Monday, April 25th we arrived in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal. Dakar is Senegal’s largest city and positioned as the westernmost African city. Senegal has limited natural resources and primarily exports fish, phosphates and peanuts. Fortunately, we arrived during the still dry season as it only has two well-defined seasons – dry and humid. An interesting point is Senegal, being very conservative in their dress, many religious places, restaurants and museums will not admit anyone (men or women) if wearing shorts.
Because Curt is still under the weather with bronchitis, I toured alone selecting to travel 90 minutes outside the city to the Pink Lake of Retba. Yes, the lake actually has a pink cast due to the rose-colored salt crystals but turns a more muddy color during the humid, tropical season.
Arriving at the lake, we boarded 4 wheel drive vehicles and traveled around the shores of Lake Retba visiting the salt works where laborers harvest salt from the briny waters. What labor intensive work! They separate the salt from the other sediment and then bag it for sale.
Lake Retba is surrounded by sand dunes, Living on one of these dunes is a semi-nomadic village of Fulani tribesmen. We visited this village, watched a performance of their music and dancing, looked into their homes and purchased some home-made crafts.
As in other African countries, Senegal people do all their farming by hand. What large vegetables they grow! Senegal is a lush green country, surprising as it boarders the Sahara dessert. They also, in the country, do not use automobiles but only horse drawn carts.
Senegal is slightly smaller than the state of South Dakota with a population of approximately 13 million with French the official language. 80 to 90% of the population is Muslim but you didn’t see lots of Muslim dress in evidence. The average age is in the low 20’s, which was “old” because most of the other countries we have visited the average age was 17! Another staggering statistic is unemployment at 49%.
As we sailed out of the harbor we passed Goree Island, a very popular tour for passengers. It lies about 3 miles off-shore and was known for housing /trading slaves in the 1600’s.
Our next port will be Funchal, Madeira. Which is an island in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, which belongs to Portugal.
