Awesome Horse Carriage Tour Of Saint Louis – Senegal Travel Diary #17

The Historic Horse Carriage Tour around Saint-Louis, Senegal is a great way to see the town end to end. From the colonial historic downtown to a ride through the fishing village side that not all tourists see, this tour is an awesome way to spend an afternoon. This video is just a sampling of one of the most interesting parts of the tour.

There is a longer video, with a mix of music and ambient sounds, showing longer pieces of the Horse Carriage Tour on my second YouTube channel. It’s pretty cool.

We booked our tour through the official Office du Tourisme-Syndicate D’Initiative de Saint-Louis and everything went great. Their English-speaking guide was knowledgeable and all-around excellent. As of 2022, the price for 2 people was 5000cfa each.

*On some of the links provided I might make a commission if you purchase something by clicking through my link. This creates no additional cost for you.

The horse carriage is a little short on leg room but rides as smoothly as can be expected on what are sometimes rough roads. Saint-Louis could use a little sprucing up on parts of their paving. Overall, though, it’s an easy ride and much easier than walking in the heat trying to cover the same space on foot.

If you’re in Saint-Louis, Senegal, make time for this elegant tour. You won’t be disappointed.

Video Transcript

• And is very, very important.

You have many crowd inside the market.

You have many things from choose.

You have many other
spice sample for traders

and here you have many ecological
taxi, like a horse taxi

• [Trina] Horse taxis
  are ecological taxis.
• [Guide] Yes. Ecological taxis.
• [Trina] And this is
  the biggest market in
• [Guide] Biggest market in Saint Louis.

The biggest and yeah,
alongside you have many traders

coming now to build very big houses.

And after the houses,
behind, you have the ocean.

For example,

if you see the streets,
you have the ocean.

Not very, very far.

• [Trina] Yeah.
• [Guide] And when it is high tide,

you have much water coming,

water on the road,

which is why nowadays government go

alongside the beach to make a big fence

to protect population, a big dike.

• [Trina] That’s a good idea.
• [Guide] Yes. Yeah.

You have charcoal sellers,
charcoal sellers here.

• [Trina] Oh, charcoal sellers. Okay.

(horse feet clapping)

Charcoal. No, charcoal as
in selling charcoal to burn.

• [Guide] Charcoal. Very important.
• [Trina] And yeah, this
  whole strip is really only

about four blocks wide.

• [Guide] Yes.
• [Trina] Right.

And Saint Louis is only
about six blocks wide.

Yeah. Six or seven?

• [Guide] That is seven,
  is after the market.

You have the fishermen place.

Get that we say, get means
just place for excess.

Some animals and get in wall of.

• [Trina] Yes.
• [Guide] Just yes.

But after get you see many
fishermen, the only the fish

they go to fish the night, the day,

all the time they are in the ocean.

That is why it see very important here.

Very crowded.

• [Trina] Yeah. It is very crowded.
• [Guide] And very strong men leave you.

At the past, you have many
wranglers, many boxers,

very hard and very, very, very strong.

• [Trina] You said wranglers,
• [Guide] Very powerful.
• [Trina] You mean wrestlers, maybe?
• [Guide] Wrestlers?
• [Trina] Wrestlers.

(children crying)

(indistinct)

• [Guide] The first African
  champions boxer was born here

and then he go to America.

He take the name of Cartneski,

but the true name is Marikfal.

• [Trina] Uh-huh.
• [Guide] Marikfal.
• [Trina] Okay.
• [Guide] And he was born here

and he left his house when
he was just 12 years old.

• [Trina] Oh, okay.

(horse feet clapping)

Okay. So let’s, I’m gonna
flip this and we’re gonna talk

to our audience for a real quick second.

Okay. So we just dove right in,

but we are taking a tour of
Saint Louis via horse cart,

as you saw.

And we just wanted to give
you a little sample of it.

Hopefully you can hear that
singing in the background.

One of the mosques, someone
is doing some singing

and we just wanted to give you a sample

of what this tour is like.

It’s honestly a really awesome tour.

It’s about 90 gonna be about
90 minutes to two hours

and do a whole tour of the
entire island, both sides.

And it’s really awesome.

And our guide here from
the Office of Tourism

when you come to get your tour

everyone will offer it to you,
go to the Office of Tourism.

They, they know what they’re doing.

They’re the best tour around.

So Tim, do you wanna say something?

• Uh, no, I’m just having a blast.
• So, Oh, hang on.

Let me show you pelican.

(local singing)

We have a pelican over here.

We saw a lot of these at the
Djoudj Bird Sanctuary, Tim.

He’s on the corner, on the ground

Actually sitting right on
the corner of the street.

So yeah, I, I noticed there are those

there’s someone near our
hotel that has a pelican too.

• [Guide] Yeah. Very often they,

when they find pelicans or in the ocean

when pelicans are wounded, who are ill

they take them and they
take care for pelicans.

They give lot of fish and later two years

or they go to eat.

• [Trina] Oh, they
  (indistinct) the pelicans.
• [Guide] Yes, it is why
  they came here like a dog.
• [Trina] Okay.
• [Guide] When you want to to
  touch the domestic animals,

pelicans, for example, are good

to protect the animals.

• [Trina] Ah.
• [Guide] Which is why it’s
  important for them very often.
• [Trina] Okay.
• [Guide] If no food in, I
  want to take the pelicans

but fishermen are very often very,

you say they are

live the way they want.

It is why it is forbidden for them,

but everywhere they take the pelicans,

they have them.

• [Trina] Oh, okay.

(guide talks to horse)

We got a little traffic jam here.

(guide talks to horse)

Okay. So as you can see, this
is a really awesome tour.

And as with everything here in Senegal,

things are surprises.

Stuff comes up.

Nothing is super organized
and you know, things happen.

So what’s really cool
is you have a surprise

around every corner.

• [Tim] Yep.
• [Trina] And so I think
  we’ll sign off at this point.
• [Tim] Yep.
• [Trina] And Tim says, yep.
• [Tim] Yep.
• [Trina] And we will see you next time.

Thanks for joining us.

• [Tim] Yep.
• [Trina] Oh, and don’t
  forget to subscribe.
• [Tim] Yep.

(horse feet clapping)