Kayaking down the Cassamance

For the following day in Ossuyeh, we'd organised a kayak trip with Charles (VTT), but he'd got in contact the evening before to say that the tides meant that we could only go at 4pm. So after a relaxed day, including doing some washing Mum, we set off on bikes for the river.

Dropping the bikes off in a village about ten minutes away, we got the kit from a nearby hut and walked through some forest before emerging onto some paddy fields. These went on for quite a way, but we eventually arrived at the river's bank. The woven wooden hut that contained the kayaks was about twenty feet out, in the shallows. As we waded through, the river bed changed from sand to stone, to a kind of clay that felt really weird on the feet - you sunk into it, and we didn't know what was in these waters!

Getting the kayaks out was a bit of a mission in itself. Some huge wasps (and I mean ginormous) had started making small nests in the overturned kayaks, and were obviously a bit disturbed. These wasps were only black, but had a separated thorax and hovered around like a helicopter, sounding a bit like that too, as they were two or three inches big!

Got in eventually: me and Barney in one, Dree and Charles in the other, and headed into the bolong (mangrove swamps) that created a maze from the shoreline. Children were playing out in the water, which was pretty murky from the mud, and tried to grab a lift as we passed by. Dree and Charles were flying along, but me and B seemed to be going in a zig-zag fashion, using twice as much energy as the others. B blamed me, and I agreed because anyone who knows me knows that my upper body strength isn't fantastic. But when me and Dree swapped kayaks, Dree said that it was definitely Barney's steering that was at fault. I'll take that!

It was quite cool to do something a bit different, but there was not a lot to see, bar the groves. Saw a handful of birds, and a man in a pirogue who had caught a lot of fish during his day on the river. After changing our route, and heading into the cramped gaps between the submerged trees (lots of laughter as B and Dree careered about, smashing into the sides), we emerged into a wider part of the river. Charles asked us if we'd like a swim, and we jumped in. The water was lovely, it was a very hot day, and was a bit surreal to be swimming in a place like that. Did have a small fear about the fish that swim up your you-know-what, but I was reassured they were just in the Amazon.


Headed back to land, and got to the bikes just after dusk. Trek organised for the next morning. Can't wait!