An Exciting Chance Discovery in Dakar

Salut, s’il vous plait je cherche un restaurant bon marche ici. It was around 6pm and I was talking to a random guy somewhere in Dakar, the very lovely capital city of Senegal with all the courage I could muster to speak some French whether right or wrong. I had been wandering for almost half an hour just looking for some place I could eat something good for dinner without leaving a huge dent on my shoestring budget. I was already feeling faint since I started the wandering on an empty stomach. The guy pointed and told me to just walk on ahead. I thanked him and walked on.

After a short walk I saw a sign that read Parc forestier et zoologique de Hann. A park with a zoo!? I entered the park but was disappointed to find the zoo section was closed. However a walk in the forest section of the park led to a lovely surprise in the number of beautiful greenish blue colored birds resulting in lots of beautiful pictures.

Few minutes deeper down the forest I came to the ultimate stunning surprise of the day: A small lake with a small motorboat cruising on it with a few people inside, a few large birds fluttering about on the lake as the boat came close to them, a bright orange sunset casting a brilliant reflection over the lake, hundreds of birds, mostly white egrets flying and chirping about on some of the trees surrounding the lake making those trees look like they grew white leaves rather than green!

Staring at the lake taking in all of the views in one time was simply intoxicating! I stood enthralled by the sight for minutes before remembering my camera. I immediately snapped it up and I tried to take several pictures of everything!

I must have taken more than a hundred pictures before noticing the boat was now moored while another batch of people got in for the next cruise. I ran to the boat and also hopped in. After about 7 people got on the boat we set off on our own cruise. The bright orange sunset over the lake with the white egrets and other species of birds flying and chirping in the sky above our heads and the larger birds fluttering about us as our boat approached them made that boat cruise beyond a magical experience. Everyone on the boat was busy taking pictures with their phones. I thought I was the only one, but it turned out even the locals were mesmerized.

Of all the things I did while in Dakar including seeing Lake Retba, the enchanting and touristy pink lake north of Dakar my experience at the park remains the most memorable.