Dakar, Senegal our last port on continental Africa, wow, that loop around Africa went quick but slow, Casablanca seems so long ago now. I digress as I reflect. The ships here dock at Mole I Port de Dakar. The city centre is less than a mile away. Taxis are generally available outside the main entrance of the port. Be sure to establish the fare before departing and be prepared to be hassled at the end of your journey as the price would have more than likely changed. What I have done in the past to avoid this is to write down all the points of interest and number of people joining on a piece of paper before leaving the ship, there is a blank area for price as well as a line where the driver needs to sign. ie. Four people in total (so not per person), to see this, this and this, to be returned to the port by, say 3 pm. Negotiate the price, write it on the line, driver please sign. Hassle avoided. Give him or her a good tip if they comply.
Dakar is the capital of the Republic of Senegal and is a vibrant city of broad, tree-lined avenues, colourful open air markets, inviting cafes with a generous splash of French elan. The striking contemporary architecture is set off by historical colonial buildings while a myriad of galleries, boutiques and street vendors offer everything from fine paintings, sculptures and crafts to colourful clothing and imported goods.
The island of Goree is known as the location of the House of Slaves (Maison des esclaves), built by an Afro-French Métis family at about 1780-1784. The House of Slaves is one of the oldest houses on the island. It is now used as a tourist destination to show the horrors of the slave trade throughout the Atlantic world. This island can be easily done on your own, all you need to do is get yourself over to the ferry which is not far from where the ships docks. Please give yourselves about 3 hours to really take it all in and watch the ferry times.
There is plenty of shopping opportunities on the island, in fact going over on the ferry many of the well dressed lovely ladies will be introducing themselves to you and pointing out where their shops are located. Get used to, “hello where are you from? My name is Fatima (or Maria or …), what is your name? Please visit my shop, it is here, just have a look, I have many nice things, I give you a good price.”
Should you miss this shopping opportunity there is another great all inclusive market close to the ship back in Dakar, Marche Kermel, a bustling marketplace dating back to 1860. Marche Kermel is famous not only for it large variety of food and souvenirs sold, it is also known as a beautiful landmark because it’s building is a splendid piece of art. Please note, you will definitely get annoyed with the constant haggling of the thousands of street vendors. Just politely say “No thank you” and continue walking, unless of course something catches your eye that you must have and put your negotiating skills to the test.
Our day turned out very well, we had another Cruise Critic, non Cruise Critic tour booked with Across Africa. This went as follows, all tours to this port were originally cancelled because our ship was no longer going here, one of those itinerary changes early on. Well about a month ago, we had another change that put Dakar back on our program. Karen, one of the very active CC organizers got ahold of Across Africa and asked them about doing a special tour with only one van and no more than 7 people, she wanted to get away from the multi van, caravan tours that can happen when there are many participants over many vans that all travel together in a convoy, Karen wanted none of that for today.
I bring this up because a very unusual situation occurred as we (our 7 in the van) were waiting for a van behind us to move in order for us to get out. A cruise guest approached our van and began opening the door saying, “hey, there is room in this van, we can get in here.”, ah no, this is a private tour and we have all our people. He got very agitated when we closed the door on him, Karen then locked the door, he yelled, “is there anyone in this van that is not on the list?”. Karen responded, saying that there is no list, this is a private tour, go find your tour organizer. We left with him standing with his hands on his hips thinking that we were being rude for not letting him in our van. Anyway, we were finally off the short distance to the ferry terminal.
This delay at the port caused us to miss our scheduled 10 am ferry so we now had to wait until 11am, hmm, we thought as we were supposed to be coming back on the noon boat. Our guide was informing us of the dilemma and that we would have such a short time on the island. This did not sit well with our group, long story short, we informed him that we would be happy to go back on the 2pm boat and extend our tour drop off by 45 minutes cutting short some of the time at our other stops - all agreed and he informed our driver back in Dakar so he would not be sitting waiting for us for 2 hours.
This time adjustment really worked out well for us and I believe our guide. Mamadu, is originally from Goree island and he was happy to slow the pace down and show us around the entire island. At one point we even met his grandmother after visiting a view point. The island is beautiful and for many reasons, one mainly is no cars or any motorized vehicles. So picture many narrow walking streets lined with beautiful flowers where you come across a stray goat or donkey and then a bunch of school children - very peaceful and picturesque. There are currently 1200 residents on the island with more people wanting to move there. This has become a world heritage site so there can be no more new building on the island, this actually caused our guide to move off the island and over to Dakar proper.
So as wonderful and picturesque this island is, it does have a very dark past. There was an estimated 20 million Africans that passed through this island between the 1500’s and mid 1800s. During the slave trade, Goree island was a slave-holding warehouse, an absolute centre for the trade in African men, women and children. These millions of Africans were taken against their will and delivered here to the slave house. The men, women and children were then separated and packed into separate rooms, chained together, half dressed. If you were out of line you were stuffed into another small chamber where most just died. Our guide informed us that Nelson Mandela visited the slave house and put himself into one of these isolation chambers, he stayed in for 10 minutes and came out with tears in his eyes. I just can’t understand how the white man can even think that this treatment of his fellow man can be okay - I know they didn’t think of them as fellow men. Disgusting really, we can only hope that if there is a hell that they are there burning in it. Our guide also informed us the prices for a slave at that time, you could buy yourself a slave child for a piece of glass. Got to admit this was the toughest part of our tour and our time in Africa but felt we needed to expose ourselves to this ugly underbelly. Yes, there is a tear in my eye writing this, it gives one something to ponder. You will see in one of our pictures, it is a door to the sea in the house of slaves, they called this door, “the door of no return”. You go through that door to never return, never. Where did you go, mainly to Brazil, Haiti and North America (the States).
Our guide continued showing us his island and took us up the battlements where there is a massive gun and many bunkers - the bunkers are now the homes to many of the islanders. At the top beside the main gun, there is a gentleman an artist that works with wood, glue and the many types of sand found on the island. We entered his humble abode and art studio with an interesting tiled floor along with dirt, he had a small stove with a kettle on the burner. We welcomed us with a great smile and then said, “come here, come close”, we gathered around his artist desk where he created his magic. He strategically placed the glue on a board, smeared it around and then began spreading different colours of sand onto the board, “video okay he says, photo okay”, brushes it side by side, then lifts it up and shakes all the loose sand off and boom, a piece of beautiful art made of this sand from this island. His prices for his art were very reasonable, so yes we purchased a piece that will forever remind us this amazing beautiful yet, very sad place.
Our guide then said, no this way and took us down a rarely used path, we walked only for a few minutes and he pointed down the cliff to a white door structure and “that is part of the reconciliation here was to put this door here, it signifies a, “door or return””. Yup, another tear.
It was shortly after this that we met his grandmother and then made our way back down the hill to the ferry. Yes, it was also here that we were reacquainted with all the lovely ladies we met on the ferry, “hi, it’s Fatima, you remember me right, come and see my shop, just have a look.” Very nice friendly people, a few purchases were made and back to the mainland we went on the 2pm boat. I shall never forget my time here.
Back to the van, and our driver said, “I heard from your ship, they want you back by 4 o’clock”. Yeah right, did the captain call you? We all know the all aboard time, we are fine to be back later. There was a brief discussion between the guide and driver and off we went to the monument. We were all thinking that the driver just didn’t want to deal with the traffic outto the, North Korean built, monument. This is definitely worth a visit, all some 300 steps to the tallest statue in Africa 171 feet tall, the African Renaissance Monument. Traffic here is interesting, very busy with the most colourfully painted buses as well as many horse and carts racing on the side of the road. Traffic was indeed heavy but it kept moving. Coming back from the monument we did quick stops at Catholic Church, the President Palace (no pictures allowed) and a stop with a 20 minute walk through of the Kermel market. We were back to the ship by 4:30pm, all good. We thank the Mamadu and Across Africa for this wonderful private tour and of course Karen for organizing and sticking to her guns about keeping it private. A multi van, multi people would not have allowed for this flexibility. Great memorable day indeed.
We had a very nice sail away just after the our final sunset over Continental Africa, what an amazing journey around such an interesting, complex Continent.
Many pictures today, sorry about that, hope you enjoy as we begin making our way back west, we are stopping at two of the Cape Verde islands but more on that later…
Quote of the day, “Your past experiences will flavour your future ones, that is human nature.” - Deborah Carter
Goree island, first thing I see this morning from our stateroom
Waiting for the ferry
Hello, Fatima
We arrive to Goree island
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