West Africa: Dakar, Banjul, Conakry and Freetown

After more than six thousand kilometers on see, after cruising a heavy winter North See, after leaving behind the dead ugly harbor of Antwerpen, after getting new nice passengers on board in Le Havre, which itself is not really worth a trip, after a funny night in Bilbao a calm passage through the Golf of Biscay and along the Canary islands, Dakar is the first new City we all seek to discover. So far I have only visited two african capitols. Tunis in Libya and Windhoek in Namibia. Dakar was the first city of equatorial west black africa. At first it was a real shock. We arrived on the early evening and were allowed to leave the ship early in the evening. You step into a city that has normal buildings and streets, but everything is decayed and looks like something from a Mad Max end time movie from the 80ies. It is quite dark, as most of the lights are no longer working and people from every dark corner head to our group, to welcome us. Of course we are not really comfortable, but looking back I can only say, yes, they just were friendly. Keep in mind: we stepped right into the government centre. We headed right towards the mayors office that looked nice, even though the wrecked taxis, debris and sleeping homeless on the ground where lowering the overall impression of authority and wealth. We continued our way, led by Michele the ship cook and Dakar knower. Decay, poverty, end time feeling. We found Cafe del Roma, an enclave. We accomplished our communication in a nearby 24h Internet cafe and then we moved on the the Disco La Escala (btw: the same crap music as in Europe) and then after two Flag the local beer brand, and smalltalk with some locals, we headed back to the ship. At first I was not willing to share much of this experience from Dakar. I have also no pictures from inside the city, but the experience later on showed me, this is wrong and people should get more insight into this world. The summary for Dakar is: it is a huge city, you feel watched (at least at night) but the people are very friendly. They are just doomed in a trap called Africa and look for ways to get out. I had two very interesting talks with locals, that were, as written, very friendly and communicative. Banjul The next stop was Banjul. Compared to Dakar Banjul is a village, even though the habitants say about 500.000 people live there. We arrived very late at night. Next morning, we could oversee the city from the ship. [PHOTO: Banjul harbor and cityscape from ship] Obviously a very important function of the city, besides being the capital, is the ferry over the river. We had nearly the full day to visit and the harbor master pointed us to two very kind guides. Again we (at least myself) were at first very cautious and restricted to their approach. For our two guides (Salomon and Abdul) it was just a very honest way to point out, that they want to service us in the best way they can – and they did! When you step out of the harbor be prepared. Decay, unpaved road, smell of exhaust, foreign spices and organic decay may overwhelm you. This is the moment you hear Welcome to the capitol of The Gambia: Banjul, but wait! There is more. After some 30 minutes you realize, that this city is different. Your guides proudly tell you about the growing business about tourists and that they are doing everything to get more people to visit The Gambia. You walk along the streets and of course it is a poor town, but we all had a very comfortable feeling, as nobody was really taking notice of us. They had their business. [PHOTO: Banjul market scene with locals] One exception: be prepared, that children may sprint at you to touch you. They do not want to steal or do not want money. They just want to touch that strange white skin we have. Our guides asked us why we had no cameras with us and we had to admit, that we were anxious be robbed. At that time we already had visited the market. A marvelous fantasy like market, where we never felt unsafe. All traders who had something potentially interesting to us only asked us to look. So we went back to the ship to get our cameras and then back to town. [PHOTO: Group photo with guides Salomon and Abdul in Banjul] Banjul is a nice place, approach the people with respect and you will enjoy hospitality from its best. Their approach is: Let us get more tourists to us to develop our country Conacry I can not say much about Conacry. The signs we got from the locals at the berth, the way they looked at us, convinced us to stay on board. In Conacry we got two Clandestinos (blind passangers) on board that were trying to flee from their country. Freetown We reached Freetown at midday took the chance to visit the town, even though all from the crew could not understand our interest. [PHOTO: Freetown hillside shantytown from harbor] [PHOTO: Freetown street scenes - busy market street, phone booth, buildings] [PHOTO: Stacks of local currency banknotes and decayed building] The only thing to say about this rotting spot is just stay away.