Backpacking Kedougou: Part 1

Picture jumping on a janky Peugeot that seats 7 (cleverly called a "sept place" here) with a driver that speaks no French or English, heading south for 12 hours with fellow adventure-seekers bound for who-knows-what. Exchanging sweat because of the close proximity in the car that sometimes feels like it is fixing to give up its last exhaust fumes any second. True to the time estimate, we arrived in the town of Kedougou that evening around 8pm and after some searching, found ourselves in a "campement" for the night. Campements are composed of a few huts with beds inside, and if you're lucky (or spend a few more bucks), possibly a wall that has a toilet and bucket with water for bucket showers behind it. Showers which we soon discovered were a sort of lifeline to improved sleep, as the heat kept you sweating all night long and the dust you gathered during the daytime created a sort of mud that clung to your body and embedded itself in the creases of your skin. All that to say, any place that had a bucket shower option was welcomed with open arms.

The road to Dindefelo

It would be impossible to sum up my trip in just a few words, but I will give an overview in two posts (and they will undoubtedly be long ones). My group was composed of 2 other girls and one guy (who split off at Kedougou the first day but whom we met up with a couple days later in a different village). Our second night, the three of us girls spent the night at the Peace Corps house in Kedougou, two of us sharing a mosquito-netted bed in a wall-less hut called the "Disco Hut." The following day, we headed off on a market bus to a small village called Ségou in search of some waterfalls we had heard about. We shared our adventures that day with a French couch-surfer named Anthony who we had met the night before with the Peace Corps. Ségou had a beautiful campement overlooking a valley that is farmed when the rains come. We tried some local tea on wooden benches in the village and saw the "international highway" that connects Senegal to Mali (tempted to take it, but resisted the urge). I wish I had a picture of this road, as it was about the width of a Honda Civic and was composed entirely of rocks. Apparently it is impassible by car which made a lot of sense to me looking at it. We hiked 7 km out to the waterfall (more of a "watertrickle" because of it being dry season) through burned off brush and through dry riverbeds. There were a few beautifully inviting water pools we swam in as we followed the river. I discovered that though my Chacos were perfect for the occasion, the rocks took full advantage of my exposed skin and took a few chunks outta my feet. Only saw one snake. Dinner that night was under the stars on a bench in village: we sat around the bowl and ate rice and peanuty sauce with hot pepper on top, a cow literally looking over our shoulders one foot away, the stars bright in the sky above, and the lady who cooked our meal eating right next to us with the village chief. 

Waterfall at Dindefelo

A 5km walk down the road brought us to Dindefelo, a larger village next to much bigger waterfalls. We met up with our 4th party member by asking where the tall American was (Mike is about 6 and 1/2 feet tall) and went swimming at the gorgeous falls. It was so cold in the waterfall gorge that I had goosebumps during the hottest time of the day! We dined on egg and bean sandwiches in town just about every meal in Dindefelo.

Mainstreet in Dindefelo

On the trail between Dindefelo and Ibel

The following morning we left Dindefelo at 6:45am and began our 25km hike to the next village, Ibel. Our guide kept a lively pace, and we only stopped once for him to use the bushes, this "break" lasting all of 2 minutes (if that). 3 hours and 13 minutes brought us to Ibel, but the campement was deserted. I explored the village with one of the others, Camilla, and ended up finding out that no one knew where the manager of the campement was. 2 hours after arriving in Ibel, we made the grand decision to keep walking to the next village, Bandafassi. It was about 12noon at that point, and we each had about half a liter of water on us when we headed out. 7km later we arrived dusty and tired to our destination and walked into the campement in time to collapse on chairs a table over from a proper-looking French family sipping tea. We probably left dirty sweat marks on the chairs when we finally got up to pump water into our bottles from the nearby well. My feet cursed me with every step I took on them after that, and walking another 1km into the village to find lunch was rough though rewarding. A random guy we met brought us to his sister who cooked us up a feast of eggs and veggies which tasted better than Thanksgiving dinner to a hungry and expectant stomach. That night we calculated that we had walked over 34 km that day and went to bed early. The night that ensued seemed to last forever, however, between laying in a pool of sweat all night, hearing dogs viciously fighting right outside (ended finally by a gunshot), and a member of our group up twice vomiting our dinner of fries and egg all over the bathroom floor. 

"Mountain" overlook

The next morning the three of us who weren't sick climbed up the "mountain" behind our village and were able to look out across the whole valley as the sun rose in the sky. BEAUTIFUL. We wished we could just stay there for hours, but we had arranged to catch a ride back to Kedougou with the campement manager at 9am. We squatted all day at a well maintained hotel restaurant overlooking the river with views of people beating clothes clean on rocks and washing trucks. Though we each ordered a drink (I had forgotten how good just black tea is), we stayed there for about 4 or even 5 hours eating our own messy mangoes (...including flossing the fibers out of our teeth right there in plain daylight), oranges (which had to be peeled with pocket knives), and millet (made with the extra hot water for the tea). Let's just say that they were ready to see us leave when we told them we weren't going to buy their lunch. Going cheap can be insanely obnoxious for those who want you to spend.