Bandai Animal Reserve, Senegal

‘We got into port around 7 AM. It looks pretty much like any other port-lots of cranes, oil tankers and container ships. We reported to Star Lounge, the theater, and awaited our tour to be called. We made sure to get on the same bus as our friends Betty and Rudy. We drove almost an hour to the preserve. We loaded up in game vehicles. There were 4 rows of seats, each holding 4 or 5 people. So we were pretty crammed in. They put a chain across the doorway and off we went. I was on that side and was a little worried about falling out.
We set off on our drive. Unlike the safaris I did in South Africa and Botswana, we were out at the crack of dawn to go on safaris. We, of course, didn’t get started unto around 10:00. They are very smart on the pickup. They waited and got lots of animals by throwing food out to the animals. That brought them all out. We saw giraffes, wart hogs, Senegal antelopes, lots of monkeys, zebras, springbok, rhinos. We even saw an albino zebra. It had stripes but they were very pale and no brown between the black strips. The driver gave us lots of time for photos, which was nice. We were out about 3 hours. I was on the outside seat and had to keep dodging the acacia branches with their long thorns. I got hit by them once but no damage done.
‘The animals, especially giraffes, were well camouflaged with the trees and bushes. There weren’t many open spaces except for the dirt roads that ran in every direction. We didn’t see any elephants and there are no lions in that park. We passed by a large pond with a crocodile hiding in the water.
‘At the end we were taken to the restaurant for a free drink, soda or beer or wine. I bought Bunny and I an ice cream bar. We went to some tables to eat and drink. The waiters told us to watch out for the monkeys. Sure enough, a monkey came and grabbed the wrapper from my ice cream bar. When I was done with the ice cream, I handed him the stick with ice cream and a bit of chocolate on it. He took it very politely from my hand. When Bunny was almost done, she put the bar down and the monkey was there in a second to grab it. The restaurant overlooked a big pond. At the end of the terrace there were a couple dozen crocodiles in the water. One had come up on shore very near the fence. He did not look friendly. Later in another area, one of the waiters threw some bread out and a croc ran up on shore to eat it. We also saw a couple big lizards crawling around. Of course there was a gift shop. Their credit card machine was not working so that limited our shopping, which was a good thing. We got back on the bus for the ride back to the ship.

Of course there was a market set up outside the ship. We went back on the ship, had some lunch and then went shopping. I found a pretty necklace, wooden rhino and, surprise…another turtle. I also go a tee shirt with a baobab tree on it. Haven’t tried it on yet, hope it fits.. If not, one of the grandkids will get it. I took almost 200 photos. I haven’t put all of them in this file. I will have some now and more in the next couple days.

Photos: monkeys, giraffes, mom and baby, rhinos, zebras