Swan Hellenic’s guiding mantra — “See what others don’t” — speaks to each intrepid traveler with a discerning thoughts. I put the slogan to the take a look at aboard the SH Diana on the cruise line’s Atlantic Crossroads voyage from Dakar to Accra. The itinerary spans seven West African international locations, all removed from the continent’s japanese shoreline and Southern Africa’s pristine safari world.
Swan Hellenic started greater than 70 years in the past, taking Hellenic Society members to historic Greek websites, with students serving as guides. That blend of exploration and training nonetheless shapes its voyages.
Throughout practically two weeks in Africa, friends grew to become a part of the Swan Hellenic household, visiting locations removed from most vacationers’ radar—Guinea-Bissau’s secluded Bijagos archipelago, as an example. Assistant expedition chief Wendy Kaplan, from Buenos Aires, mentioned the Diana was the one passenger ship in West Africa on the time.
Small ship, versatile spirit
To start the voyage, I arrived early on the Pullman Dakar Teranga resort in Senegal; Swan supplies one evening to relaxation and acclimate. The Diana, in-built 2023 and designed for polar routes, holds as much as 192 friends; 159 sailed with us. This voyage marked a transition for the Diana as she repositioned from her summer time expedition schedule within the excessive Arctic (Svalbard, Iceland, Greenland) to her base in Ushuaia, Argentina, for the five-month Antarctica season.
Not all expedition ships are created equal. The Diana’s seven working decks really feel cozy and simple to handle. Zodiac excursions depart from Basecamp on Deck 3, which additionally holds the library and medical heart. Deck 4 has the reception desk, a self-service laundry, and the Swan Restaurant, the place a largely Filipino workforce caters to each diner’s whim. The Remark Lounge on Deck 7 hosts each day briefings and lectures, and doubles as a stage the place native entertainers invite friends to affix in tune and dance. Deck 8 holds the spa, fitness center, and sauna, and Deck 9 is an open stargazing deck.
On the welcome briefing, vacation spot chief Sara Filié, from Italy, set out the spirit of the voyage: “Be versatile, present flexibility, and keep in mind rule one.” In Africa, she warned, vacationers shouldn’t be shocked by sluggish immigration officers, tardy pilots, buses a bit in need of VIP: It proved sound recommendation.
Days ashore, days at sea
As we left Senegal, Estonian Captain Jaanus Hannes hosted a welcome reception and launched his senior officers. ?A go to to Gorée Island and the Door of No Return served as a reminder that this journey could be very a lot about West Africa’s slave commerce previous.
The Diana slipped out of Dakar at 7 within the night certain for neighboring The Gambia. Right here friends may select from excursions and non-obligatory excursions, from mangrove cruises and the Makasutu forest to a sacred crocodile pool.
Every touchdown day started when color-coded teams had been known as to the Basecamp, the place they stepped from the platform into Zodiacs. Days at sea ran on talks, remark, and binoculars — fowl life with one information, chimpanzees with one other. Stay briefings are additionally broadcast on cabin TV screens. Every night, a pianist entertained whereas the workforce recapped the day and briefed the following.
Meals set the rhythm. Breakfast and lunch had been buffets. Dinners had been served within the Swan Restaurant with dishes similar to garlic tiger shrimp, rack of lamb, and Thai rooster curry. Government chef Ernesto Bron, from the Manila space, leads an 18-person galley, together with a dozen cooks and cooks. The kitchen orders frozen beef and lamb, largely from the US and Australia, about two months forward. “Operating out just isn’t an choice,” Bron informed me, in order that they all the time have extras, and you may order two mains for those who like. It was no downside that my spouse, Gaby, is dairy-free; the kitchen can put together meals for any particular eating regimen.
Touchdown by Zodiac
Zodiac days begin with a briefing from the expedition workforce, together with Henri Leinfelder, an expedition information from northern Germany who started his profession lecturing on astronomy. The Diana carries 15 of the rugged inflatables, initially constructed for the French army. Friends be taught the “sailor’s grip,” clasping forearms reasonably than fingers when stepping aboard, and the drill that, if anybody falls overboard, everybody factors so the motive force by no means loses sight of the swimmer.
Lecturers urged friends to behave as ambassadors. This meant not solely smiling and asking permission earlier than taking images. Guests had been requested to not give away pens or sweets which may make college students sick or make them skip college, and to satisfy poverty with respect reasonably than pity. “That’s any person’s house,” one lecturer mentioned of the homes we’d move.
In Guinea-Bissau’s Bijagos Archipelago, we landed at Caravela and walked 4 km (2½ miles) to a ritual efficiency in a area people. The following morning we went ashore at Ampincha, a village of palm timber and sandy paths.
In Sierra Leone, I selected the Bunce Island tour to the well-preserved ruins of a slave fort within the Sierra Leone River, which historian Sarah Marshall known as “quieter than Gorée.” An estimated 30,000 Africans had been exiled there between 1670 and 1807.
A plaque there says British merchants operated it. Our group noticed the cramped, horrific situations and heard tales of malnourished captives earlier than they had been loaded onto ships certain for the Americas. It’s a historical past lesson we should always by no means repeat.
In Monrovia, the ship’s arrival remains to be an occasion, and singers and dancers greeted us. Abidjan’s skyscrapers confirmed how rapidly elements of this coast are altering, and on a tour to Grand Bassam many people shopped at an artisan workshop for picket carvings, textiles, and clothes.
Ghana closed the voyage with two tough days boarding Zodiacs at Elmina for excursions to Elmina Fortress, Cape Coast Fortress, and Kakum Nationwide Park, plus a metropolis tour of Accra for friends staying aboard for the following crusing, which might go to six extra international locations, ending in Angola. Elmina was the spotlight of Ghana for me: two days of Zodiac landings on the outdated citadel and fishing pier. The citadel’s lengthy function within the slave commerce ended solely as European powers outlawed it within the early 1800s.
Accra, my jumping-off level, is a busy capital whose economic system tells a distinct story from the coast we had simply seen. By one 2026 rating, Ghana’s output per individual, about $8,600 on a purchasing-power foundation, is greater than double Sierra Leone’s, roughly 4 occasions Liberia’s, and nowhere close to the world’s twenty poorest international locations. This expedition jogged my memory that West Africa just isn’t one story.
The workforce behind the journey
The expedition workforce numbers round 13 and hails from Argentina, Germany, Italy, Britain, and past. Ian Valmont, from the Seychelles, has guided for greater than 25 years and calls himself a generalist. Wendy Kaplan, from Argentina, runs each day operations and drives zodiacs. Behind them stand roughly 125 crew from 23-25 nationalities, over half Filipino; Henri believes a heat crew environment units Swan aside.
Sarah Marshall, an English journalist and historian from Hastings, gave talks that stayed with me. She mentioned West Africa’s Guinean forests are one in every of Africa’s eight biodiversity hotspots. But, about 85 % of the unique habitat is gone, and conservation funding is scarcer than in East Africa. There’s hope, although. One hero is Dr. Caleb Ofori-Boateng, a Ghanaian frog biologist who preaches conservation in church buildings and mosques in an “I like frogs, ask me why” T-shirt. Herp Conservation Ghana is West Africa’s first amphibian-focused conservation group.
The vacationers
Swan Hellenic vacationers are a few of the most educated you’ll ever meet. Gaby and I instantly gravitated to Ray Miller and his spouse, Deanne, each extraordinary vacationers. When Ray and Deanne married, Ray promised to take her all over the world. Her tally within the Vacationers’ Century Membership stands at 211 of 330 international locations and territories, and this voyage added seven. “Being on a cruise is the proper alternative,” Ray mentioned, and even a day or two in every nation provides a consultant overview. Ray guessed greater than half of these aboard have handed 100 international locations; about half sail on to Angola.
Gray Pattern, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica, is on nation 146. He boarded in Lisbon on 7 September and leaves the ship in Cape City on 23 October, overlaying the entire West African coast. He likes small ships for the prospect to “unpack as soon as and be taken care of.” Liberia was his favourite cease as a result of freed People returned there. He says journey is his drug of alternative, and doubtless the healthiest one.
The place you haven’t been
Swan Hellenic covers the street much less traveled. On the final day I requested ?Captain Hannes the place to go subsequent with Swan Hellenic. He’s keen on Antarctica, the place the Diana is headed, however his reply completely match your entire voyage: the place you haven’t been. On a coast that sees few vacationers, a ship of seasoned vacationers arrives as an occasion, and as Sarah Marshall put it, guests may give communities satisfaction in the place they dwell.
images credit score Nick Kontis
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