Saloum Delta and CFAO Building

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Saloum Delta

   The Saloum Delta is where the river Saloum and its arms dissolve into a maze of mangrove channels, sandbanks and low islands before meeting the Atlantic, about halfway between Dakar and the Gambian border. It is a flat, watery, shimmering place, where the horizon is a line of mangroves and the only things standing taller than a man are baobabs and the occasional village water tower. Locals call the narrow creeks bolongs, and they wind through the delta like veins.

   Read the complete Saloum Delta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Saloum Delta is where the day begins. Next is Fort Bullen.

2. 2. Fort Bullen

   Take the ferry from Banjul and the first thing you see across the water is a low fort squatting at the river mouth, its cannon still pointing out toward the Atlantic. Fort Bullen guards the northern bank of the Gambia, in Barra, and it was built by the British in 1826 to keep watch on the slave ships that kept slipping past after Britain had outlawed the trade. The brick walls are modest and the guns are old, but the position says everything: whoever held this bank held the river, and the river was the Gambia's only real road into the interior.

   Read the complete Fort Bullen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fort Bullen comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is Remains of Portuguese Chapel.

3. 3. Remains of Portuguese Chapel

   The Gambia is a country shaped like a river, a ribbon of land on either bank of a wide, slow stream that cuts deep into Senegal, and Albreda is a village on the north bank that tells the story of why Europeans came. The Portuguese were the first, in the fifteenth century, trading with the peoples of the river, and the remains of their chapel, a ruined stone and brick shell, stand among the houses. The French set up a trading post at Albreda in the seventeenth century, and the British, who held James Island, now Kunta Kinteh Island, a short boat ride away, fought them for control of the river trade. The trade was in gold, ivory, hides and, increasingly, human beings, and the slave trade from this stretch of the Gambia lasted some three centuries. UNESCO listed Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites in 2003.

   Read the complete Remains of Portuguese Chapel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Remains of Portuguese Chapel. Next is Six-Gun Battery.

4. 4. Six-Gun Battery

   The Gambia is a long, narrow country that follows its river, and Banjul sits at the mouth where the river meets the Atlantic, on a low, sandy island that feels like a sandbar with ambitions. The city was founded by the British in 1816 as Bathurst, a base to suppress the slave trade, and the Six-Gun Battery is one of the military remains from that era. It forms part of the UNESCO site called Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites, which also includes Fort Bullen on the opposite bank at Barra, and together they tell the story of the Gambia river as a route of the Atlantic slave trade and of the later effort to end it.

   Read the complete Six-Gun Battery write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Six-Gun Battery, about halfway. Next is CFAO Building.

5. 5. CFAO Building

   CFAO stands for the Compagnie Française de l'Afrique Occidentale, a big French trading company that built warehouses and shops across West Africa from the late nineteenth century, and its building at Albreda is the last layer of commerce in a place with many. By the time it was built, the slave trade was over, the French had given up the enclave to the British, and the money was in groundnuts, rubber and imported cloth, tinned goods and tools. The company's staff bought the crops from the farmers, graded them and loaded them on to river steamers, and in return sold a range of European goods, so the building was both a shop and a depot.

   Read the complete CFAO Building write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   CFAO Building sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Six-Gun Battery.

6. 6. back through Six-Gun Battery

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Six-Gun Battery write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Six-Gun Battery comes up about 206 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Remains of Portuguese Chapel.

7. 7. back through Remains of Portuguese Chapel

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Remains of Portuguese Chapel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 245 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Remains of Portuguese Chapel. Next is back through Fort Bullen.

8. 8. back through Fort Bullen

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fort Bullen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Fort Bullen, late in the day. Next is Saloum Delta.

9. 9. Saloum Delta

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Saloum Delta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 325 km.