Tourist Spots: Cap Skirring

Hoping to see the world through both my eyes (Translation: Less Photos)
Despite my better judgment (i.e. when I try to post only my good photos), I am posting my Cap Skirring photos. Since this is a blog anyway and not a photo exhibit, I think I can post my not-so-nice snapshots. Sometimes, but not always, it’s better to see the world with both eyes than keep one behind a viewfinder. But this is just partly an excuse for not having photos as striking as I would have liked.

The wide stretch of white sand may be pretty impressive since the beach here is known as the best in West Africa, but the beach was not the highlight of my trip. Personally, I think I have yet to see beaches that truly rival the beauty of the beaches in the Philippines. But don’t get me wrong, the beach is pretty nice. The first thought that came to mind when I saw the beach at Cap Skirring was “Wow, that’s a lot of cows!”

But having less photos doesn’t always translate to having less fun. In fact I had an awesome time on the beach, meeting new friends, drinking, shopping, having a barbecue and waiting out a thunderstorm down by the beach. And what do you do when your photos don’t look so great? Jazz them up with photo-editing software and you can make anything ordinary look intriguing. I used Picasa from Google on the photos I didn’t love and it's easy to get carried away but I’m trying to use this only as a last resort which means I’m trying to take more photos I love.

This was also my first time ever to ride a sept-place(bush taxi which literally means 'seven places')! The company car took me from Kolda all the way to the garage at Ziguinchor and I took my first ever ride that took I think around 2 to 3 hours (correct me if I'm wrong because I fell asleep) and wasn't as bad as I'd expected because luckily I'm pretty small and fit well even in cramped vehicles. It was very convenient as it took me all the way into town. Here are just some of the things, other than the beach, that you can do at Cap.

Shopping

There are a lot of cool art shops at Cap Skirring but I didn’t take any photos of them because I wasn’t going to buy anything (my bags were heavy enough and I still planned to go to the Gambia afterwards). They had paintings, clothing, masks, woodwork, etc. and they were willing to sell them at reasonable prices with big discounts. A guy at the beach was willing to let me take photos of him and his shop.

Make a Yassa Cocktail

Yassa is a traditional Senegalese sauce with onions, lemon and spices that can be served with any meat or fish and rice. It also happens to be the name of the creator of this wonderful cocktail by mixing bissap (traditional juice made out of hibiscus petals), bouye (traditional juice made out of baobab fruit), gin (alcoholic drink made of distilled grain juniper berries), lemons (picked off the tree at the campement), and ice-cold water or ice. Some mint would have been excellent too!

Have a Thieboudienne

There are many versions on how to spell this traditional Senegalese fish dish (pronounced che-boo-jen) but they serve this everywhere in Senegal. There is a restaurant in Cap Skirring called ‘Le Carpe Rouge’ (The Red Carp) which had the best restaurant thieboudienne I ever tried. Of course nothing beats the one you eat in actual homes instead of restaurants.

Go Animal-watching in Cap Skirring

What they don’t tell you in ‘The Lonely Planet’ guidebooks is that the beach at Cap Skirring is pretty animal-friendly…which is good if you like birds (unfortunately my lens isn't long enough to capture them), lots and lots of cows and a few dogs.

Have a Barbecue by the beach at night

If you’re staying at Cap Skirring, there are a bunch of bars, clubs and restaurants in the center but these are usually quite far from the beach and taking a taxi to get to them can be a little pricey (perhaps somewhere in between 800-1500 FCFA depending on how big your party is). It was an excellent idea to go to the market, borrow a grill from the campement, buy some fish and vegetables at the market, and cook our own dinner by the beach. It actually turned out pretty good despite a really heavy thunderstorm and no electricity for the whole day and we were able to stay at a little restaurant by the beach to keep from getting wet. Smoke, in my opinion, could make for some interesting photo effects too.