Sometimes the best plans are the ones you don’t follow!

Friday 26th June 2026

One of the great things about travelling is that sometimes the best days are the ones that don’t go according to plan.

Our original plan in Dakar was to join an excursion across to Gorée Island, famous for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It’s only about a 20-minute ferry ride from the port and is one of Senegal’s biggest attractions.

Then Dave discovered that friends of ours, Brett and Claire from Victoria, just happened to be in Dakar on exactly the same day. We’d met them a couple of years ago in South Africa through mutual friends, and considering the odds of two Australian couples ending up in Senegal at the same time are somewhere between “unlikely” and “you’ve got to be kidding”, there was only one sensible option—we cancelled the tour.

After a leisurely breakfast (one of the many advantages of travelling by cruise ship), we caught the shuttle bus into Independence Square in the middle of Dakar’s CBD.

The guide apologised in advance, explaining it was a public holiday and the city would be “boring” because most of the shops were closed.

As it turned out… boring isn’t really a word I’d use.

Our first priority wasn’t sightseeing at all.

Dave needed a haircut.

We wandered for about ten minutes (fending off locals who wanted to show us around 😉 )before spotting a barber that was actually open. Using a combination of broken French, hand gestures and optimism, Dave negotiated a Number 2 haircut for 5,000 West African Francs.

The haircut turned out surprisingly well.

We only had US dollars, so we handed over ten dollars, which was a little more than they’d asked for. They seemed pretty happy with that, and Dave even received the deluxe package—a cold washer rubbed over his head at the end. Now, that’s customer service 😉

With Dave freshly groomed, we headed on foot towards the Presidential Palace. It’s an impressive building, although the armed police made it very clear there was a limit to how close tourists could go. Whether that was because of the public holiday or simply standard procedure, we weren’t about to test it.

From there we wandered down to then along Dakar’s waterfront.

It was one of those walks where Google Maps confidently says, “only three kilometres”, conveniently forgetting to mention it’s 35 degrees, humid, and there’s very little shade. Dave and I found ourselves constantly crossing from one side of the road to the other, chasing whatever patch of shade we could find. By the end I was sweating in places I didn’t even know could sweat.

The walk was worth it though.

Compared with several of our recent West African ports, Dakar felt surprisingly modern. The roads were good, there were plenty of new office buildings and apartments, the waterfront was attractive, and the beaches looked absolutely beautiful. It certainly wasn’t the picture I had in my head before arriving.

Eventually we reached the hotel where Brett and Claire were staying.

They had landed in Dakar at 3 o’clock this morning after a delayed flight from Lisbon. Over lunch we swapped travel stories, compared upcoming itineraries and generally solved most of the world’s problems.

It’s so lovely meeting another couple who travel as much as we do. Usually, we’re the ones making everyone else’s holiday plans look a little quiet, but Brett and Claire definitely give us some competition!

After a couple of enjoyable hours – and a quick photo to send to our mutual friend Tony Park – we thought we’d better let them catch up on some sleep before we walked back towards the shuttle.

By then a few more shops had opened, although window shopping was about all we managed in the afternoon heat.

As usual, a few interesting facts about Senegal…

• With around 19 million people, Senegal is one of West Africa’s most stable democracies and, since gaining independence from France in 1960, has never experienced a military coup—very unusual in this part of the world.
• French remains the official language, although many local languages are spoken as well.
• Dakar is also the westernmost city on mainland Africa.
• Like neighbouring Gambia, peanuts are a huge part of the economy, with over a million tonnes produced annually and peanuts covering almost 40 per cent of the country’s cultivated farmland. Fishing is equally important, and the brightly painted fishing boats lining the coast have become something of a national symbol.
• Senegal started producing oil in 2024 from the offshore Sangomar field, something that’s expected to transform the country’s economy over coming decades.

Senegal has a fascinating and heartbreaking history. Its position on the Atlantic coast made it highly sought after by the Portuguese, Dutch, British and French during the colonial era, and Gorée Island became one of the most significant departure points in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The infamous “Door of No Return” remains a sobering reminder of one of humanity’s darkest chapters.

On a much lighter note, before coming here the only thing I really associated with Dakar was the famous Paris to Dakar Rally. The gruelling off-road race originally finished here after crossing thousands of kilometres from Europe before security concerns saw it move to South America in 2009.

And because every country seems to have one bizarre fact… apparently Senegal had a ten-year period where 25 fishermen were killed by hippopotamuses. Not sharks. Not crocodiles. Hippos!

One statistic that did surprise me was life expectancy. At just under 69 years, it’s the highest we’ve come across so far since leaving South Africa, improving dramatically from around 59 only 25 years ago. Stroke and heart disease are the leading causes of death, with Covid-19 coming a close third.

Senegal is probably not somewhere that immediately springs to mind when planning a holiday, but after spending the day wandering its streets, meeting up with friends, enjoying the ocean views and Dave getting an unexpected Senegalese haircut, we’d happily come back for a longer look.

Although next time… perhaps we’ll make it to Gorée Island as well.

A day at sea tomorrow then we arrive in Mindelo, Cape Verde on Sunday.

Sara xx