Delayed Travelversary and Other Complications – Senegal Travel Diary #2

Dear Senegal Travel Diary,
Plans for our Travelversary ran headlong into a country-wide transportation strike here in Senegal.

Still, we celebrate our – belated due to technical difficulties – 4th Travelversary from the rooftop of our Air BnB.

It’s been a rough week. No water, then water, but no hot water, 48-hour transportation strike that is now going on indefinitely. Not sure where we’re headed next, or when we’ll be able to get there.

I mean, we’ve been traveling for 4 years. We’re not going to let a little transportation disruption get us down, are we? Are we?

(Note: I apologize if the image gets pixellated. Sometimes the reception around here is pretty bad.)

Oh, and a foggy day? Well, maybe it wouldn’t have been such a good idea taking a boat out to an island. I show you the African Renaissance Monument anyway, and Phare des Mamelles – the White Lighthouse of Dakar – from our awesome rooftop locale.

When you look at it, maybe a big to-do for our 4th Travelversary wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes that’s the way it goes. With travel in general, and especially travel in Africa, you have to learn to roll with the punches.

If you want to see the contrast between this street when it’s busy, and what it looks like during the strike, watch both videos below.

To check out our first Senegal Travel Diary, go here: https://www.teamhazardridesagain.com/senegal-travel-diary-1-live-in-ouakam-dakar/

Video Transcript

  • We’re live.
  • We’re live. We’re live?
  • We’re live.

(Tim screams)

Okay, everyone.

So, we did this a couple days ago

and for those of you who
tuned in and, I mean,

it was the middle of the
night for a lot of people,

but, and stuck with us,

we had some technical difficulties.

  • Oh, yeah.
  • And the picture

was really pixelated and thank
you for sticking with us.

  • And you couldn’t hear us.
  • And I apologize.

No, it wasn’t a sound problem then.

  • Wasn’t a sound problem?
  • We had solved that one.
  • Oh, okay. I thought… Oh.
  • So it’s our travelversary.

This is our fourth travelversary.

We’ve been traveling since
December 1st of 2017.

That’s four years of full time travel.

  • And Santa still hasn’t
    brought us anything.
  • Okay, so it looks like we
    still had a connection problem

but hopefully there wasn’t a
big long connection problem

but what I was saying is,

we’re having some technical difficulties

with getting these lives done.

Even on cell data and net,
we are in Dakar, Senegal.

  • Dakar.
  • And that might be part
    of the reason for it,

so we have had some technical
difficulties with the lives

but hopefully this one will go out.

We want to celebrate and
mark our travelversary.

  • Yay!
    (Trina laughs)
  • Also tell you a little
    bit about what’s going on.
  • Story so far.
  • Yeah, the story so far.

If you watched our first travel diary,

you know that we were
without water for a few days.

And we were working out of jugs.

  • Water, water (exclaims).
  • And we were working out of water jugs

and that sort of thing.

Then we got the water back,

but we were, had a few additional days

without hot water. So cold showers.

  • Yeah.
  • Yeah. He just went stinky.
  • Well, you said it was cold.
  • It was.
  • Why should I freeze myself?
  • And so on top of that, we went to do,

we were gonna go out to Gorée
Island for our travelversary.

There’s a transportation
strike in the country.

All across Senegal.

And so no taxis, no minibuses, no nothing.

And that was supposed
to last for two days.

It was two days.

  • Now it’s three days.
  • The strike is going longer.

So we actually don’t know
when we’re gonna get out

to celebrate for our travelversary.

  • Yeah. We think they’re having it

because of our travelversary
and they’re celebrating it

and that’s why they’re not here.

  • Yeah.
  • But.
  • They’re all celebrating on our behalf.
  • Yeah.
  • No, hopefully the workers
    and them get what they deserve

and get a re… More power to them.

  • Yes.
  • Don’t sit up too tall,

you’re gonna go out of frame.

  • Oh.

(Trina laughs)

  • And, here. Let me tilt it a little bit.

There we go.

  • Okay.
  • That’s a little better.

Okay, so. But I do wanna say,

we have been loving traveling
together for four years.

Ins and outs, ups and downs, you know,

his busted leg, us getting
stuck in Vietnam during COVID,

everything in between,

you getting carried down
the mountain in Ghana.

  • Yeah.
    (Trina laughs)
  • So, dear, it has been
    quite an adventure,

and I want to say

cheers.

  • Cheers.

Right, mate. Cheers!

  • To many more years of travel.
  • Absolutely.
  • Let’s hope we can do this

for a lot, lot, lot longer.

  • Crikey.
  • So cheers, everybody.

Thanks for joining us for
our fourth travelversary.

And the only thing that’s been going on

is that it’s actually
been foggy as heck here.

First few days, there were a few days

that were super, super windy.

And now it’s being all foggy.

But I want to show you our views

’cause I showed it over on Instagram

but I haven’t showed it on YouTube yet

and it’s still kind of a cool view.

So I am gonna take the mic
and I am gonna run over

and I am gonna show you
guys this awesome view

from the rooftop of our Airbnb.

There’s a lot of rooftop stuff

when you’re traveling in Africa.

So, hang on.

Okay. So this is our view.

And let me clip on here.

Okay. This is our view.

And what’s kind of cool about this is,

let me see if I can get
the perfect… There we go.

That is the African
Renaissance Monument of Dakar.

(mosque call sounding)

Oh, and there is a mosque sounding off.

If you can hear it, sometimes
this mic doesn’t show that.

And then there’s another hill over here,

and on top, it’s kind of
hard to see right now,

but there’s a lighthouse.

And I will tell you right now,

I am editing a video for that lighthouse.

It is almost done, it will be
going up in the next few days.

And I’m gonna zoom in a little here,

and give you a little sense of,

give you a little closer sense of things.

And there, you can see that second hill

where the lighthouse is.

It’s actually the taller hill,

but from this perspective
it doesn’t look like it.

But this is our view of the city.

If you look at our Instagram,

we have some really cool sunset pictures

and I did another broadcast from there

that we had some
technical difficulties so,

but you can look at our stills.

I think I got a sunset picture in there.

But there will be more coming on that.

And as I say, I’m gonna go back to Tim.

Real quick, but we have this awesome view

and we have this awesome
rooftop garden/bar

for breakfast and we can come up here

and eat anytime we want,
so we are in a good place,

even if we can’t go anywhere by taxi.

And so we’re still enjoying
the heck out of the place,

whether or not we can go somewhere or not.

  • Yes, we walk from here.

(Trina laughs)

  • And if you watch

the first travel diary, you’ll see what

a little of bit of that walk looks like.

Okay. So.

What?

  • I don’t know.
  • Oh, I thought you said something.
  • What, what?
  • I don’t know. You’re gonna be clever.

You’re gonna be clever right now?

  • No.
  • No.
  • I got no clever left in me.
  • Okay, so why don’t we let them go?
  • Okay.
  • Okay. Thank you for joining
    us for our travelversary

and our travel diary update.

And we’ll see you next time.

  • Bye!
  • Au revoir!
  • À bientôt!


Trina Phillips

I've been traveling to off-the-beaten-path destinations for more than 20 years. Now I'm sharing my continuing adventures in Africa.

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