Keur Bary Wah
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Keur Bary Wah

Things to do around the villa

The outings you can make from the villa, from the nearest to the furthest.

Driving times are approximate, counted from the centre of Somone, without traffic. Most of these outings need a car or a taxi. Kathy will tell you how to arrange things.

Around La Somone

From Dakar to the Saloum

Directions to the villa Base map: © OpenStreetMap contributors

In Somone and ten minutes away

For the days when you would rather not drive far.

Somone lagoon seen from the air: channels, mangroves and sandbanks, with the ocean behind
Photo: Julienlerêveur, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Somone lagoon

In the village1 hr 30 min by pirogue

The lagoon has been a nature reserve since 1999. It was women from the village who got things started, by replanting the mangroves. Today it covers about 700 hectares of channels, mangrove trees and sandbanks.

You visit it by pirogue, setting off from the beach. Herons, egrets and pelicans are easy to spot. There is also a marked trail with a lookout tower, for those who would rather walk.

Good to know. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon the light is softer.

  • Excursion pirogues moored at the edge of the Somone lagoon in late afternoon light
  • Two egrets, one white and one dark, wading at the foot of the mangrove in the Somone lagoon
Quad bikes raising a cloud of ochre dust on a track
Photo: rawpixel, CC0, source (photo taken in Morocco)

Quad bike rides

From Somone, Ngaparou or SalyFrom 2 hours to half a day

Several operators run guided rides from Somone, Ngaparou and Saly. You ride on sandy tracks, through the bush and villages, along the sea and round the edge of the lagoon.

You need to book. The minimum age, the driving licence rule and the number of people per quad differ from one operator to the next, so ask beforehand.

Good to know. Closed shoes, and something to keep the dust off.

Saly beach: thatched parasols, sun loungers and coconut palms by the water
Photo: Davric, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
  • The long sandy beach of Saly Portudal with palm trees in the distance
  • The sun setting behind a palm tree on a beach near Saly

Saly

10 min by car

Saly is the main seaside resort of the Petite Côte, opened in 1984 beside a former Portuguese trading post. People go there for a change of beach, lunch in a restaurant, a round of golf or a look round the craft stalls. In Saly Portudal, the fishing village, pirogues still set out from the beach.

Twenty to thirty minutes away

Close enough to leave in the morning and be back at the villa for lunch.

A group of giraffes under a baobab in the Bandia reserve
Photo: Josi Salgado, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Bandia reserve

20 min by carA 2-hour visit

Bandia is the first private wildlife reserve in Senegal: 3,500 hectares of bush and baobabs, home to giraffes, rhinos, zebras, buffalo, antelopes, monkeys, ostriches and crocodiles.

You go round by vehicle, in about two hours: in your own car, by taxi, or in a 4x4 hired on site. The reserve says it opens every day from 8 am to 6 pm, with no booking needed.

Good to know. In the rainy season you need a 4x4.

Official website

  • A white rhinoceros grazing in the Bandia reserve
  • Two zebras side by side on the green grass of the Bandia reserve
Fishing pirogues pulled up on the sand of Mbour beach
Photo: Bart van Poll, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
  • A long line of painted fishing pirogues on Mbour beach at dusk

Mbour fishing harbour

20 min by carLate afternoon

Mbour is one of the country’s main fishing harbours. Late in the afternoon the painted pirogues come in and the fish is sold on the beach.

It is a working place, noisy, with its smells. Watch without getting in the way, and ask before you photograph anyone. A local guide helps you find your way around.

Leafless baobabs under a blue sky in the Bandia reserve
Photo: Myriam Louviot, CC BY 3.0, source (baobabs in the Bandia reserve, opposite the park)

Accrobaobab

30 min by carFrom age 2

In Sindia, right opposite the Bandia reserve, the park has set up its treetop courses and zip lines in the baobabs. The courses are graded by age and height, from toddlers (aged 2 and up) to adults.

As it faces Bandia, you can do both in one day.

Good to know. The park says it opens from 8 am to 7 pm, except on Mondays outside school and public holidays, and a yearly closure in September is reported. Best to check before you set off.

Official website

The beach and cliffs of the Popenguine nature reserve seen from above
Photo: tbo47, CC0, source
  • The red cliff of Cap de Naze seen from the plateau of the Popenguine reserve
  • The beach of Toubab Dialaw with its pirogues and the village on the cliff

Popenguine and Toubab Dialaw

35 min by carHalf a day

North of Somone the coast rises. Cap de Naze, the highest point of the Petite Côte at 74 metres, faces the ocean at Popenguine. The nature reserve, created in 1986, protects about a thousand hectares of rocky coast and savannah, and a women’s association from the village provides guides.

A few kilometres further on, Toubab Dialaw is a fishing village set against the cliff. It is known for the École des Sables, the dance centre of the choreographer Germaine Acogny, and for the Sobo Badé cultural centre.

For a full day

More than an hour’s drive each way: best to leave early.

A painted pirogue and colourful houses at the landing of Gorée island
Photo: Ibfal, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Gorée island and Dakar

1 hr 05 min to Dakar, then 20 min by boatA full day

Gorée has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1978. It is a small car-free island of colourful houses, twenty minutes by boat from Dakar. Visitors go to the House of Slaves, a place of remembrance of the slave trade.

The ferry leaves from the port of Dakar several times a day and tickets are bought on the spot. Half a day is enough for the island, which leaves the rest of the day for Dakar.

Good to know. Allow extra time for the drive, as traffic in Dakar is often heavy.

Ferry timetable

  • A narrow street on Gorée between red houses with blue and green shutters, lined with flowering shrubs
  • The double staircase of the House of Slaves on Gorée, with the door of no return at the end of the passage
Colourful boats on the shore of Lac Rose, its water tinted pink
Photo: Abrahami, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
  • Aerial view of Lac Rose with salt heaps on the shore and collectors’ boats on the red water
  • The pink water of Lac Rose edged with foam, with a salt collector’s boat

Lac Rose, the pink lake

1 hr 05 min by carHalf a day

Lake Retba is a very salty lagoon, cut off from the Atlantic by a line of dunes. A microscopic alga gives it its pink tints, mostly when the weather is fine, in the dry season.

The salt is harvested by hand: men standing chest-deep in the water break it loose from the bottom and load it into pirogues. This is also where the Paris-Dakar rally used to finish.

Good to know. The lake is not pink every day. The colour depends on the season, the sun and the water level, so ask before you make the drive.

The shell cemetery of Fadiouth, between flame trees in bloom and the lagoon
Photo: Clean Heart Sn, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
  • The long wooden footbridge linking Joal to the island of Fadiouth
  • The granaries on stilts of Joal-Fadiouth at low tide, in front of the mangrove

Joal-Fadiouth, the shell island

1 hr 10 min by carHalf a day

Fadiouth is a man-made island, built up from heaped shells, which you reach from Joal over a long wooden footbridge. On a second, smaller island, the cemetery brings Christians and Muslims together under graves covered in shells.

Joal is the birthplace of Léopold Sédar Senghor, poet and first president of Senegal. His childhood home is open to visitors.

Good to know. Once there, go round with a guide from the village.

A baobab and a pirogue beside a sea inlet in the Saloum delta
Photo: Benoit HYJAZI, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
  • Aerial view of the Saloum delta with tidal channels winding through the mangrove
  • Mangrove trees with their roots in the water at Palmarin, in the Saloum delta
  • A sailing pirogue at anchor off Niodior in the Saloum islands at sunset

The Saloum delta

At least 1 hr 30 min by carA full day

The Saloum delta has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2011: sea inlets, islands, mangroves and ancient shell mounds. Palmarin, the nearest way in, is about an hour and a half away by road.

You get around by pirogue. Flamingos, pelicans, herons and ibises can be seen in the Palmarin reserve.

Good to know. It is a long drive: leave early.

Information checked in October 2026. Prices, opening days and hours change: check them with each place before you set off. This site is not affiliated with any of the places mentioned.

These photos are not of the villa. They come from free image libraries (Wikimedia Commons, rawpixel) and were cropped.

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