TRAVEL: A cruise along Africa’s western coast»
Adventures along the way on a month-long cruise of Africa’s west coast
Istood with three friends on a beach littered with dead fish, cigarette butts, the leavings of lunch and empty soda cans. We were in Banjul, Gambia, and about to set off on an adventure to Jinack Island.
Our pirogue — a large dugout with a muscular motor — awaited us just offshore, bobbing in the Gambia River with a herd of other colorful boats filled with furniture, groceries and people.
There was no way we would walk through the mucky beach and water to get to our ride.
Suddenly, I was airborne and moving through the water. I let out a gasp and realized I was on the shoulders of a 20-something, bare-chested man, who had, without a word, bent down and lifted me in one fluid move. As we neared the boat, the water rose to his chest and he gently placed me in the pirogue. I turned to see my friends, Shelley Clark and Barbara Ligeti, on the shoulders of two other men. Shel-
ley’s aunt, Alice Taylor, was cradled in the arms of another.
Gambia is a nugget of land surrounded by Senegal on three sides and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. The Gambia River runs through it. Banjul, its capital and major port, was the sixth stop on our month-long cruise of West Africa aboard The Marina, an Oceania ship.
We booked in April for a Nov. 3-Dec. 3 vacation, and got a discount rate for verandah suites. Cost of cruise: around $10,000, including $400 for visas. I found a good fare to our departure city of Lisbon and home from our last port, Cape Town.
Our rooms were beautifully appointed; two bottles of champagne awaited us in the cabin. The ship had 2,000 artworks handpicked by Oceania founder Frank Del Rio (an audio tour is available), nine restaurants featuring just about every cuisine, and various bars, boutiques, a casino, music areas, a theater.
The trip was amazing, and deeply emotional at times as we viewed the devastation and horrors of the slave trade and European colonialism.
The cruise traced the Portuguese exploration and enslavement of West Africa, with stops in countries colonized by other European powers. (Gambia was colonized by Great Britain.) The melodic Portuguese language is still spoken in certain regions and remnants of Portuguese culture are everywhere, including cuisine.
From Lisbon, we went to Madeira, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Sao Tome, Angola, Namibia and South Africa.
Although Europeans flock to Gambia’s pretty beaches during winter’s chill, few Americans give it much thought. It is one of Africa’s poorest countries.
Shore excursions booked through cruise lines can be pricey. On The Marina, tours ran over $300 apiece. We booked our tours online with local vendors; all cost well under $100. Not only did we get what amounted to private tours, but we got to do and see more than those on ship tours.
The Gambia tour was around $40 and advertised a boat ride on the river, day at Kayira Beach Resort, run by a British couple, Penny and Paul Westhead, a visit with