Senegal | Country Gallery | Its nature, people, culture and cities

[Hadrami]

Originally Posted by skytrax

Well that is a more solid explanation! But I don't believe Senegal have the biggest forest in the world and not even the oldest. Even Congo forest is bigger than your entire country, so how can that be?

No we don't have the biggest and oldest forest in the world.
Dakarcity made a mistake.

But even if Congo's forest is bigger than our country we receive xth time the amount of tourists Congo gets.
So it's all good.

[Hadrami]

Senegal’s Saloum Delta listed among UNESCO’s world heritage sites
June 24, 2011

APA- Dakar (Senegal) The World Heritage Committee has inscribed Senegal’s Saloum Delta and its vestiges dating back more than two millennia on UNESCO’s world heritage list, APA can confirm on Friday.





Fishing and shellfish gathering have sustained human life in the 5,000km property, which straddles three rivers.
The site comprises saline vegetation encompassing over 200 islands and islets, mangrove forests, an Atlantic marine environment, and dry forests.


It is marked by 218 shellfish mounds, some of them several hundred metres long, produced by its human inhabitants over the ages.
Burial sites on 28 of the mounds are fashioned like tumuli where remarkable artefacts have been found.
These sites are thought to be important for our understanding of cultures from the various periods of the Delta’s occupation and give testimony to the history of human settlements along the coast of West Africa.

source: Unesco

For the xth time Unesco saw something worth putting on their heritage list in Senegal.

[Hadrami]

From Pampered to Primordial: A Delta Journey
by Lydia Polgreen, West Africa bureau chief for The New York Times.




I was in the Sine Saloum Delta, a glorious melding of river, earth and sea just north of Senegal’s border with the Gambia, where a handful of hotels have sprung up in the last five years, drawing a new set of travelers.

West Africa has for decades been the province of backpackers — the place to go for life-altering journeys filled with $2-a-night hotels, interminable, jouncing journeys in the back of bush taxis on rutted back roads and gorp for lunch and mystery meat stew for dinner. I made many such journeys myself as a high school student living in Ghana in the early 1990s. But the big-money tourists went east or south for the big game safaris and the luxury resorts on the Indian Ocean and the Cape.

But in West Africa today, in places like Ghana, Benin, Mali and especially Senegal, travelers are searching for the other Africa — more Wole Soyinka and Léopold Senghor than Isak Dinesen and Ernest Hemingway — are finding new and surprisingly sumptuous options.

The Sine Saloum Delta region of Senegal is perhaps the best embodiment of the trend, mostly around the town of Palmarin, a collection villages on a narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and Saloum River. On a recent trip to the delta, my partner, Candace Feit, and I spent a few days comparing two very different but quite luxurious lodges that have sprouted between the river and the sea and plying the mangrove-lined tributaries in massive wooden boats, spotting birds and eating oysters plucked straight from the brackish water.

Our first stop, the Royal Lodge, was a spare-no-expense collection of sprawling suites in thatch-roof bungalows beside a broad beach. The cavernous suites were divided into three spaces of equal gigantitude: a sitting room, bedroom and a showstopper bathroom, complete with a whirlpool tub that looked big enough for a family of four.

With its infinity pool, swim-up bar and oceanfront location, the Royal Lodge is a state-of-the-art beach resort, but few people come here for the beaches, which are nice enough, but nothing compared with the breathtaking scenery. The delta is a place of ethereal beauty: the still, snaking branches of mangrove-lined tributaries, thick with herons, ibises and pelicans; the eerie stands of baobab trees, those mighty symbols of Africa with their gnarled, finger-like branches; the spongy expanses of marshy earth crisscrossed by the pitchfork feet of a million birds.

With that in mind, we hired a horse-drawn cart and a guide named Simon Mbissane Ndiaye through the hotel to take us on a ride through the countryside to a pirogue, a type of wide, colorful fishing boat used all over Senegal, for a cruise. Our cart quickly veered off the main road and into the Palmarin nature preserve, a vast and rich tapestry of plants and animals.

source: New York Times travel

Lydia Polgreen, West Africa bureau chief for The New York Times who has visited dozens of countries
all over Africa and all over the world saw something in Senegal.

[Hadrami]

VISITOR INFORMATION




WHERE TO STAY AND EAT



Lodge des Collines de Niassam (Palmarin, 221-669-63-43; www.niassam.com), with its stunning location, tone of earthy luxury, natural materials and emphasis on low environmental impact, has become a popular destination. The treehouse rooms have an unmistakable fantasy appeal, but the three-story configuration may put off some visitors. Rooms are 87 euros a person — about $117, at $1.34 to the euro — which includes breakfast on your terrace and a sumptuous three-course dinner, usually local seafood, cooked with herbs grown in the lodge’s garden. (The euro is commonly accepted instead of the local currency, the Communauté Financière Africaine franc.)

Royal Lodge (Palmarin, 221-957-60-00; www.le-royal-lodge.com) has sprawling, opulently outfitted bungalows along a lovely stretch of beach starting at 250 euros a night for two adults. That includes an excellent buffet breakfast and a huge three-course dinner. Oceanfront bungalows, with their oversize whirlpool tubs that look out on the sea, cost an extra 61 euros a night.



WHAT TO DO


Boat trips, bush hikes and aerial tours can be arranged, and it is best to do so with the hotels, which have the most knowledgeable guides. A half-day pirogue tour through the mangroves, including a guide, visits to several islands and stops at river and sea beaches for swimming, runs about 75 euros, not including tip. If you want to see birds, early morning and early evening are the best times to visit the mangroves. To see the spectacular scenery from above, there is an ultra-light aircraft, operated by a local resident, available for about 40 euros for a 15-minute flight. Fishing and catamaran trips can also be arranged through either hotel.



HOW TO GET THERE


There are flights from New York to Dakar on South African Airways, as well as from Washington.
Delta flies from Atlanta. Fares start at about $1,700.

Palmarin is a four-hour drive from Dakar on well-paved roads. You can haggle on arrival with a taxi driver, but the best bet is to organize transportation through the hotels, which charge about 60 euros each way for a maximum of four passengers.


http://travel.nytimes.com

[skytrax]

Originally Posted by Hadrami

No we don't have the biggest and oldest forest in the world.
Dakarcity made a mistake.

But even if Congo's forest is bigger than our country we receive xth time the amount of tourists Congo gets.
So it's all good.

You got luck on your geography position!

[Hadrami]

Originally Posted by skytrax

You got luck on your geography position!

WTF.
Does Bora Bora got luck on her geographic position, Brasil, Mauritius, Bali, Kenya, ... ?
Don't hate congratulate.

[skytrax]

Originally Posted by Hadrami

WTF.
Does Bora Bora got luck on her geographic position, Brasil, Mauritius, Bali, Kenya, ... ?
Don't hate congratulate.

I'm not hating. Bu if it will make you happy: Congratulations!!

[fortportal]

Originally Posted by DAKARCITY

Tourist come to Senegal for many reasons we v got a pleasant weather it s sunny almost everyday, it s only 5 hours flight from Europe, minimum of 5 flight a day from major europeans cities, no need visa, a currency fix to euro so no surprise, a stable country no problem of security and PEACE .
For yout it may be common to see forest of baobab but we have one of the biggest and oldest forest in the world, have a walk when the sun is downing...it s magic, we have some desert in the North part,forests in the south and est, mangrove forest in the west not common in Africa ( Sine Saloum), 3 bigs natural parcs one in nthe UNESCO patrimoine, and also a culture a atlantic sahelian one, with muslim, christian live together in peace, a colonial heritage with Saint luis and Goree, people come there not to make shopping or have fun like in Vegas, but to have a good time with nice beach, friendly people and and a tolerante culture.
It s not Bora Bora, or Botswana but if people came to a place for only magic landscape they will a list prefer visit Angola than Portugal no and that not the case.

Agree with you. Those pictures are great, nice nature and thats what tourists want.
I've visited Senegal twice and its realy a nice country.
And for tourists very important that its a stable country with a currency fixed to Euro.
But I'm affraid for troubles next year with the elections.
Also no police and soldiers (as in some other African countries) who stop you every 500 meter for bribing.
But big forest? Hmm, I don't follow you for that.
I think the oldest forest in Africa is Korup National Park in Cameroon, the biggest is certainly in Congo.

[DAKARCITY]

Originally Posted by Hadrami

No we don't have the biggest and oldest forest in the world.
Dakarcity made a mistake.

But even if Congo's forest is bigger than our country we receive xth time the amount of tourists Congo gets.
So it's all good.

I SAID BAOBAB FOREST

[skytrax]

Even so...

But OK, maybe I need to visit Senegal to see it for myself. I'm planning a big African trip for when I finish my degree. Perhaps I should include Senegal on the route.

[Hadrami]

Originally Posted by skytrax

Even so...

But OK, maybe I need to visit Senegal to see it for myself. I'm planning a big African trip for when I finish my degree. Perhaps I should include Senegal on the route.

I don't know about biggest baobab forest or not.

But you're very welcome to visit Senegal.

[skytrax]

Originally Posted by Hadrami

I don't know about biggest baobab forest or not.

But you're very welcome to visit Senegal.

Yeah!

[Hadrami]

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[Camellete]

Senegal looks very lovely. Beautiful country indead

[Hadrami]

TOUBA: (Arabic Ṭūbā "Felicity") is a city in central Senegal. It is the holy city of the Mourid Sufis and the burial place of its founder, Shaikh Ahmadu Bàmba Mbàkke. Next to his tomb lies a large mosque, completed in 1963.

Population of under 5,000 inhabitants in 1964; population of 550.000 in 2011.



Tomb of Touba founder: Cheikh Ahmadu Bamba Mbacké