14 days - Senegal Explorer

From USD $1,500.00

Duration: 48 Minutes (approx.)
Location: Senegal, Senegal
Product code: SER

This trip brings us from the Lompoul desert to the bush of Casamance land. The contrast between the northern and the southern parts of Senegal is impressive. In the North, we will be in contact with Fulani and Wolof people and in the Southwest with the Diola, Mandinka and Balante people. At the Center of the country where is located the natural region of Sine Saloum, we will be in contact with mainly the Serere and some Fulani people. This melting pot of people makes us discover the culture and religion practiced by these inhabitants and their living environment.

Day 1: Arrival – Pink Lake

Arrival at Blaise Diagne International Airport, after formalities, we’ll transfer in a private air-conditioned car to our hotel. Overnight.

Day 2: Pink Lake - Dakar – Gorée – Pink- Lake

Breakfast. We’ll make a city tour of Dakar that will permit us to discover the colonial’s remains of what was the capital of French Africa. Transfer to the harbor where we will board a ferry to go to Gorée Island declared World Heritage by UNESCO. We’ll be attracted by the rest of its colonial domination while we’llremember one of the saddest moments of human history: the slave trade.

Lunch (not included), in Gorée Island. Back to Dakar and transfer to the Pink Lake. Dinner and overnight in our hotel-camp.

Day 3: Pink Lake – Lompoul

After breakfast, visit the famous Pink Lake: a stretch of pink water with a high level of salinity. There we have the opportunity to see how women of surrounding villages extract salt from the lake, this lake which was the arrival point of the Paris-Dakar. For more sensation we shall do like the pilots of the rally Paris-Dakar, driving aboard four-wheelers vehicle on sand dunes behind the lake and also at the beautiful beach of the area. When we come back, we will have the opportunity to take a bath in the floating lake, for those who want it.

Lunch (not included). In the afternoon, we go up to Lompoul desert - dunes of 25 - 30m-, arrival to the desert and installation in your lodge. You will have the possibility of doing small trekking with your guide across the dunes admiring the beautiful sunset. Dinner and overnight in a khaima camp.

Day 4: Lompoul – Diass airport –Ziguinchor airport

After breakfast in the desert, we will have free time to make a stroll on a camel (not included), then transfer at the indicated time to Diass airport and flight to Ziguinchor airport. Lunch (not included). A vehicle awaits us to tranfer at the hotel. Installation at our hotel. Dinner and night

Day 5: Ziguinchor – Djilapao – Birds island – Affiniam - Ziguinchor

After breakfast, we’ll make an excursion in Djilapao island, a wonderful and quiet place surrounded by bolong swamps and numerous birds. At the same time, we can perceive some villages lost in the bushy forest of Casamance where authenticity and originality prevails. We continue to Affiniam for the lunch (not included). After a little rest, back to Ziguinchor. Dinner and overnight

Day 6: Ziguinchor – Djibelor farm– Enampore

After breakfast, departure for Enampore, located to some kilometers from Ziguinchor to visit the Djibelor farm. This farm extends over 30 ha of plantations of various fruit species (pineapple, aloe vera, etc.), a large variety of flowers, trees and mostly a crocodile breeding. From Djibelor we can pass to Seleki before going to Enampore where the lunch is intended. In the afternoon, a walk of some hours is planned to visit the different sacred woods of the forest. Dinner and overnight

Day 7: Enampore – Djoher – Edioungou (BIKE)- Oussouye

Breakfast. We leave Enampore, on the road we’ll stop at Djoher to visit the village and the sacred “fromager”, a giant tree of hundreds of years protected by the villagers. We go on to Edioungou to visit pottery, handicrafts made by these brave ladies.

Lunch (not included) in Oussouye. In the afternoon, we can go by bicycle in the cashew nut processing unit situated at Seghalen before going to the paddy fields. Dinner and overnight in Oussouye

Day 8: Oussouye-Mlomp-Elinkine-Kachouane

Breakfast, departure from Oussouye where the Diola culture is more persistent than nowhere else. The village is surrounded by giant forests whose majority is sacred wood. Before leaving, we can visit the King according to his availability. In Mlomp, we’ll visit huts built in the form of the floor by the veterans of World War 2.

Furthermore, we can visit a Diola traditional museum and one of the rare architectures in Africa: an impluvium hut. This hut, with its circular form, allows collecting water during the rainy season. We arrive at Elinkine where a canoe will bring us to Kachouane.

Lunch included. Installation in a camp of the island. In the afternoon, visit the village. Dinner and overnight.

Day 9: Kachouane-Wendaye-Iles aux Feticheurs- Cap Skirring

After breakfast, we’ll make an excursion to Wendaye, a Little island of about one hundred inhabitants. A visit to its communal honey enterprise is proposed. The enterprise managed by local people extract, filter and condition the honey which comes from mangrove swamps and trees. We’ll learn from their daily life and habits. Lunch included. We continue to the island where witch doctors used to practice an old medicine method to cure or to prevent from disease; it is part of the Diola’s customs and traditions. Back to the ground, our vehicle will bring us to Cap Skirring. Installation in our hotel in front of the beach. Dinner and overnight

Day 10: Cap Skiring- Cabrousse-Boucotte – Djembering–Cap Skirring

Breakfast. We go for Cabrousse the native village of the famous female hero of the south Aline Sitoe Diatta, to learn from his history and from local people. We go to Boucotte to visit the Kadiout museum landlocked in the heart of a beautiful forest of “fromagers” representing the Diola culture. A guide will tell us about the palm wine harvest, the rice cultivation, the animist rites, etc.

lunch included. In Diembering we’ll visit the theatrical museum of Sangawatt where Karafa, the anthropologist presents one of the daily rules and practices of the social order but also the spiritual life. By chance, we can attend the Sunday mass and enjoy magnificent choral songs. back to the hotel, dinner, and overnight.

Day 11: Cap Skirring – Gambia - Kaolack

Breakfast. We leave the south of Senegal for the center. We cross the Gambia to reach Kaolack some hours later. This region of the Sine Saloum is considered as the groundnut capital. Arrival and installation in our hotel. Lunch (not included). In the afternoon, we visit the market. Dinner and overnight.

Day 12: Kaolack– Palmarin

Breakfast and departure for the peaceful Serere village of Palmarin. On the way, we can meet local populations which live on agriculture and on the collection of the salt. Arrival and installation.

Lunch (not included) in our Ecolodge front of the ocean. In the afternoon, we visit the village. Dinner and overnight

Day 13: Palmarin – Saloum River – Salt Wells – Palmarin

After the breakfast, we shall embark aboard a motorized canoe and shall navigate in

the river Saloum passing near the mouth between the river and the Atlantic Ocean. We shall admire the very beautiful landscape of the fishermen's village of Djiffer and its multi-colored dugouts and also islands of Saloum. Return at the lodge.

Lunch intended in a restaurant in the village. In the afternoon, we will visit the salt wells where local people recollect the salt and sell it to the Gambia. After dinner, depending on the number of clients, a folkloric show is offered. Overnight.

Day 14: Palmarin – Fadiouth – Airport

Breakfast. We go by car to join Saly. On the road, we shall visit the biggest baobab tree of Senegal that was also the cemetery of Griot tribe. Before continuing to the Island in shells, Fadiouth, we can make a stopover in Joal, the childhood city of the Senegalese former president Léopold Sédar Senghor. By a wooden bridge, you will reach this animistic village of Catholic adoption with its attics on piles and its cemetery in shells where are buried Catholics and Muslims.

Lunch (at your charge) in a restaurant of Joal. At an adequate time, transfer to the airport. Assistance and boarding.

End of our services.

NB: Accommodation may change in case of overbooking; in that case a similar alternative is offered.

The quality of the accommodation in the camps is basic. The schedule of excursions may change but all excursions will be done during the tour.

INCLUDED SERVICES

Transfers IN/OUT

Accommodation on standard room basis in hotels, lodges, and camps mentioned in the program: 13

breakfasts – 05 lunches- 12 dinners

Air-conditioned vehicle with driver and diesel for the entire itinerary

Excursions as referred in the program (City tour of Dakar, Gorée, Pink Lake, Kaolack,Saloum, Joal,

Casamance villages)

German or English-speaking Guide during the whole trip