I don't normally end my trips this way, but this trip was a little different. After 25 days in West Africa, we were really ready to go home. After Banjul, our ship was to take us back to Dakar, Senegal where we were to depart for home in the evening on our various flights. We were scheduled to spend our day in Senegal at the same hotel where we stayed when we were in Dakar as part of our trip to Senegal.

We woke up on our last day in Banjul and learned the news that political riots were happening in Dakar. Evidently, their President wanted to run for a third term, but their congress would not adjust their constitution to allow it. So then, the President had chosen a successor for himself. But two other candidates running for President were leading the President's chosen successor in the polls. Two days before we were to land in Dakar, their election ballots came out and the two leading candidates were not on the ballots. Let the riots begin.

We didn't know what to expect when we arrived in Dakar. Our hotel was right between Independence Square, where the worst of the riots were happening, and the President's Palace. But we arrived there to extreme quiet. The President had ordered a curfew for everyone to stay home unless they absolutely had to work, so Dakar was much quieter than when we were there before.

About the time we were leaving for the airport, we received text messages from Brussels Airlines, our flight carrier. The messages said that there were major strikes going on in Germany and all flights to Frankfurt were in jeopardy of cancellation. The first leg of our flights home was to Frankfurt. We departed Dakar at 10:30pm and landed in Frankfurt at 5am. We had long walks not knowing what was happening. We finally reached the Club Lounge and learned that so far, our flight was still a go. The scuttlebut was that the unions doing the striking were mostly striking the in-country flights and trying not to bother the international flights. We made our Lufthansa flight home for an easy 12-hour ride. Whew!

So this is it from West Africa. We enjoyed the people we met, at least those who didn't chastise us for taking photographs.

We enjoyed the fishing and the farming experiences, but most especially the fishing ones.

Vicky and I were our usual selves, trying to fit in and maybe stretch things a bit.

We even took a selfie at the top of the Rope Road, just to let you know that we still know how to do it.

But the sun was quickly setting on this trip....much of it spent at sea.

And that's all from us from West Africa. THE END.