Goree Island, Dakar, Senegal, Africa
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| Our "Queen" from the ferry to take us to Goree Island |
Easter Sunday, 20 April 2025, Dakar, Senegal, Africa
Our German friends and we signed up for the excursion to Goree Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We met for breakfast before mustering in at the Royal Court Theater for our scheduled 9AM departure. Being it was Easter Sunday; the chefs outdid themselves with a display of chocolate eggs and bunnies at the intersection connecting the port and starboard dining areas at the Artisans' Foodhall-Buffet. They also served Hot Cross buns in honor of Easter. I took the opportunity to make a short video.
Video: Easter display
Goree is a small island, covering only about 70 acres and fully walk-able from end to end. Our plan was to stay on our tour initially, then break off and try and find the several geocaches throughout the island, including an Adventure Lab, which would take us to all the places of interest anyway, a bonus mystery cache, two regular caches and three Earth caches.
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| Approaching the island from our ferry |
We chose this excursion because of its history as being the largest slave-trading center on the African coast, from the 15th to the 19th century. It was ruled in succession by the Portuguese, Dutch, English and French. And it also contained several geocaching opportunities. Dakar, and this island just off the coast, is the westernmost city and port in Africa. This was important because it was the shortest route to and from the Americas for commerce and the slave trade.
Promoters of the museum and Goree Island have claimed as many as 15-20 million slaves passed through here. Careful research disputes this and it is more likely somewhere between 26,000 and 103,000 between 1536 and 1848. Whatever the number, it was too many!
As luck would have it, the chartered ferry to take us to the island was able to dock just a short walking distance from the ship. There were three groups going on this tour and we all left together, about 200 of us. We had two guides and they each had helpers. The guides were dressed in a Senegalese kaftan, also known as a boubou or m’bubb in Wolof, their common language. This is a long pullover robe with bell sleeves, typically worn with matching drawstring pants called tubay.
It was about a 30-minute ride to the island and one of the guides gave us a little history of the island on the way. It is a very popular tourist destination besides being a Sunday, so the ferries were constantly running, but from the main Ferry Terminal.
Our first stop, which included all three groups, was at one of the houses that held the slaves. There were up to 28 of these at one point. This one was preserved and made into a museum; the others have been converted to local housing.
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| Nice walkway on way to museum |
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| Adama, one of our guides at the slave museum |
Video: Museum presentation
He told us how the slaves were separated from one another, the healthy males in one area, the females in another, virgin females were kept for a lot of the caretakers here, and once they became pregnant were released to fend for themselves.
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| Typical slave quarters with narrow slots for windows |
The children were separated from their parents. They all went to different destinations. The troublemakers were harshly delt with and they were all in chains.
There was a “Door of No Return”. Once they went through this, they would be loaded on a ship, never to see Africa again. I will share some photos of the rooms and the door.
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| "Door of No Return" |
It of course was a depressing experience of man’s inhumanity to man. Today it continues to serve as a reminder of human exploitation and as a sanctuary for reconciliation.
Our guide led us out of the slave quarters and there was a large queue of other groups waiting to go in and get the same presentation we just had. This was when we departed from the group and went in search of our geocaches. We were given a time to be back at the terminal and that should allow plenty of time to do our thing.
Our walk took us to a church which was part of the Adventure Lab (AL). On the way we walked through streets lined with locals begging us to look at their displays hoping to make a sale. Sue, always on the lookout for fabric had several opportunities and did find some that she liked and was able to do a little bargaining. But these people need all the help they can get, and we probably overpaid on some items but, so be it.
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| Sue bargaining for some fabric |
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| Street scene |
Our next AL destination took us to gun emplacement reminiscent of the “Guns of Navarone” movie. But they were pointed inward and probably have been for decades.
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| Navarone type guns |
These guns were part of a French coastal artillery battery during World War II known as the “Batterie du Castel”, particularly the Battle of Dakar. I believe this to be the highest point on the island, so I took a short video.
video: Big guns & surrounding area
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| Jan and Sue signing log with Dakar in background. |
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| Sue and Dorothy resting during climb |
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| Path we negotiated to get to cache with cactus on both sides. |
Who knows, but they were sure busy the whole time we were in the area. Another cache took us down even further and we had to negotiate a narrow path between cactus plants on either side. The cactus had some yellow flowers blooming and I’m sure they were the same type that I have photographed before in Texas.
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| Sue and Jan signing log |
We had one more stop to complete the AL. On the way, we had to pass through a street-lined gallery of paintings and crafts by local artists.
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| Local crafts for sale |
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| Artist working on painting |
Sue stopped and was admiring one of them so of course she was pressured to buy it. He wanted $80 for the one she was looking at, way too much in our opinion. She looked at some others she liked, and he came down in price on the original, then started talking about a package deal. One of the ones she liked was of the Baobab tree, a common subject of paintings. Sue finally settled on three for $70. They were all attached to frames, so we had to wait while he detached them so he could roll them up for us.
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| Waiting for the de-framing! |
We should be looking for an extra suitcase!
The AL took us to the Freedom Statue where a woman is embracing a man, both standing on a drum, celebrating emancipation. The man’s raised wrists have chains dangling from them.
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| Freedom statue |
The requirements were to answer some questions about the marble plaque attached to the base and to take a selfie for posting.
There was one last cache to be had which was hidden under an air conditioner in an alley. Jan spotted it with his inspection mirror and Sue located it and brought it out for signing. It was a pouch made of duct tape with the log inside and a magnet to keep it attached.
By this time, we were all tired from walking and climbing around the cliffs. We made our way to one of the restaurants near the terminal and enjoyed a couple local beers.
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| Relaxing with a local beer after a hard day of geocaching. |
Sue doesn’t like beer unless it is ginger beer. She asked for it and the waiter came back with a beer and a glass of strong liquid ginger. Sue mixed them together and liked it so much she went to find out the source. It turned out that it was home-made. We will have to search for some recipes and try making it ourselves.
We had an extended wait in the queue at the terminal for our ferry. Dorothy was brilliant (another English term I’ve heard a lot) enough to bring an umbrella as the sun was quite hot.
We made it back to the Queen mid-afternoon, satisfied with our activities for the day.
We later enjoyed an Easter dinner of lamb shank, veggies and dessert.
Next stop, Tenerife, Canary Islands
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