We were up at first light o get through the Senegalese border. We needn't have rushed because the police didn't open until 8.00am and customs until 9.00am. They were also the worst at extorting money from travellers. We lost count of what it did actually cost, but it went something like this. €10 per car to cross the dam from the Mauritanian side to the Senegalese side.
€10 per person to get our passports stamped. After a lot of haggling €70 to allow the car into the country and drive through without a customs escort. We were supposed to have this as our cars were all over 5 years old, which are not allowed to be imported into Senegal. Hence the customs escort to make sure they are taken out. Lastly, we needed insurance, which cost another €30 but also covered The Gambia and lasted 30 days. The Norwejians were also allowed in without their visas. We don't know how, but maybe because their passports were in with a buch of British ones, or maybe it was because they were towing us. We were then on our way to drive about 50km to Zebrabar, which meant passing by St. Louis. Here the police reached new levels for corruption. We were stopped twice and fined for all sorts of bogus reasons, like the car being dirty, or untidy, or too full. Basically they just wanted to take cash from us (daylight robbery I'd call it). After setting the "fine" at €30 per car, they eventually settled for a gift of a couple of packs of cigarettes or a jerry can. Finally we made Zebrabar and after parking up decided that beers were the first necessity. After an hour or two we took the cylinder head off the car, and found that the gasket was intact, and that we had probably warped the cylinder head. We asked if there was anyone in St. Louis who could skim it, but were told there was no one. We then cleaned up all the surfaces and put it back together with instant gasket cement, hoping that this would be strong enough to take the pressure. We tightened the head down and left it until the morning before completeing the rebuild. Then a shower, drinks and a meal at the camp site for John, while Rachael went into St. Louis with the younger ones. 52km today and 6,386km in total.
