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Favorite thing: Richard Toll is a small town located on the Senegal River in northern Senegal. The river forms the border between Senegal and Mauritania, and it is possible to look across the river into Mauritania. The town is the center of Senegal's sugar industry, and is surrounded by fields of sugar cane. There is not a lot to see or do in Richard Toll, but I stayed there because it is a good base for birdwatching in the nearby Sahel.

Richard Toll was founded in the 1830s when Baron Jacques Roger, then-governor of Senegal, constructed a château on the banks of the Taouey River, a tributary of the Senegal River. The ornamental gardens surrounding the château were laid out by Claude Richard. The town that grew up around the château was eventually called Richard Toll, which means "Richard's Garden."

Favorite thing: There is nothing about Kaolack that I would recommend to travelers. It is one of the most polluted and filthiest cities I have ever been in. Located on the Saloum River in west-central Senegal, the city is the center of Senegal's peanut industry.

To enter the city from the south, which is what I did, it is necessary to cross a causeway over the Saloum River. It is along this causeway that the city dump is located. The garbage seems to be perpetually burning, and acrid smoke fills the air, making it like a scene out of Hell. And people actually make a living in the dump, living in tin shacks and sorting through the garbage to find anything of value that can be resold or reused. The city center itself is filthy and strewn with garbage and animal droppings. This is not a good first impression to have of a city.

Despite Kaolack's lack of attractions for visitors, its central location makes it a stop-over point for travelers passing from northern Senegal to Gambia, or other parts of Africa to the south or east. Therefore, there are some adequate hotels in the city that cater to tourists, but most travelers in Kaolack are just passing through to more interesting and better places beyond.

Favorite thing: Touba is a small city in west-central Senegal which is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in the Islamic world. Because Touba is an Islamic holy city, alchohol and tobacco are forbidden throughout the city at all times. Touba's holiness arises from the fact that it was the hometown of Amadou Bamba, the founder of the Mouride Islamic Brotherhood.

Amadou Bamba was born in 1850 and became an Islamic evangelist. By 1887 he had acquired a large following and had established the Mouride Islamic Brotherhood. This brotherhood emphasized hard physical labor as a pathway to spiritual salvation. (Bamba was a wealthy landowner, and many of his followers were "persuaded" to engage in hard physical labor on his plantations). Bamba's anti-French rhetoric and the power he enjoyed from his large following led to his being exiled by the colonial government. He returned to Senegal in 1907 after 20 years. After he died, he was buried in the city's huge mosque.

A mass pilgrimage called the Grand Magal takes place once a year, 48 days after the Islamic new year. It celebrates Amadou Bamba's return from exile, and attracts over 500,000 pilgrims from Senegal and Gambia.

Favorite thing: Whatever you're looking for about this beautiful country you'll find it at this regularly updated link.

www.au-senegal.com in english and french

If you want more history, then this is the link
www.saintlouisdusenegal.com

Favorite thing: In Tambacounda we saw several signs of internetcafes like this one. It was peculiar, when we entered this building we found out there was no internetcafe at all. Luckily there we enough others in the same street. The connection was rather good. I could open all my mail, which was not always possible in other African towns.

The only problem was there was a long waiting time, because all the computers were occupied by the youngsters of the town. Internet is becoming very popular in every African country, especially with the young people. Almost every boy or girl I met, who liked to exchange addresses has an e-mail account, mostly yahoo.

Favorite thing: We travelled from Senegal to Mali overland, taking the road from Tambcounda to Kayes. This is also the road when you travel from Dakar to Bamako.

In Kidira, the Senegalese bordertown, you have first to get a stamp at the policepost, before you can cross the borderriver. This police post is not at the border, but somewhere else in town. There are people around who can show you the way.

You don't need a visa for Mali in advance, but can buy it at the border. That means you get a stamp in your passport and have to register within 48 hours in Bamako, the capital. First we had to pay 100 euro for each stamp. Finally we paid 25 euro. First they needed a ID-picture of all of us. When they ran out of forms, they gave some of the pictures back.

All together all the formalities at the Senegalese and Malinese side of the border took us almost 4 hours.

Favorite thing: When we visited the Niokolo Koba Park in the south-east of Senegal, we crossed the border between Basse Santa Su in the south-east of the Gambia and Velingara in Senegal.

The 25 KM long road between Basse and Velingara is unpaved, dusty and bumpy. The Badiara Senegalese borderpost between those two towns in the middle of nowhere is told to be the most friendliest borderpost entering Senegal.

We arrived in Velingara in the late afternoon without CFA, The petrol station didn't take euros and the banks were closed. So it took some time before we had CFAs , could refuel and continue our route in the direction of Tambacounda.

Favorite thing: Senegal is one of the most confortable countries in West Africa and you will not feel like you'll be under attack by any serious virus at every second.
Senegal it's mostly dry and seasonally mild and its health care system is not very bad if you need somthing, big cities will surely help you out decently.

Treatments and vaccines you may have to take before you go to West Africa and diseases you can find:

Typhoid
Malaria treatment (prophylaxis)
Yellow Fever
Bilharzia
Diphtheria
Arbovirus
AIDS
Cholera
Cholera inoculation
Polio
Tetanus
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Trypanosomiasis or "sleeping sickness"

Fondest memory: Info taken from Lonely Planet book on West Africa