Hotel Amitie Bounty, Mbour, Senegal

I stayed at the Hotel Amitie Bounty on the beach in Mbour for a few days. Any person who makes it to the end of this review and wants to find it should note it is a few blocks north of the 'Safari Club'  (not as currently shown on 'google maps'), and pronounced 'BOONty' which is important to know as you will have to ask people the way. Rooms were about 15000CFA. I do not think they have a computer or smartphone (and so no wifi), so you may have to ring to avoid the (admittedly somewhat unlikely) possibility they are booked out. I think I was the only guest and the large number of staff welcomed me as one of the family, particularly when I bought them drinks. Some may find the level of attention  disturbing. The enclosure and the small property is beautifully decorated in an odd African Buddhist style, though more than a little tired. The area by the pirogue-laden beach has tables and sunloungers, and is closed with a fence from the children swimming in the smooth sea. Mbour is a working fishing town, but they could perhaps clean up the beach a little. In the evening they played music from the radio (though omitting to switch the channel when presenters just talked), and I believe sometimes there are parties. The food was nice, though the fish was a bit dry and could have been marinated more, but at only 2500CFA with beer at 1000CFA this was the cheapest I found; though one had to wait for the nice lady to nip to the market to get whatever you wanted cooked. There was no liquid milk for the coffee, at 50CFA, though eventually I bought some myself.

The room was large, the bathroom only partly separated from the living area -- which would be unlikely to suit couples not still very much in love. Such a couple might nevertheless have been concerned about the lack of toilet seat, toilet paper, the low shower water pressure, indeed, no water at all or electricity on several occasions,- and the unsweptness under the bed and the lack of change of sheets and very hard pillows. The door frame had been defeated on an earlier entry attempt and repaired with a short piece of plasterboard over the bolt, which would not have deterred an excitable terrier; indeed I myself forced it once by accident, not noticing it was locked. The shutters could not be pulled shut as the wood had swollen (assuming they had fitted in the first place). The handle of the locks on the fly shields were missing and the inner lock on the glass pane would not have lasted an abrupt push. Though it was quite high up. I did not sleep much as I fancied myself in some horror where the friendly locals turn into flesh eating zombies at night. After weeks on one's own arguing with Africans about prices, change, or just trying to avoid being followed, one can become a little unhinged. I did in fact get most of my change back from these people, other than 1000CFA for change for a bottle of water when I arrived and the same from a waitress, who I suppose might have thought I had left it with her to buy a drink for herself (though I had previously explained, in impeccable French, that it is normally polite to make a least a little small talk with someone if you wanted them to buy you a drink, which I would have thought would be the custom in Africa too, but what do I know?) But despite its challenges I quite liked this hotel and will drop in again in the (admittedly unlikely) event I ever return to Senegal.