The 9th Natural Wonder of the World: Lac Patte D'Oie

Sunday, September 9, 2007

When you look at a map of Dakar, it does not have Patte D’Oie Lake on it. The primary reason for this is because it does not exist, except when it rains. It doesn’t matter if it sprinkles or pours; Lac Patte D’Oie quickly develops and becomes one of the larger water masses in Senegal.

This morning, I had been at the Peace Corps regional house (about 1.5 miles from my house) doing laundry, when the sky started to turn dark. I was somewhat taking my time but was trying to beat the looming raining, until it beat me, much like Michigan has been getting beat. Deciding to wait it out a bit, I sat around for about 45 minutes when it looked like the rain was thinning out.

Heading out the door and into sprinkling, I felt like I was in the clear. Because of the weather and the fact I had a huge duffel bag full of clean clothes in it, I decided that my safest and easiest bet would be to take a taxi.

Very quickly, I learned first hand that I left the confines of a roof too soon. The sprinkling got heavier and after dodging and do a few spin moves around large puddles, turning back was not a possibility. Standing up under a tree I flagged down a taxi. After telling the cab where I lived, he quickly and very adamantly refused to drive there. I told him I would pay him a good price and his response was pressing the gas pedal. After the first taxi, I figured my neighborhood was probably a mess. I hailed another taxi and this guy was unwilling at first but with some charm, I was able to convince him to drive a mile and a half. His only reason for not wanting to drive was because his windshield wipers did not work, but as I told him, nobody needs windshield wipers in a downpour (I later regret saying that).

We started driving the direction of my neighborhood and very quickly I saw that a lot of water was on the ground. At this point, I also realized the importance of windshield wipers and the fact that this cab’s roof had an obvious leaking problem. Half way home, we came to a point where cars were turning around and nothing was coming from the opposite direction…not a good sign. We weren’t even in a place that typically flooded badly. We ended up taking a 20 minute detour through side streets. These side streets are typically very narrow with lots of cars/buses/horse carts doing the same thing we were doing…seeing out the front windshield probably would have made things a bit safer, but fortunately I am alive to tell you my story. We came close to getting in just a few head on collisions.

Finally, we reached the bridge that takes you into flood zone and my neighborhood. As we crested the top of the bridge, I saw the 9^th natural wonder of the world, Lac Patte D’Oie. Water was everywhere. While it hasn’t rained too much this year, it was the most amount of flooding I’d seen in the past two years here. Cars were turning around. There was one Land Cruiser that took the road and the water went halfway up its door and waves were being sent everywhere. Because I didn’t know if I should go get my beach towel, tanning oil, and speedo or shout out to the guy and tell him he needed to slow down because he was in a “no wake zone”, I just decided to take a few pictures.

I was facing somewhat of a dilemma when we got to the roundabout just at the bottom of the bridge and when the flooding began. I had no clue where or even how to get out of the cab. I felt like I found a decent place to get out with the least amount of water on the ground. Within about 4 seconds, my shoes were soaked. Nearly 3 seconds later, after having to jump over some water, I about slipped and fell into a large puddle. For some reason, it didn’t occur to me that when you jump, you shouldn’t jump onto slick muck. Fortunately, I saved myself by grabbing onto a street sign.

I figure that if this had been during the work week I probably would not have enjoyed this experience, but because it happened today, I thought it was one of the coolest things. So if you are ever in Dakar and it rains, come see Lac Patte D’Oie. I highly recommend bringing snorkeling gear.