Senegal

Authentic Senegal: Lac Rose, Lompoul and the Saloum Delta

A slow, community-minded trip, staying in eco-lodges, at the pace of Senegalese villages

Senegal

Authentic Senegal: Lac Rose, Lompoul and the Saloum Delta

A 'slow travel' tour built around encounters: making goat's cheese with a Fula herder at Lac Rose, a village school, planting trees in a nursery to hold back the desert, a day with a family in Bambougar cooking thieboudienne, and the Saloum mangrove by pirogue. Nights are spent in nature camps and in a desert camp in the Lompoul dunes; four community projects are funded from the price of the trip (€40 per person). Friday departures, or Saturdays from €1,137 per person.

When

Nov to May

Price

From 1 038€ excl. flights

(based on 2 people sharing)

How long

7 nights

Ideal length

Lac Rose and Gorée

Days 1-3

Three nights in an eco-lodge beside Lac Rose, with a day in Gorée and Dakar and another with the Fula herders.

Day 1

Dakar – Lac Rose

Fly to Dakar, welcome and transfer to the Lac Rose camp (45 minutes). Dinner of a Senegalese speciality and a night in a hut, with private bathroom and solar lighting and hot water.

Day 2

Gorée Island and Dakar

Cross to Gorée Island, a transit point for slaves bound for the Americas: the House of Slaves, presented by its curator, the government square, the church and Fort d'Estrées. Lunch, then a tour of Dakar: colonial buildings, the cathedral, the presidential palace and the corniche.

Day 3

Fula cheese and Lac Rose

For early risers, goat milking, then cheese-making with Moussa in a pilot goat farm that supports traditional Fula herding. Discover Lake Retba, Lac Rose's real name, whose colour shifts with the sun and the wind.

1 / 4

Lompoul and the Saloum

Days 4-9

The dunes of Lompoul, then the Saloum Delta, a biosphere reserve, and its mangrove-lined creeks.

Day 4

The Lompoul desert

Turn out yesterday's cheeses, then visit a village school, bringing supplies for the pupils. Cross the dunes to a vast empty beach, lunch facing the ocean and drive to Lompoul for a night in a desert camp.

Day 5

The Lompoul nursery – the Saloum

Visit a village tree nursery and take part in the replanting that holds back the desert: soil bags, seedlings, watering. Drive to Foundiougne and the Saloum Delta (4 hours).

Day 6

A day with a family in Bambougar

A day at the pace of a family in Bambougar: the market to buy the ingredients, then cooking thieboudienne, the national dish, for a late lunch. By pirogue, a visit to the big weekly market in Sokone.

Day 7

The creeks of the Saloum

A day by pirogue in the Saloum National Park, a world biosphere reserve: a maze of mangrove-lined creeks, women gathering oysters, many birds. A barbecue on an empty beach and a swim.

Day 8

Kaolack – the Petite Côte – flight home

Drive to the Petite Côte via Kaolack, a former groundnut port and a large African city today. Lunch facing the ocean and an afternoon on the beach, before the transfer to Dakar airport.