Where the Saloum and Sine rivers meet the Atlantic, 5,000 km² of mangrove channels, sandbars and shell-mound islands spread across central-western Senegal. It's been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1981 and a World Heritage Site since 2011, and you'll see almost none of it from a road — this is pirogue country.
What to do
Pirogue tours from Toubacouta, Missirah or Ndangane are really the only way in. A full day winds through the mangroves, past the bird colony at Île aux Oiseaux, and out to a beach lunch somewhere quiet.
The Serer shell-mound islands are a Sine-Saloum oddity you won't find elsewhere: whole villages raised over centuries on mounds of discarded oyster and clam shells.
Where to stay
Keur Bamboung near Toubacouta is a community-run eco-lodge out in the bush — the one with the most atmosphere. Lodge des Collines de Niassam does tree-house and stilt rooms with full board.