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Saved: November 30th 2021
Ile de Gorée
View of the island from the ferry.Yoff was a little disappointing for us, the beach was filthy and we were constantly hassled to sit in people's shade compounds on the beach. We left after one day and decided to pick up our passports with our Malian visas and head straight to Ile de Goree, south of Dakar.
Ile de Goree is a short 20 minute ferry from Dakar and is a world away from the big city. It is a tiny island that can be walked end to end in less than hour, at a stroll. There are no cars on the island (yay!) which is a delightful change. We arrived in the early afternoon and just after we checked in, Peter started feeling ill. Peter doesn't get ill very often, so this was very unusual, and I knew quite bad. We were very lucky to get a room on the cool ground floor of the hotel with a fan that actually worked, and our own bathroom. It was dark and quiet, so Peter spent pretty much one whole day in bed, with a bad stomach, fever and aches and pains. Poor guy, I felt very bad for him. Lucky it was a short-lived illness and
he was already on the mend the next afternoon. It did mean that we didn't swim at the little beach, or eat any extravagant meals, but we did enjoy the island very much. It is a very pretty island, brightly coloured buildings, brilliant flowers, lots of stone architecture. The history is another story and not pretty at all. Ile de Goree was a slaving station in the 18th and 19th centuries. We visted the Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves) and it is a very sobering experience. Above the door that led slaves onto the ships they have placed a sign that reads something like: "the start of a journey with no return". It is a door that opens right out to the ocean and the next stop was the Americas. There was an estimated 20 million people taken from Africa during the slave trade and only about 1/2 of these survived the journeys. It is a very humbling experience to learn of the atrocities of the slave trade. I guess we humans have been commiting atrocities against one another for a long time, and it shows no signs of abating even now.
We took the ferry back to
House of Slaves
The doorway that led slaves to the waiting ships. Dakar on Friday afternoon and went directly to an adjacent dock to purchase tickets for the ferry from Dakar to Ziguinchor, in the Casamance region of southern Senegal. The ferry leaves at 8 pm from Dakar and arrives in Ziguinchor (pronounced zig-an-shor) at 10 am the following day. The ferry we were on was brand new - it was beautiful - apparently it was only the 4th voyage for this ship. On the boat we ran into Marty from Alberta again (he had serenaded us with "Gordon Lightfoot" in Mauritania). The crossing was uneventful as we slept through most of it. We arrived into Ziguinchor and decided to head straight to Cap Skirring on the coast for the famed beaches.
Cap Skirring - The first hostel we stopped at wanted to charge us 50 dollars a night. This was out of our budget, especially for a very basic room. We moved onto "The Paradise" hostel next door, and are very happy to be paying 14 dollars a night. We are right on the beach here, and the beach is beautiful! Finally, a clean stretch of beach that we can swim in! Yay! Happy Easter to us! While the places
House of Slaves Museum
This case shows the shackles used to transport slaves. to stay are very inexpensive, they get you with the food! Ah, you have to pay somewhere right?
There is a Club Med just down the beach from us here - it is so strange to us, yet if we think of Mexico or Cuba, it's probably very similar. Besides the beach chairs and the boats, the only real difference is that Club Med doesn't have to share the beach with cows. Okay, there are probably other big differences, but this is all we will allow ourselves.
We spent 3 glorious days swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, drinking rosé wine and wandering the expansive beach.
Next stop is Kafountine in Northern Casamance and then onto the Gambia.
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Martina
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Happy Easter
It seems you have finally had a bit of a vacation during your travels! What a wonder full adventure for both of you. I have enjoyed reading through your blog and catching up to your news. (I'm home today with a cold and too fuzzy headed to work.) Take care :) PS Its spring time in Alberta