Going north
We experienced, the previous day, how tediously slow public transport can be in Senegal. Today we were going to get to Saint Louis, on the far northern coast of Senegal, a good 300 kilometers from Dakar and on the border with Mauritania. We got up at 7:30 and got to the bus station a good hour later, where we found no sept-place leaving for Saint Louis. Perhaps it was because it was already too late, but clarity on this was lacking. We had to settle for two seats on a large bus and because in Senegal, and many other African countries, busses only leave when they are quite or even extremely full, the bus slowly filling up meant we only left the bus station after 12:30. Bad traffic on the Dakar peninsula and the heavily loaded and therefore slow bus, meant we arrived in Saint Louis just under eight hours later.
We had prepared for no sanitary stops, meaning drinking almost nothing and eating sparely, and we were right in doing so. Snacks, and drinks, can be had whenever the bus slowed down, when hordes of venders jump into the bus trying to get rid of anything from peanuts to crackers to dishwashing liquid to frozen yoghurt, and it's amazing how some 80 passengers all can survive a nearly eight hour journey with none of them having to use the bathroom. Or… are they?
And, on top of that, when we arrived at the bus station, we weren't the first ones in the bus to wait for it to leave. Those already waiting had not had a toilet break upwards of 11 hours.
Maybe everyone here has a stoma?