We flew into Senegal on the wind. Now, we wind up our African rail fantasy on a whirlwind of travel that takes us to the end of the line: Nigeria. Last of three parts.
Having left Guinea-Bissau, we’re now in Guinea. Having been on the go almost non-stop since arriving in Dakar, we decide to take advantage of the beaches in Conakry for a couple of days of down time — maybe at a place like the Novotel Ghi Conakry on the Corniche Sud.
From here, we blaze through the rest of the trip, enjoying our time on the train almost as much as the destinations to which it takes us.
In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, we see the Maroon Church, visit the old slave castle on Bunce Island — and naturally, check out the National Railway Museum.
In Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, we make a brief stop on Providence Island, the place where freed American slaves first landed in the 1820s to begin their new lives as free people.
In the Cote d’Ivoire, the Ivory Coast, we wonder at the spectacularly incongruous Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and take in a village celebration outside Abidjan.
Through Accra and Lome, our rail journey is a movable feast of images and memories until we finally reach the end of the line in Lagos.
Doing this by train allows us to set our own pace. We can spend as much or as little time in each destination as we wish. We can add a stop here, skip one there.
Even better, the high-speed train allows us to treat some of these destinations as day trips. We can see a lot of places and cover a lot of ground, without feeling rushed or harried.
If we take the train during the day, we can see more of the countryside. If we travel by night, the train becomes our overnight lodging and we save the cost of a hotel room and we arrive with the sun at our destination.
I prefer the daylight runs, because in addition to seeing the sights, we get to talk to people. And fast as it is, the train is quiet enough to hold conversations in a normal voice.
One thing quickly becomes very clear: We are not the only non-African travelers on this train. Our little band is but a fraction of scores of foreign passengers from Europe, Asia, the Middle East.
Some are traveling on business. Some are university students on holiday or in study programs. Some are vacationers are like us. And a handful are rail enthusiasts who are here really for no reason other than to say they rode this train.
A DESTINATION IN ITSELF
All are delighted to be traveling the West African coast in comfort, safety… and above all, speed.
We share stories, pass our cameras and smartphones back and forth to share images, sample each other’s drinks and snacks bought at station stops along the way. The train becomes a destination in its own right.
At every turn, we see inviting beaches and coves that sometimes make me regret never having learned how to surf. Turn in the opposite direction, and the lush tropical countryside often seems endless.
Lagos is where our little band disbands. From here, some will fly back to the States. Others will fly north for a few days in London or Paris or Rome before returning home.
We’re exercising a third option, taking the train back to Ziguinchor in Senegal. from there, we’ll catch the ferry for a mini-Atlantic cruise back to Dakar.
Our decision to take the Dakar ferry draws a few surprised looks from locals in Ziguinchor. The vessel that makes that run these days is modern, well-maintained and well-run, but the memory of the overloaded ferry that capsized on this same run in 2002 is still fresh in many minds.
It’s a big reason the train is very crowded between Dakar and Ziguinchor.
But we have no thoughts of disaster as we leave the ferry in Dakar for the hotel where we will spend the night before catching our flight back to the States tomorrow morning. We have only a blur of memories, impressions, emotions. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes — and above all, the warmth, friendship and dignity of the people we’ve met.
All of us are glad we made this trip. We’re even more glad there was a high-speed train here to make it possible. And as the network extends to new destinations and expands to more countries, it only increases the odds that we’ll be back.
Will a trip like this ever really happen? Who knows? The point is that it could. The technology to make it possible exists. All that’s needed is the foresight, the regional cooperation and commitment among the nations of West Africa to make it real.
The potential benefits to the countries and peoples of West Africa are enormous. And yes, so too are the challenges. But just as distances can be spanned, so too can challenges be conquered by people of vision and goodwill.
Destiny waits at the end of the line.