#28 – Banana boat ride

During a trip to Senegal we had the option for some team bonding time - it was between a shopping trip at local markets or a ride out off the coast on a banana boat.  I had already been shopping once that trip, and there is definitely a limit to my shopping ability, so the choice was really no choice at all, especially as the boat option sounded really fun.

So a group of us wandered down from the hotel to the beach and the boat which Rick had organised for us – with swimming stuff under our clothes just in case!  We had one of the smaller banana boats which meant that the probability of getting wet was increased.  Having Rick with us in the group we discovered meant those getting wet odds became a certainty!

 

It was a beautiful hot, sunny day as we waded out to the boat and got ourselves comfortable.  When the questions from our boat crew went along the lines of whether we ladies in the group were all married or not I decided my French was not up to admitting an understanding or attempting an answer and left Tiana to ably field off the questions.   

 

So I just sat back and enjoyed the breeze as we raced along parallel to the coast.  We were amazed to see quite so many hotels having not realised we were in quite such a touristy spot.  It was a national holiday and all the fishing boats were still moored and so it was pretty quiet out on the water...  Pretty quiet that is until Rick decided we needed to be wetter than we were and Phumeza decided to make it war!

 

Rick was sat at the front of the boat and so could send water over us pretty easily.  Phumeza however was sat just in front of Tiana and me and didn’t seem to notice that her attempts to go against the wind and get Rick wet were really only succeeding in sending an absolute deluge of water back on top of us.  Apparently our screams were not enough explanation as she was intent on beating Rick and getting him wet.  Between that and Rick’s final attack having jumped out quick as the boat came in to moor we were pretty wet.  Okay, so we were totally bedraggled and drenched!  But it was worth it and was so much fun.