Gone at 7:00AM from Dakar with Christophe on monday 8 march 2010, we arrived at Palmarin on 10:00AM, the trip seems to be nice under the hot sun and blu sky..

The landscape is wonderfull with long gradients of color sand and salt, the sporadic vegetation tagged by the majestic baobabs, the pelicans that drape the ascending winds, the waders which bite the bolongs, and the carts that cross this immensity.

We first stay at Campement Djidjack (http://www.djidjack.com/) where we decided to camp this night waiting to start to the "ilots nouveaux" next morning. Here Jean-Paul et Grazziella kindly welcome us, there is clear water and electricity is produced in the evening with a generator.

The wind is blowing moderatly from North-East on the river, but we prefere wait for the ocean wind turning in the afternoon. We contact Stéphane Besse (772701486) who lives further at Diakhanor (few kilometers before Djifer) and whose boat will be used the next days (a beautiful shell in resin and a beautiful Yamaha 75cv !).

>We talk about the details of the next days, then we go kitesurfing on Djidjack beach, Christophe uses his F-One Bandit-Dos 12m and I use my Genetrix Origin 15m, because the wind is low.

It's quiet for one hour, and then the wind goes upper and upper, so that we are overloaded at 20 knots, high jumping making the show for fishmen going at work with their boats ! The session ends at night, we are tired but smiling about these next days in the "Delta du Saloum".

Thursday morning at 8:00, we are loading all gears into the boat, and then going to the "îlots nouveaux".Steph's motor turns without any noise, it's reassuring, we cross Djifer's path, then we run along East-side of Sangomare island, disturbing a few pelicans and cormorants. We hope that the Trade Winds will raise up for a downwind run from the north side to the south side of the island, but it does'nt in the morning, so we continue with the motor ; we stop to get few dead woods which will be usefull for lighting and cooking Joseph's "attaya" !

One hour later, we cross the Delta and we can see the "îlots nouveaux" far on the water's surface with promising waves !

It's wonderfull, the water is clear and warm for this season, the sand is hot, many birds welcome us : gulls, cormorants, pelicans...

The 2 islets are imbricated and making a kind of lagoon with 200m diameter, with one path north-side and one path south-side, it's a complete configuration : waves in in south-side with offshore wind, extra-flat water in the lagoon, and on-shore wind in the north-side with choppy water.

Once the camp installed, some Niominka fishmen are coming to visit us and rest before going back home.

We pump the kites waiting for the sea breeze from North-West which was on time every last days : we wait it until 5 PM because of the tide, and we enjoy it all evening long. We start in the lagoon and then we go to the south-side playing in the small waves with offshore wind : enjoy jumping one way, and surfing the other way...

Stéphane shots some pictures, tries to walk into the water but we are so far !

At the end, we come back to the north-side where we camp, crossing and crossing again the lagoon at the sunset ! What a nice session !



Next morning at 9:00, good breakfast, the Trade Winds which did not wake up yesterday is now at 15 knots, so that we go kitesurfing immediatly !

This time we use the choppy north-side with onshore wind for a shooting session !

On a tip of sand near the gulls nest in ground, each passage has near raised their wings, we let us avoid too disturbing, but what wonderful spectacle to navigate in this cloud ! Then the wind turns to East-North-East, it seems to be Harmatan, so we go speed riding in the lagoon ; at the end of the run, it's high speed on 20cm deep water : don't miss the gybe ! We end the session in the lagoon, around 12:00 the wind goes lower, then we stop, tired !.

But we ask for some more, and we want one more day staying... but there is not enough water to drink so we decide to go back to Palmarin, then to Dakar by the way. This is the end of a very good trip that we recommand!

See the complete diaporama of the "ilots nouveaux"