Kaolack

Kaolack is the hometown of my friend Ale, thus we went there quite often in order to visit his family and have a good rest at the end of our countless travels. This is one of the biggest towns of Senegal, huge sandy roads, several interesting colonial buildings, many small lovely villages (like that one where his grandfather lives) strategically positioned to enter Gambian border. It's market is also nice and full of skillful tailors and "cordonniers"(shoe maker), in fact before leaving Senegal I had a wonderful Bogolong-style suit made for a very reasonable price. Moreover there is the nice beach of Kundam where most of Kaolack inhabitants spend week ends here a branch of Atlantic enters in a shallow hypersalted (a long row of trucks are always waiting to load marine salt from a near factory)waters getting into the town outskirts. It seems that the new Dakar airport will be not too far from Kaolack.
I must say that I didn't fall in love with Kaolack because during the day the temperatures raise to an unbearable level, getting to 30 degrees even at 6pm. Yet the night it's cooler but still extremely hot, perfect for voracious local mosquitoes. Kaolack nightlife is almost nonexistant with a couple of discos often empty except on sundays when there are nice Senegalese live music and a score of bars with a few dark ambiguous bars (Baobab is probably the worst) where the customers may choose between Gazelle beer and sucrè. However locals are extremely friendly and nice, Ale as usual has too many friends and Cheik was a new one, working in Italy as a restaurant chef. No need to say that Ale huge family was so sweet and fine everytime we arrived in Kaolack.