Île de Ngor

Île de Ngor is a small island off the Almadies peninsula in Dakar, the westernmost point of mainland Africa. A pirogue crosses from Ngor village in five minutes, and the island has a sheltered beach on its landward side and a right-hand reef break on the seaward one.

The wave is why it appears in surfing history. *The Endless Summer*, the 1966 film that did more than anything to spread surfing worldwide, filmed here; the Ngor right is still ridden and the island has a small permanent surf economy. Dakar's position on the Atlantic bulge gives it swell from several directions and a season that runs most of the year.

The landward beach is sheltered, shallow and calm, used by Dakarois families at weekends and busy with them. The island itself is small enough to walk around in twenty minutes, with narrow lanes, bougainvillea and a handful of restaurants. There are no cars. The island's own beach faces back at the mainland, so the swimming side and the surfing side are a two-minute walk apart.

Development is houses and small guesthouses, some of them owned by outsiders, and the same tension about that exists here as on other African islands within reach of a capital. Gorée Island, the slave-trade memorial and UNESCO site, is twenty minutes by ferry from central Dakar and is a separate and necessary visit. Yoff and Ouakam on the mainland peninsula have the other Dakar breaks, and Gorée Island is a separate ferry from the city centre.

Five minutes by pirogue from the westernmost point of mainland Africa, with a sheltered beach on one side and the reef right from The Endless Summer on the other. No cars, twenty minutes to walk round. At the weekend all of Dakar is here. Gorée, the slave-trade memorial, is a separate ferry and a necessary one.