Senegambia: Colors And Contrasts Tours

Day 1: Arrival AIBD – Pink Lake

On arrival in Senegal, you will be met, assisted, and transferred to your hotel.

You will be briefed about what to expect during your stay, and today’s activities will be determined based on your arrival time.

Welcome Diner with Senegalese drumming.

Overnight at the Pink Lake

Day 2: Pink Lake – Somone Lagune

After breakfast, we will drive to Pink Lake.

Located near the Atlantic Ocean, this Lake is famous for being the final stage of the former Paris-Dakar race and the second place in high salt concentration after the Dead Sea in Israel.

Depending on the seasons, the color changes from purple to mauve at dawn, then pink once the sun is at the zenith.

The Artemia Salina bacteria produce a red pigment in order to absorb the sunlight, thus giving the lake its unique color, especially visible during the dry season.

Those effects are caused by a combination of microorganisms and the saturated salt concentration of 380g /L; this is why swimming in the waters is just floating.

For our next visit, we will use special means of locomotion such as ATV Quads, Buggies, or Jeeps.

We will follow the tracks of the Dakar race, driving around the lake and the dune closer to the ocean.

A stop in a Fulani village to meet and interact with them, and to learn about their daily life activities

Lunch at the lake and continuation to the seaside resort in Somone.

Somone delta is a reserve in front of the Atlantic Ocean mouth, made by a flora of mangrove trees, and where different kinds of birds like pelicans, storks, seagulls, herons, kingfishers…

By catamaran, we will go to meet that winged species, enjoying the sunset between the delta and the Atlantic

Overnight in Somone

Day 3: Somone – Joal – Toubacouta

This morning, we will check out from the West Coast and head for the northern border of the Gambia

Let us stop and visit Joal Fadiouth

Joel was a Portuguese settlement in the 16th century, and the native place of the first president of Senegal

By a wooden bridge, we can access Fadiouth, a small village settled on a pile of shells.

Walking through this traditional Serrere village to meet and interact with the local people. Visit the cathedral, the marketplace, the sacred baobab tree, and on another bridge reach the Mixte Cemetery where Muslims, animists, and Christians are buried side by side…

By dugout boat, we will sail back to the mainland and route to Toubacouta at the East bank of the Saloum river

Overnight in Toubacouta

Day 4: Toubacouta Lion Walk – Jufureh – Banjul

After breakfast in front of the Saloum Delta, we will reach Fathala reserve, a hotspot for spectacular birdlife, as Abyssinian roller, red-billed calao, helmeted guinea fowl, parrots, and woodland kingfisher.

Just aside, let us meet the king of the jungle

The ‘’Lion walk’’ is a chance to touch and walk with some tamed lions that have been raised from a young age.

Accompanied by local guides, we will have less than an hour with the king of the Jungle, a rare opportunity for a great postcard

After this adrenaline rush, way for the border formalities, and continue to Jufureh. Fort James on Kunta Kinteh Island, built in 1651, was a British trading post. Situated opposite the French trading post of Albreda, it was the scene of numerous skirmishes between the British and the French, as a result of which it was damaged and rebuilt many times.

The fort ensured the safe passage of British and American slave ships until it finally fell into disuse in 1779. The Claim by Alex Haley, author of Roots, has traced his ancestors, the Kinteh Family, back to Jufureh, a traditional Mandinka village, for brief tours that include the Kinteh family compound and way back to Bara for our ferry to BanjulOvernight in Banjul.

Day 5: Banjul – Gambia River – Bintang Lodge

Breakfast in the Gambia, this former British colony, followed by a tour in the capital through its markets and museums

We will also discover the south bank of the Gambia River by boat cruise inside a vast labyrinth of creeks, surrounded by a mangrove forest.

Visit the village of the Socè tribes lost behind the wetlands.

On the way to Bintang Lodge, we can observe the villagers collecting oysters on the mangrove trees' roots.

Due to the Lodge’s location in the middle of a mangrove forest, visitors can experience the exceptional flora and fauna of brackish wetlands. As the flood retreats, the receding waterline exposes countless creatures such as crabs and mudskipper caught in the sludge of the river bed

Overnight in the Gambia

Day 6: Bintang Lodge – Farafenni – Stone circles – Kaolack

We will check out of this world of sun, water, and green, and then drive to the central border of the Gambia. Once back in Senegal, let us take a dusty road to reach the Megalith stone circle.

The most remarkable sight of the megalithic area is that of Sine Ngayène, which has 52 circles for 1200 megalithic stones and a hundred tumuli (Tumuli are a very ancient funerary practice in Senegal. Like the Pharaohs, Kings, and Chiefs, they were buried surrounded by their possessions, ornaments, or weapons)

The megalithic circles of Senegambia are stone circles of historical age made of volcanic rocks or lateritic concretions fairly easy to work.

Some of the earliest civilizations started in this area.

Back to Kaolack for overnight

Day 7: Kaolack – Bandia – Dakar

From Kaolack, the peanut basin of Senegal, we will leave for Bandia wildlife.

Let us embark on a pick up for 3hours Safari, through a forest of baobab and acacia trees. We will meet mostly herbivorous wild animals like buffalo, antelopes, impalas, gazelles, elans, kudu, giraffes, monkeys, zebras…

Also, bird species as small hornbills, eagles, vultures, kingfishers, grey herons…

A visit under a special baobab tree for an archeological course, the tomb of the griots: Griots were people of castes, such as storytellers, drummers, singers, and were often buried inside the hollow of the baobabs

A stop at the bar for refreshments before continuing to Dakar.

Day 8: Dakar – Goree Island

We will start this day with a city tour of Dakar and its vicinity.

From Independence Place to the presidential house, then the main cathedral, before continuing by a seafront drive towards Soumbedioune market

We will also visit tourist hotspots like Kermel or the Sandaga market. Continue to other highlights of the city, like the African Renaissance Monument and the Museum of black civilization.

A 20-minute ferry ride will lead us to Goree Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Land of martyr and suffering, Goree was an important slave transit center before their deportation to the Americas

Our visit will start at the famous slave's house, built in 1776 by the Portuguese

A lecture by the curator in this last house of slaves, to know about the captives' life and to observe the “Door of No Return” through which millions of Africans passed on the way to slavery in the Americas.

Ruled in succession by the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French, its architecture is characterized by the contrast between the grim slave-quarters and the elegant houses of the slave traders.

Today, it continues to serve as a reminder of human exploitation and as a sanctuary for reconciliation.

Visit and overnight in Goree.

Day 9: Goree – Departure

Breakfast on Goree and sail to Dakar for sightseeing, you may also go shopping before being transferred to the airport for your return flight.