Well, it had to happen – I had to eventually make it to Dakar!! It was around the 21^st of April last year I think that I took the last overland portion of the Dhaka to Dakar adventure and made it to the Senegalese capital. In three parts I am going to summarise my experiences in this West African city!

For my last ‘overland’ journey of the trip I decided to go in style. Through my hotel in Saly, where I was last time we talked about this journey, I booked a private car/taxi to my Air BnB in Dakar, It was a journey of around 80 kilometres only, but with Dakar’s shocking traffic it was unclear just how long this journey might actually take.

It was a mostly smooth ride along some major tollways in Senegal. There has been a huge Chinese investment in Senegal in the last ten or so years which has been geared towards infrastructure, and drivers can now enjoy, albeit with tolls to pay, wide three or more lane highways most of the way from Saly to Dakar and beyond. The ride took me past the new basketball stadium and airport from which I would leave a few days later, and before I knew it I was in Dakar. Well at least the suburbs.

Dakar is a strangely shaped city covering most of this tip that juts out at the end of a peninsula, and there are many islands very close to said peninsula you can explore too – such as the Ile de N’Gor where I would go later on that day. The closest thing to a centre of town that Dakar has is nearer the southern part of the tip. I was staying in the middle of the tip. A walk down to the centre of town would take around 45-60 minutes at a guess, which I did on the final day. The drive was smooth until we hit the Dakar traffic, which was a slow and crowded as any city I had encountered on the road from Dhaka to Dakar – including ironically Dhaka, Bangladesh. Then 300 metres from the end of the journey we were pulled over by a police man for some sort of document check.

I got dropped off right at my Air BnB which was great. I had a spacious apartment, I had booked for Graham and myself but kept the booking when Graham had had to return to the UK. It was less than $100AUD a night anyways, was right next to a supermarket which was super handy and I did cook for myself – dinners – whilst in Dakar which was great. As was being able to do washing without having to pay. The only downside was the internet speed, which wasn’t any worse than all the other places I’d used internet in Senegal (however, the internet at the lounge at the airport was super fast!).

With so much to see and so little time as is always with me, I was soon off on the first adventure of the day – to the Ile de N’Gor! This island is located at the north of Dakar. It was a fair taxi ride to get to the shore, and on the way we passed the African Renaissance Monument which is striking and absolutely huge. I was able to get some shots through the car window but would have liked to have gotten closer, and if I’d realised how significant it was I would have asked the taxi for a brief stop to capture.

It was mid-afternoon by the time I hit the beach at the town/suburb of N’gor. My driver pointed in the general direction of the beach and I walked there to find a great view of the island in pretty much its entirety across the way, perhaps 500 metres from the mainland. I was approached by a guy who helped me onto a boat.

There was no pier to speak of, the boats just pull up to the beach and you take your shoes off and wade out to the boat. I guess it’s a ferry to be fair – a very small ferry. Mostly foreigners on this one, N’gor is a surfers’ island and also popular with local artists. I saw the most foreigners in one place in Senegal on Ile de N’gor except for one other place – the Ile de Goree, which I have covered before but I will cover again!

I had a couple of hours on the island. There is no shortage of guesthouses if I wanted to stay a night or three, it was a super chilled place and with a full day I could have explored the whole island – as it was I reckon I covered nearly two thirds of it. Not bad for a couple of hours.

I bumbled around the place determined to reach the farthest point from Plage Sud de Ile de Ngor (Page Sud = Southern Beach) which was this nice if small stretch of sand where the boats pull in. There was another stop I didn’t realise until I made the return trip further east on the side of the island I didn’t visit.

I made my way westward. Knowing already it was a surfing island I was surprised by the rocks surrounding it. As it would turn out I didn’t see a single person surfing, perhaps there was too much wind it did seem a bit rough that day. Certainly it was pretty rough on the western point. I also headed up to see the northern side. I guess that felt western at the time as I remembering think America was in that direction!

It was very colonial, lots of walls, lots of art for sale and on display. And a number of small but nice beaches on the southern side west of where I had arrived. After walking around the tracks – of yes, totally forgot that there are no vehicles on the island so you are at all times only limited by your feet – I took in lunch at a restaurant overlook the Plage Sud. It was a great position even if the chicken was a little dry! I watched boats coming in and out, people swimming and exploring the rocks. An artist came up to me and showed me his works (to be honest they might not have been his, they were rather generic), but otherwise it was pretty chilled.

I returned to the mainland determined to cram one more thing in the day, the Village des Artes, an artists’ village in the north of Dakar in the suburb of Yoff. It was logical to pair it with Ile de N’Gor, but the traffic was insanely slow.

It was still open and I had a good explore – the statues and metal work were the highlights. There was one guy working on a piece, but otherwise it was pretty deserted. It was the end of Ramadan, two days from Eid and many artists had already left to return to their families for the celebrations. But it was still a fascinating place to visit and photograph.

And then back to my Air BnB, a quick grab of ingredients at the supermarket and I could whip up a meal and bemoan the internet speed. Oh and revel in the fact that I had made it to Dakar. But I decided I wouldn’t declare ‘mission accomplished’ until I was at the Place D’Independence, a large square in downtown Dakar. That seemed like the most appropriate place to declare it. Next time I’ll give a summary of Ile de Goree, and then the final Dakar post! Thanks for reading, take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!!