Hannah Collisson speaks to Simon Fenton about ditching Brighton for a new life in a Senegalese village and his new book chronicling his journey

In just under three years Simon Fenton has swapped Brighton for Senegal, built two houses, dug a well, had two children, and written a book. That’s not exactly bad going.

Squirting Milk At Chameleons is the story of the first year of Simon’s new life in Abene, a Senegalese coastal village south of the border with Gambia, where he runs a guesthouse, The Little Baobab, and lives with his partner Khady and sons Gulliver and Alfie.

Simon says that he is now in effect living his dream, and his sons are experiencing a childhood vastly different from the Western norm.

“Childhood there is just fantastic, there is no real danger, and children are very much brought up in the community. Everyone looks after each other’s kids.”

Simon says he remains bemused by some of the local customs and beliefs.

“For example, I have to go and swim in a river before I come back to the UK, to protect me, and wear amulets – I find it really fascinating.”

His book is full of anecdotes from life in Abene, including the prediction of a shaman that Simon would have a child in Africa coming true a year later to the day, and the story of his partner Khady squirting milk from her breast at a chameleon.

Simon caught the travel bug after graduating from university.

“I finished university and I wasn’t ready to work. This was in the 90s and not many of my friends had a gap year or travelled.

“I ended up going to India, Thailand, Indonesia, and working in Australia.”

It was when he subsequently landed a job setting up a pig farm in Vietnam, that Simon had his first taste of being immersed in a different culture.

Then around 2001, Simon went travelling in Africa, and got talking to a British couple in Malawi, who had swapped the rat race for lake-side life.

“I was really tempted, but went back to reality, and always thought ‘what if?’” says Simon.

He settled and married in Brighton and spent years commuting to London for work – he was recruited by a homelessness charity to set up a social enterprise, StreetShine.

When his relationship did not work out, Simon decided to get away.

“I only meant to go for a few weeks,” says Simon. “I went to Morocco and did the trip down through the Sahara to Senegal. I stayed in a little guesthouse in Abene where Khady was working.”

The rest is history.

He had previously kept a personal diary of his travels, but had not made his writings public.

“I knew I had some great anecdotes and stories, but could never find a thread for a great beginning, middle and end of a book.”

Simon is a keen photographer and says that he started writing bits and pieces to accompany photographs, which he says gave him the confidence to write a book. When he moved to Senegal he started a blog.

Visitors of all nationalities come to stay at the guesthouse after discovering it online, though Simon says on his side the internet connection is worse than in Vietnam in the 1990s.

He reflects however that the lack of internet may explain his productivity.

“If I had a constant internet connection I don’t think I would have done half of these things; instead I would have been updating my Facebook status!”

Simon’s vision is for this book to be the first of a series, as there is plenty still untold, he says.

Squirting Milk At Chameleons (Eye Books) by Simon Fenton is out now. www.eye-books.com.

Visit www.anaccidentalafrican.com.