Lompoul Dunes

     One of the places that I wanted to visit while in Senegal was Lompoul Dunes (Desert).  With only three weeks left in this country, plans were made to go to the dunes with Amanda and Lindy, my journeyman friends in Dakar.  I traveled to Dakar on Friday morning.  That afternoon the three of us were off on the 150 km drive to the dunes.  We parked our truck at Lompoul Village where we loaded up on another truck to head to our encampment.

     Since I have never slept in a tent before and I'm sick of sand, you might wonder why I decided to go to Lompoul Dunes.  I had started wondering that myself but I managed to convince myself that this was going to be a memorable adventure.  After about a 20 minute ride out in the middle of nowhere, we arrived at our encampment.

Our tent

At least we had beds 

Our bathroom was behind the grass walls

Shower

Toilet 

     As you can see, the bathroom was a little rustic.  The desert is actually pretty cool in the evenings and mornings so we were never hot.  Thus, we did not sweat.  Thus, I decided not to try out the shower.  The toilet, on the other hand, was a necessity.  As you can see, it was a porcelain toilet (thankfully not a squatty potty).  However, it was sitting over a hole in the ground.  The bucket was for filling with water to pour into the toilet after each use to "flush" the toilet.  This was the height of luxury since they even provided us with toilet paper.

     After stowing our stuff in the tent, we headed out to "surf" the dunes.  That is to say, Lindy and Amanda were going to surf the dunes; I was going to be the photographer.  Surfing the dunes was not quite what we were expecting.  The boards would go a little ways and then just sink into the sand.  At least I was able to do my job and take pictures of the action.

     Around 7:45 pm we headed to the tent where we were to eat our dinner.  They had set up mats outside the tent with appetizers on them for all of us (there were four French couples there as well as us).  We had peanuts, chips, and olives to eat and a pitcher of some fruit drink that looked a little like lemonade.  Well, I quickly discovered that it wasn't lemonade.  It had quite a kick to it (if you know what I mean).  When our hosts discovered we weren't drinking it, they offered us something else to drink.  We shared our pitcher with the French couples who were quite delighted to drink it for us.  Shortly after 8:00 we went inside the tent to eat our supper.  The first course was a delicious soup.  It was followed up with couscous, sauce, and beef.  Dessert was some fruit.  We were pretty tired and wanted to go to our tent but we had to hang around for the bonfire and after dinner entertainment.  Finally, around 10:00 we made our way to the tent and into bed.

Appetizers

Bonfire

Entertainment

 

    In spite of it being pretty cold outside, we were quite snug in our tent.  There were no sounds except the birds and wind which made for a wonderful night's sleep under the warm comforter.  Amanda and I decided to get up around 6:30 am on Saturday to go see the sunrise over the dunes.  It was so quiet and peaceful sitting there waiting for the sun to rise.  I sat there meditating on God's beautiful creation that I was able to enjoy.

Sunrise

     We had our breakfast around 8:00 am.  It consisted of bread, jam, juice (without the kick), and your choice of hot tea or coffee.  

     After breakfast we decided to take a camel ride in the desert.  My first (and I thought my last) experience riding a camel left me pretty sore so I was a little hesitant to ride one again.  Amanda and Lindy talked me into going with them, though.  It wasn't bad at all so now I can say I've ridden a camel across the desert.  Well, that may be a slight exaggeration since we only rode for 30 minutes and our guide walked in front of the camels.  

     Though Lompoul Dunes is not the Sahara Desert, it is very close to what the Sahara looks like.  It was not quite what I expected but it was still beautiful and a lot of fun.