Bandia National Park safari experience - Senegal.

Bandia national Park is very easily accessible from Dakar for a day trip. It’s a 3500 hectares of fenced but natural habit. It’s an amazing experience which gives you a chance to get close to most of the African mammals and reptiles (excluding predators) and watch beautiful bird spieces. What’s very interesting, all birds spieces moved there naturally. Bandia is a conservation park which takes a good care of the animals and their reproduction, and helps to protect some African wildlife like rhinos, a very rare species of antelopes, giraffes, impala – medium-sized antelope. Most of the animal come from Senegal, others were imported from South Africa.

Fees and how to get there?

The easiest way to get to Bandia National Park is to hire a taxi from Dakar (around 40 Euro), which will take you there and wait for you. Don’t have to pay in advance. The Park is located 75 km from Dakar. The best time to visit Bandia National Park is early in the morning or late afternoon when the animals become more active and don’t hide in a deep savanna forest. Entry fee:

Adults: 12 000 F / € 20
Children until 12 years old : 7 000 F
Safari 4WD jeep rental with up to 11 seats: 40 000 F / you can wait for more tourists to share the jeep, although we visited the park in low season and enjoyed exploring the area only two of us.
Tour Guide : 6 500 F / you have to hire a guide together with a jeep.

All the tourists are always accompanied by one of the local professional tour guides. It was a good adventure as the guide has a knowledge about the park, history and reserve’s trails. Serere people – it’s a local tribe who inhabited Bandia Park. Nowdays Serere people live in western Senegal and The Gambia and speak a language also called Serer. You will hear all the story and visit one of the baobabs that was used as a ceremonial and cemetery site (bones are still remaining under the tree) for the Serere people that lived the area. For baobab to become a tomb it cannot be inhabitet by any spirits and it needs to be easily accessible.
There are few nice restaurants near the entrance of the park, surrounded by waters full of crocodiles. There are few shops with local souvenirs and spirits. Please remember that only us can support the wildlife and help speices to survive. We should support and visit places where environmental education is on a desent level. Everyone of us can easily contribute to avoid or stop bad animal and human treatment. Remember:

never buy souvenirs made of animal parts,
we all live in the times of Instagram but please avoid photos with wild animals (especialy lions, crocodiles), as they are being constantly drugged and abused to remain calm and avoid being aggresive toward tourists,
avoid places and activities if the ethics is doubtful,
avoid zoos, circuses, paid photos,
don’t ever feed the animals – it is also a danger for yourself!

Another fascinating trip was to Lac Rose – the pink lake in Senegal: https://freestyletraveling.com/lac-rose-lac-retba-the-pink-lake-in-senegal/