Thu 4 Mar
Back at Dakar Sailing Club I find there are no rooms free but luckily fellow guests Claude and Aureli, who I met a few days before, let me borrow their tent.

Fri 5 Mar

At 5:55pm my taxi is stuck in heavy traffic. I pay my fare and run. It's hot, humid, and I'm a bit unfit; this is an effort. At 5:59:59 I reach the railway station. At the "international" counter there's a queue of maybe eight people, each remarkably taking at least five minutes. When I finally get to the counter my reservation is still in tact so I hand over my US$80. Then they explain to me that due to "problem technical" the train is now leaving on Sunday at 1:50pm, 24 hours later than advertised. Everyone seems delighted it's running at all and actually, at this stage, one more day isn't going to make much difference.