April 19th, 2017 Banjul, Gambia

5:45AM I woke up to go to the bus station. The two boys escorted me there. It was 2500 XOF to the border. We left at 6:30AM and arrived at 9AM. The visa was expensive (70 USD or 45000 XOF or 3000 GMD). I paid in USD first. Luckily the immigration officer let me take my 70 USD back to exchange it for GMD to make it better for me.

I ended up exchanging 60 USD for 2650 GMD and 5000 XOF for 370 XOF. The total was 3000 GMD. I was thoroughly searched by the police after he found my second passport. He looked through every pocket of my camera bag. We left for Banjul at about 9AM. It was either 2000 XOF or 150 GMD. I paid in XOF.

12:30PM Well, it looks like I am going to miss my plan to fly to Mauritania. People told me it would take at least 4 hours to drive from the border to Dakar. The boat also took 1 hour instead of 30 minutes to get across from Banjul.






1:30PM I am way late. The Gambian man made me pay for the taxi to the bus station, where he bargained for a ticket at 7000 XOF. We spent the next 5 and half hours on the road. We stopped once and the whole time I was thinking, what a dumb idea to take the road. I shouldn't have listened to Harman, who told me yesterday I would reach Dakar by 1PM. Now I'm going to get there at 6PM at the earliest.

6:45PM We finally reached Dakar proper. Now we had to share another taxi to Dakar airport. I bargained this time and got it down to 1000 XOF per person.



7:05PM The plane hasn't left! It is going at 8:30PM. I ran across the airport to get change so I can save myself a day. The ticket was 149,800 XOF. I exchanged 240 USD for 148,800 and then had 900 left to add up to 100 XOF short. He let me go. Yes!

9PM I reached Nouakouchatt at 9PM in exactly an hour. The visa was 60 USD or 55 EUR. Even though I found it was cheaper to pay in EUR, I was wrong- the USD is even stronger than 1:1.1. Anyway, I was going to check out fast and hitch a ride from this tall white man but they wanted to check my luggage and he left without me. I found a couple who came to pick up their friend who offered to give me a ride. J gladly accepted. Her friend was delayed. I waited for half an hour and went inside to look for her Algerian friend, Miriam, who lives in Paris. I found her and we went on our way. I told them today I reached my 100th country of Gambia. They stopped at the hotel they knew and surprised me- that I was going to stay for free! Woot! Such generous people I have met in the last two days.