La Caleo Du Lac Rose and Dakar

Waking in the morning at my new campsite was a pretty relaxed affair, today Tim and Julio would be arriving and the plan was to wait for them and then move on into Dakar to sort out the Passevent.

I sampled the pool here which was a little warmer than I would have liked but it was still refreshing and provided a nice break during the day.

The time rolled on and I tried to contact them to check on progress, they were pretty close but Julio was having trouble with his bike, it’s keeps cutting out. It looks like we are going to be working on that when he arrives.

Walking around the local area it’s hot and the sun is strong. I walked up to Lac Rose, the old finishing point for the Paris Dakar Rally, the shoreline is now a storage yard for salt production and I chat with local fishermen admiring their machinery for processing and loading fish. I’m approached by a young lady called Fatimo who insists on giving me a friendship bracelet, I don’t really want it, I don’t really like it but she is really persuasive and I end up with the bracelet in the end. Next thing I know she’s there at every corner, she must have planted a tracker in the bracelet as despite my best efforts, everywhere I go, she’s there!

I escape to the campsite and she’s calling me through the walls, in the end I have to just ignore her or just stay out of view!

Eventually Tim and Julio arrive and it’s too late to sort out the papers, they have had a bit of a nightmare with Julio’s bike stalling on many occasions and then not starting, he’s riding an old GS650 Dakar that he’s had for years. We retire to the bar and have a few beers along with another dip in the pool.

So the day was a write off in terms of sorting my paperwork but as my schedule is open there’s no real worry. We plan to have a look at the bike tomorrow.

The bird life here at La Lac Rose is lovely, if you can’t see them you can always just listen to the amazing calls, it is rather pleasant. The doves have a lovely call, I can’t describe the call but it’s soft and beautiful and adds greatly to the experience of being here.

Another good nights sleep in this lovely quiet village, waking early I’m snacking on my rice cakes and homemade Dutch jam. We get to work on the bike and strip off the tanks, got to do some basic checks to eliminate the obvious. Oil, water, fuel, ignition and air.

working through the bike we find a fuel leak and sort that out, check the fuel pump connections and retape the wires. Checking the air filter it’s soaked with oil? The airbox is swimming with oil too and we remove about 100ml from the drain pipe? This must have been filled at the last oil change with the engine cold as there’s still fat too much in the engine too! Airbox is sorted and the filter cleaned.

We have to move the bike as the sun gets too hot. We check everything possible here and put the bike back together.

The pool is calling again so after a nice dip we decided to head off to Dakar, following the route we end up in deep sand winding through the woodland and it’s really hard work! There’s supposed to be a track heading in the right direction but that turns out to be the same deep sand. We decide to head towards the sea where the sand would be more firm. Eventually I manage to make it to the sea and we have to help the GS as he sinks axle deep into the soft sand.

On the shoreline the going is good and we achieve a really good pace, the road is close but deep soft sand is a formidable barrier. I stop to ask some fishermen and they indicate a route off the beach, yes it’s soft sand again so I give the bike some welly and tackle the sand. Winding through the shrubbery I found a pipeline which provided some relief for a short while until I have to leave the pipeline and plunge back in to the sand. Soon we are back on the tar and I ride with my jacket open to cool down.

The ride on tar into Dakar just kept getting busier until we hit the traffic in the town centre, it’s a dirty and crowded place with constant traffic jams. I can’t say it was a nice place to be to be honest but eventually we found the passevent office and renewed successfully. Next on the list was finding Max Motorcycles as the work on the GS was not successful and it’s still cutting out, it was hot and very frustrating getting to the other side of the city with many stops due to Julios bike.

Eventually we arrive and find the owner who is very accommodating, he sorts out a cafe for us and we go out to eat. The service is incredibly slow and we are running late. The food is not great but I’m hungry so I eat it anyway.

Julios bike is going to have to stay at the shop, we try for a taxi but the owner of the shop is concerned that we will be ripped off so he decides to drive Julio back himself and leads us through the traffic.

We pass an accident where there’s a dead body in the floor by the roadside, not a great thing to see. As we leave the City the traffic eases and we are now on potholes rural roads heading back. It’s pitch black again as we ride through busy villages teeming with life in the late evening. We have to stop to clean our glasses as the filth on the road made it almost impossible to see.

Arriving late at the camp it’s all locked up again, we finally get in and I have a cooling shower to try and wash away the heat and dirt of the day.

I am absolutely shattered and climb into bed for a relaxing sleep, what a day, they just keep coming!!