mean It - The Killers

Left Kebemer today, still heading south. The land around me is changing a bit. It is still grassland with Acacia trees. But I am starting to see more Baobab trees. There are no leaves on them because it is the dry season. Still it feels better to be riding through something a little more interesting than desert. It also feels cooler. The addition of a few trees does help. Then again it isn't that much cooler. I am still going through several liters of water a day.

There are also lots of wrecked and stripped down vehicles along the side of the roads still. I would have thought the steel frame would have been used for something. I guess they don't have a good way to cut it up and transport it though. Everything that can be removed is pulled from the cars and the rest is left to rust. This is Africa.

I got to Thies (pronounced Chee-es, apparently) a few hours before sunset. Things didn't start out going well though. I was having trouble finding a place to stay. I didn't see any hotels or anything as I was riding around. The people on the street either didn't know or their advice was inaccurate. I was also hoping to hear from, Byron, a PCV my cousin put me in contact with. At that point I hadn't heard anything. So I thought I would check my e-mail and see what was up.

I found myself a nice little Cyber on the edge of town. I checked my e-mail, but no luck. I did start talking with a couple of guys there. Elie, is from Rwanda and he owns the Cyber. Paima comes from Belgium and is working for an NGO in town. We just sat there on the porch out front chatting. They were having beer, and I was putting away a huge bottle of Coke. It was great. Since I didn't have a place to stay Elie said that I could stay with him. How great is that?

The three of us also went out to dinner. I had forgotten it was Valentine's day, but the place was all decked out with roses and hearts. I guess three dudes walking in wasn't exactly what they were expecting. Still, the food was good. After that they were going to take me out to a nightclub for some dancing. I guess it was a swimming pool during the day, and a restaurant and nightclub at night. Except this night. It was closed. Not to be defeated Elie and Paima tried to take me to a couple of other places, but they were dead. So we just called it a night.

-Dravis