Last November Vixen spent a month in Senegal, West Africa -- one week in Dakar and three weeks on the Casamance River. I keep thinking of that time on the river even now a few months later. This map is the best available of the area -- just a handmade sketch from some French cruising notes. Our electronic charts showed nothing but an angular indentation of the African coast. Here is the delta where the river meets the Atlantic but it continues fifty miles up stream to the town of Ziguanchor. We spent a couple of weeks in that Octopus-shaped maze in the middle of the sketch.
On the whole river -- probably hundreds of miles of backwaters -- there was only one other yacht.
Once you wind yourself back up into the mangroves the river is always calm no matter how much wind blows. At about five in the morning as first light could be discerned in the east the sounds of animals would rise from the jungle. Mostly birds but also frogs, crickets and other strange howls.
Here is a recording that gives a faint idea of the beautiful cacophony that greeted us every morning on the river.
On the whole river -- probably hundreds of miles of backwaters -- there was only one other yacht.
Once you wind yourself back up into the mangroves the river is always calm no matter how much wind blows. At about five in the morning as first light could be discerned in the east the sounds of animals would rise from the jungle. Mostly birds but also frogs, crickets and other strange howls.
Here is a recording that gives a faint idea of the beautiful cacophony that greeted us every morning on the river.
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