Not having spent much time in river deltas, let alone deltas that lying between desert and wanna-be desert, the day up at the bird sanctuary near the Senegal River was somewhat surreal. I had been to Saint Louis twice before, briefly, so of course I knew what I was talking about. I remembered the harmattan wind blow drying the back of my throat and glueing my contacts to my irises the last time I was there. I had peered into the distant sand and hot shimmer where someone had pointed towards Mauritania and shuddered. I'm from a deciduous, temperate climate, and I guess I liked humidity more than I realized.
So as we bounced along some game attempts at roads on our way to Parc Djoudj--the third largest bird reserve in the world--on the first Sunday morning, I was amazed to see the flooded plains of rice, grasses, and cattails. I knew that rice was grown here, but the sudden change in the landscape was hard to picture. Since we couldn't have been proceeding faster than 15 mph, the driver apparently had plenty of time to scan the roadside, spotting several reptiles sunning themselves at the edge of the flooded fields. We all pushed to one side of the bus to take pictures of pythons and monitor lizards.
Finally we arrived at the park. I had steeled myself for a blistering day, but the weather was cool and breezy as our herd separated into three boats to cross the lake and stir up bird life. There were hordes of pelicans, cormorants, and other smaller birds that darted down into our wake to scoop up tiny fish. Someone pointed excitedly to the edge of the lake, where there was some rustling in bushes, but then a zebu cow emerged and there was some audible disappointment that this wasn't followed by a surprise crocodile attack.
We did, in fact see a 5 foot crocodile, and if you check Facebook, there are 85 pictures to prove it.
The destination of the boat tour was apparently a colossal nesting ground of pelicans, which the guide didn't really explain.
We returned, spotting a bald, or at least balding eagle on the way, and then two necking pythons back at the dock. We rode back to Saint Louis and dug into couscous, yassa poulet, thiebudjenne, and several other Senegalese specialties before a long bus ride back to Dakar.
So as we bounced along some game attempts at roads on our way to Parc Djoudj--the third largest bird reserve in the world--on the first Sunday morning, I was amazed to see the flooded plains of rice, grasses, and cattails. I knew that rice was grown here, but the sudden change in the landscape was hard to picture. Since we couldn't have been proceeding faster than 15 mph, the driver apparently had plenty of time to scan the roadside, spotting several reptiles sunning themselves at the edge of the flooded fields. We all pushed to one side of the bus to take pictures of pythons and monitor lizards.
Finally we arrived at the park. I had steeled myself for a blistering day, but the weather was cool and breezy as our herd separated into three boats to cross the lake and stir up bird life. There were hordes of pelicans, cormorants, and other smaller birds that darted down into our wake to scoop up tiny fish. Someone pointed excitedly to the edge of the lake, where there was some rustling in bushes, but then a zebu cow emerged and there was some audible disappointment that this wasn't followed by a surprise crocodile attack.
We did, in fact see a 5 foot crocodile, and if you check Facebook, there are 85 pictures to prove it.
The destination of the boat tour was apparently a colossal nesting ground of pelicans, which the guide didn't really explain.
We returned, spotting a bald, or at least balding eagle on the way, and then two necking pythons back at the dock. We rode back to Saint Louis and dug into couscous, yassa poulet, thiebudjenne, and several other Senegalese specialties before a long bus ride back to Dakar.
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