A Childhood Dream...
For as long as I can remember, the African savanna has always represented a horizon of dreams for me. As a child, I imagined those golden stretches, those solitary trees standing like beacons in the vastness. Returning to this space today feels like reconnecting with an ancient memory, an unbroken thread of souvenirs.
The savanna stretches before me like a sea of moving grasses, opening onto an endless horizon. Each season gives it a different face: green and radiant when the rains arrive, golden and dusty when the sun scorches the sky.
When I arrived at the Dalaal Diam ecolodge, I felt as though I was stepping back into my childhood dreams. Here, there are no walls, no borders, only the horizon. The domain covers eight hectares, bordering the Somone lagoon, with a 360° view over the savanna, the baobabs, and the Guéréo hills. In the morning, I sip my coffee facing the rising sun. In the evening, I lose myself in the flamboyant colors of the sunset reflected in the water — shades of pink, gold, and ochre.
Around the lodge, the savanna is alive, never silent. It murmurs, it breathes: insects, monkeys, birds, jackals, and sometimes the distant laughter of a hyena at dusk. Walking along the small bush paths, I find that simple peace, that essential calm which contrasts so deeply with the effervescence of Dakar or Mbour. And for those who dream of Africa’s great animals, it takes only a twenty-minute trip to the Bandia reserve and ranch, where giraffes, lions, zebras, rhinoceroses, and buffalo roam in protected areas.
But the savanna is more than a landscape. It is a territory of memory and presence. Here one can still feel the breath of animist traditions, the mystery of spirits, that intimate connection between nature and spirituality. Time seems suspended, and each moment calls me back to what is essential.
Each stay in the savanna feels like a return, like rediscovering an ancient root still alive, reminding me that beyond the detours of modern life, a part of me belongs to this immensity.
And then there are those more intimate moments, when the day comes to an end. I lie down under the fan at night, immersed outside my usual comfort. My eyes close, my body slowly lets go, while my spirit keeps traveling, nourished by the African heat and the scent of dry earth. Never forget your childhood dream. Children are always right.
