Amsterdam|Dakar – Day 22 – Dakar, Senegal
September 23rd, 2011
Bike has to be left to the airport today but need to buy a baggy or two to put clothes in to take back on the flight. The rest I’ll leave in the panniers and ship. Head to shopping mall and purloin a couple of sports bags. Justyna needs one as well. She will fly up to Casablanca and pick up the stuff that we left with Amine and leave it in Dubai for me to pick up net time I’m there as she is moving to Poland in mid October. I, on the other hand, will fly direct back to Amsterdam on Air Maroc, which it turns out is way cheaper than flying only to Casablanca.
We head over to the Maersk airport office, just up the road. Much waiting around and a quick visit to the Senegalese customs. Head back to the hotel for lunch. I haven’t booked my flight back to Amsterdam as I can’t leave Senegal without the airway bill that says it’s being exported, i.e. proof that I didn’t sell the bike in Senegal. Ride the bike to the Air France/KLM Cargo area and disconnect the battery and watch as the guys empty the gas tank. The last of Justyna’s candies come in handy after a mouthful of gasoline apparently. But someone will likely be selling the 10 odd litters that came out of her. The dangerous cargo guy came and checked that the bike was electrically dead and gave her the ok to fly. Over the space of the next hour and a half the mlog guys constructed the crate for her which I wheeled her up on and then they put the framing around her. Finally a forklift came and took her away – I wasn’t allowed to follow. So strange – now we we’re no longer travellers, just tourists with no freedom or transport – completely weird to not have the old girl sitting outside the hotel!
We walked back to the hotel for some lunch and then back to the airport to pick up the paperwork which was finally complete around 4.30pm. We’re both now booked on early morning flights out to Casablanca/Amsterdam early tomorrow morning. So a quick taxi ride in the twilight into Dakar and hopped on the ferry to Isle Goree which Justyna wanted to see, followed by a light dinner, Yassa Chicken which was delicious for me, and back to a pastis at the hotel before turning in, and off course those end of ride/vacation blues.
