Anyone who writes travel articles can tell you that they usually take months to go from computer to publication — for lots of reasons including seasonality. So I rarely post my occasional travel piece here — not to mention the fact that this blog is about art and culture.
But tomorrow’s New York Times travel section publishes an article on the cruise I took in Mid-February to Senegal and the Gambia, so why not post it? It’s in print with the headline Through An African Artery and online with the headline Crocodiles and Culture on a Cruise in West Africa. The pictures are different, too, and the online version even has one of me petting a crocodile.
The trip didn’t involve seeing any art. But we did visit cultural sites, including Kunte Kinteh island (at left), which the late author Alex Haley made famous in “Roots†as a place his ancestor Kunta Kinte passed through. And much further inland, we visited the Wassu Stone Circles (at right), megalithic structures that date to 750 to 1000 AD and are believed to be burial grounds of chiefs. Modern-day excavations turned up only a few grave artifacts there – a few bracelets, spears and other weapons, usually made of iron or bronze, and some pottery shards. But it, along with three other similar sites in that part of Africa, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
So have a look.
Photo Credits: © Judith H. DobrzynskiÂ