Dakar, as west as West Africa gets

Most of the day was at sea, with our scheduled 11am arrival into Dakar pushed back to 3.30pm. This also meant that 3 of the 5 tours around Dakar were cancelled, including our trip to Goree Island.

This was a real shame - it was the excursion we were most looking forward to, as Goree was the largest slave-trading centre on the African coast.

The only tours remaining were a city highlights tour, or a cooking class... and the cooking class was booked out. The city highlights tours spend more time on the bus than visiting sites, so us and another couple opted to catch a taxi for our own city tour.

There were a number of taxis on the dock, so we negotiated a price for 2 hours to see the major sites, and it was brilliant. We visited all the sites the bus tour was doing plus more, and were finished in half the time 😁

Progress was swift because the roads around the city were the best we've seen, and the city is one of the cleanest we've visited.

Dakar is situated on the Cape Verde Peninsula, the westernmost point of Africa, so our tour began on the coast at the African Renaissance Monument, Africa's tallest statue. At 52 metres, it is taller than both Christ the Redeemer in Rio and the Statue of Liberty. It depicts a man, woman and child emerging from a volcano, symbolising Africa's emergence from centuries of oppression, and was the subject of much controversy because of its cost and design.

Our others stops were the President's Palace and Parliament House, Mosque of the Divinity, Cathedral of our Lady of Victories, and Independence Square, before returning to the ship and some market shopping on the dock.

We still had time for a swim and dinner before the other buses arrived back, then a leisurely cocktail in the lounge bar before the nightly show in the main theatre.Baca selengkapnya