Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Driving in Dakar

Yesterday, 12 hours after i got off the plane from the states, I was driving through downtown Dakar during rush hour. Traffic was even heavier than usual due to a demonstration due to the killing of a fisherman by the coast guard for fishing in a forbidden area which blocked the cornice and forced all regular traffic into the narrow streets downtown and residential neighborhoods.

Driving a large Toyota LandCruiser amongst all the little cars and scooters was fun. It was almost like bumper cars but they had to respect and avoid the large metal brush guards and huge SUV. The taxis gave way to us most of the time and we were able to ford the flooded and cratered streets in the industrial zone. We never made it above 60 km/h, even on the autoroute, but made it to Les Almadies in about 45 mins. Near the airport i passed a herd of cattle walking down the road amongst the cars. The 40 or so horned cattle didnt mind our SUV or the rapidcars rushing by feet away from their sharp horns. I guess its part of their daily drive.

No comments:

Post a Comment