Northern Senegal

Travel day.

Pick-up and welcome at Blaise Diagne International Airport.

Direct transfer to the accommodation in Sanyang Beach.

Accommodation: Espace Thialy hostel or similar

Breakfast, then we leave for the Dakar jetty to take a ferry to Gorée Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978 and one of the main centres of the slave trade from the 17th century.

After visiting the island, we return to Dakar and take a short tour of Senegal’s capital, a city full of contrasts that will not leave you indifferent. We walk through the city’s most characteristic and historic places.

We then leave for Pink Lake (Lake Retba), where we stay near the lake

Accommodation: Hotel Chez Salim or similar

After breakfast we start our visit to the lake and its dunes, the finish line of the old Paris-Dakar rally, in a 4×4 vehicle.

The lake is known for its pink colour when the sun is at its highest. Its salinity is very high, second only to the Dead Sea. We will watch women from the surrounding villages harvest salt directly from the lake bed.

We return to the hotel to pick up our luggage and continue to Saint-Louis, the former capital of Senegal and a symbol of its colonial past.

On the way we stop for lunch and at a village of the Fulani (Peul) or Wolof people, where we begin to get to know the culture and way of life of Senegal’s communities and enjoy meeting its people.

 Arrival in Saint-Louis, after crossing the Faidherbe bridge.

Accommodation: Oasis Fishing or similar

After breakfast, we start our visit of the colonial city of Saint-Louis, founded by French settlers in the 17th century and laid out as a town in the mid-19th century.

It was the capital of Senegal and played an important cultural and economic role across West Africa. The city’s unique character comes from its setting on an island at the mouth of the Senegal River, as well as its regular street plan, its quays and its typically colonial architecture.

After lunch we say goodbye to Saint-Louis and head for Lompoul, a small desert of dunes and golden sand where we sleep in a nomad tent.

Accommodation: Camp Rêve de Nomade or similar.

After breakfast, we set off for the holy city of Touba, where we visit its monumental mosque. It is one of the most visited mosques in Africa and a place of pilgrimage. It was built in 1926 to house the tomb of the Senegalese saint Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba. Among other curiosities, it is the third-tallest mosque in the world.

After visiting the mosque we continue to Kaolack, the capital of the Sine Saloum, where we stroll around the town and visit its large market.

Accommodation: Hotel Relais or similar

Breakfast, then we leave for the Saloum delta.

Arrival in Ndangane, where we have lunch before boarding a pirogue to Mar Lodj island, where we visit the village by horse-drawn cart.

On the way we visit an area of the Saloum delta called “Bird Island”, where you can see different species of birds such as herons, pelicans, kingfishers, cormorants, spoonbills…

Accommodation: Nouvelle Vague camp or similar

Breakfast, then we leave for Joal Fadiouth. On the way we stop at a palm grove and visit the largest baobab in Senegal.

We arrive at Fadiouth, a village facing Joal and built on an arm of the sea lined with mangroves full of oysters. Fadiouth is in fact an artificial island made of sea shells gathered by fishermen over the centuries and linked to the coast by a wooden bridge. We visit the mission and the Catholic cemetery, which has a rare beauty. You can also see the granaries built over the river water on wooden stilts, which can only be reached by pirogue.

We then drive to the fishing port of Mbour, where we watch the boats return after a hard day’s work, a lively and colourful spectacle.

Accommodation: Hotel Blue Africa or similar

Free morning to enjoy the lovely beach and the surroundings of the accommodation.

After our stop, we head to the airport. This is where the adventure ends, one we are sure you will remember always.