It used to take forever to cross the River Gambia. Sometimes your car would pull up at 9 in the morning and all along the muddy track leading to the stinking boat there were yellow trucks carrying rice and others cars carrying people, waiting their turn to get across. Gambia refuses to build a bridge over the river and Senegal's President Wade has at mad moments claimed the Chinese are going to pay for a tunnel to go underneath the entire country so that no one will ever need go to the Gambia again. For the moment though, those wanting to get from the north of Senegal to the south have to get in the queue and wait their turn.

Now there is a second boat, and both are currently functioning. When I crossed a few weeks ago, I took shelter from the sun in a small shop selling fake football strips and sacks of sugar and tea while I waited for my car to come across. The boys inside the shop got chatting to me, though I found it hard to understand their Gambian-style Wolof, and vice versa.

Outside the shop, sitting on a chair in the blazing sun, was an old man shoveling sugar from a 50 kilo sack into small bags for sale. I admired his hat. He offered it to me for 5,000 francs but I pointed out that I could make one for nothing from a cardboard box that was lying around. He laughed and agreed. This is a hat from Guinea Bissau! he crowed, laughing hysterically as he spooned more sugar into the bags.