Saly in 4 days

A west-facing strip of ochre sand divided by rock groynes built to slow erosion, where painted pirogues anchor in the crescents that form between them.

Some sixty workshops of woodcarvers, jewellers, tailors and glass painters, selling ebony masks, wax print and bazin cloth, Fulani silver and coloured sand pictures.

An 18-hole course in the bush east of the resort, among acacias and baobabs, where the near-constant westerly wind changes how each hole plays.

One of West Africa's largest artisanal fishing ports, where hundreds of painted pirogues land their catch straight onto the sand in the late afternoon.

A 700-hectare lagoon, a community reserve since 1999 run by local women's groups, where replanted mangroves shelter pelicans, egrets, herons and passing flamingos.

Created in 1986, it protects red laterite cliffs, scrub savannah and over a hundred bird species, co-managed with local women's groups since 1988.

A fenced 3,500-hectare reserve of baobabs and acacias, toured by 4x4 with a guide, stocked with giraffes, zebras, rhinos, eland, buffalo and impala.

Fadiouth, 35 km south, is an island built on centuries of piled-up shells, reached from Joal by a 400-metre wooden footbridge.