I recently spent a couple of months in Senegal, a country in West Africa. I spent the majority of that time in the capital Dakar, mainly at the beach town of Yoff. The town is built along the broad beach at Yoff Bay which faces the Atlantic Ocean, directly north of the city centre of Dakar. In West Africa the beach is much more than a place to relax and soak up the sun. Click through the slideshow below for some of my travel photos taken at Yoff Beach in Dakar:
The beach at Yoff is used as a means of transportation with Horse & Cart transporting people and produce along the beach. In the afternoons the beach becomes a huge gym with hundreds of Sengalese coming to exercise in groups or alone. Several football games take place along the stretch of sand and men practice the Sengalese form of wrestling by the shore. Yoff is also a place to pray with one of the biggest Mosques in Dakar situated overlooking the beach.
The most important function of the beach however is access to the ocean for it's fish. At the far end of the beach lies the fishing centre where many colourful fishing boats line the sand. On the shore women wash and prepare the fish, old fridges lie around storing the catch of the day and locals visit to make a purchase. Everyone here seems to be involved in some way with fishing, be it transporting, cleaning, cooking, catching or selling the daily catch. A very lively and colourful place it was great for photography. The beach also has regular and consistent surf, another good reason to visit and spend a few days there...
More of my travel photography from Senegal can be found on my website, my Instagram, and my Flickr account. If you are interested in purchasing any prints, using an image online or would like further information please send me an email at: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.