West African Rivers
By Ted Scull
Variety Cruises is a major operator of small ships to worldwide destinations that easily earn the designation motor yacht.
Most recently, West Africa’s major rivers are opening up giving easy water access to the interiors of Gambia and Senegal.
The first West African rivers cruises to debut will follow the Gambia River late this year and into 2024.
Cruising in West Africa, with Harmony G in the background. * Photo: McCollum for Variety Cruises
The seven-night cruise aboard the 44-passenger Harmony embarks at Dakar, the dynamic Senegalese capital, and initially sails southward along the West African coast.
Soon it reaches the mouth of the Gambia River and continues upstream into the tropical interior to then join up with the Saloum River.
Variety’s West African cruises take in UNESCO World Heritage sites that include a birdwatchers’ paradise, national parks featuring wetland reserves, flora, and fauna that simply amaze one and all.
A chimp in Gambia National Park. * Photo: Variety Cruises
One of the early special interest groups joining Variety’s West African cruises is the New York-based Explorers Club, which took advantage of the opportunity to pursue their goals of scientific research and education while traveling.
Additionally, the Senegal River, located just to the north of Dakar, will also serve Variety Cruises as a water route inland. During French colonial days, the water route allowed small steamers to penetrate well inland.
A colonial railway connection eventually accessed landlocked Mali. Today the objective is to call at numerous Senegal river landings to then be welcomed by the local inhabitants who share their life amongst the immediate surroundings.
Cruisers joining the Kankurang ritual dancing. * Photo: Variety Cruises
Up until now, West Africa has not featured much as a tourist destination, and with Variety Cruises’ expertise that is slowly changing.
Small-ship cruising the navigable waterways is both a comfortable and safe combination to reach the interiors.
Map showing river cruising region of West Africa. * Photo: Google & Canva by Heidi
RELATED: One of our QuirkyCruise readers reviews his Variety Cruises adventure in the Seychelles.
Baobab Tree in Senegal. * Photo: Variety Cruises
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My Attraction to Africa Received a Big Boost Decades Ago
An English exchange student became a part of my senior high school class and we became good friends. After graduation, he invited me to spend a weekend at his family farm in Devon. Amongst the family members present was a female cousin and physician who worked for an Anglican Mission that operated a hospital in rural Tanganyika (today called Tanzania). I was fascinated by her work, and at the time, I was interested in medicine and had worked in the summer at the Nantucket Cottage Hospital.
Later that year, I wrote Ursula that I would like to volunteer my services for the following summer. I received a reply that yes indeed, I could be very useful though I had to pay my own way over and back.
As Ursula was the only registered doctor in the vast rural district, we had to do a lot of traveling because the local Africans did not have any means to access her hospital. The district bordered Masai Land so I came into direct contact with them and their cattle. Many of the herders were my age, and we communicated via a combination of English and Swahili.
Ted and the curious Masai he met. * Slide: Ted Scull
During the last month, I created an itinerary to visit the coastal port of Mombasa, traveled by train inland to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, and Uganda’s capital Kampala, visited several game reserves, and undertook a circumnavigation of Lake Victoria and its ports aboard a 1916-built steamer.
I was hooked and returned twice to visit Ursula in her new posts in Tanzania training African doctors and seeing more of Africa. I was twice in South Africa pre- and post-apartheid, and made a single visit to Zambia and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
With the opening of West Africa and comfortable inland accessibility via navigable rivers, I still have new territory to cover and share with Quirky Cruise readers. — Ted Scull
Kuntaur dancers entertain passenger. * Photo: Variety Cruises
Some Details About The Harmony
- Length: 54 meters
- Launched: 2001
- Renovated: 2013
- Cabins: 21
- Capacity: 44 passengers + crew
- Weekly departures for the remainder of 2023.
- For 2024, departures: Jan. 06, 13, 20, 27 & Feb. 10, 17
Atlantic bottle nose dolphin beside the Harmony G on Gambia’s River Tendaba. Photo: Paul Bartlett
Interested In Cruising West African Rivers With Variety Cruises?
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HEIDI SARNA
