Along Africa’s West and South Coasts : In winter, a few ships put in at ports in Senegal, Gambia, Namibia and, now, South Africa.

East Africa, famous for its safaris and game parks, usually eclipses West Africa in the tourist eye. But travelers who enjoy people, crafts and diverse cultures will find West Africa an unforgettable jolt to the senses.

And in southern Africa, in the rarely visited nation of Namibia, environmentalists will discover the vast and mysterious Namib Desert, home to rare plants and animals.

A few cruise ships visit West Africa and southern Africa, usually in the winter months. Last winter, we joined 76 other British and American passengers aboard the comfortable expedition ship Caledonian Star for a 24-day cruise to eight countries along the west coast of Africa, ending in Cape Town on the first cruise to South Africa marketed in the United States after economic sanctions were lifted.

This winter, the Caledonian Star will repeat some of those same ports. Next fall, another small expedition ship, the handsome new 80-passenger Aurora I (from New York-based Classical Cruises), will visit West Africa on a series of three sailings from Morocco to Senegal.

In Dakar, Senegal, we took the ferry to the island of Goree. Ashore, with its sheltered harbor, sandy half-moon of a beach, ochre and sienna houses, and cafes with French-language signs advertising lobster, shrimp, omelets and grilled fish, it looks like a simpler version of St. Tropez.

But for all its charm, Goree has a dark history: It was the place where intended slaves were brought after their capture and jailed until vessels arrived to take them to the Americas.

In Gambia, not far from the village of Juffere, where the late Alex Haley traced his now-famous ancestral heritage to Kunte Kinta and wrote the epic book “Roots,” we met Ollie. This statuesque woman in her late 30s was one of the many enterprising vendors who fill the towns and marketplaces of West Africa. Wearing a black dress embroidered in red and white, she had a hip, street-smart urban air, in contrast to the shyness we typically saw in women from the country.

We had boarded open-air safari buses with woven wood tops for a dusty, airy journey into the countryside, and while we waited for the caravan to move out, she came to stand close to us and speak softly in the insinuating fashion of the West Africans.

“When you come back to the ship, I will be here with nice things to sell,” Ollie said. “I will make you a gift. I will give you half-price. There will be many people here when you come back, but”--she widened her eyes and touched her right eye with the index finger of her right hand--”you will see me.”

Actually, we couldn’t have missed her had we tried. After riding for an hour from the port of Banjul to the village of Mariama Kunda for samples of the local palm wine, we found Ollie and several other women arranging their wares in the shade of a large tree.

“How did you get here ahead of us?” we asked in amazement.

She grinned, moving the green twig she chews to clean her teeth from one side of her mouth to the other. “I have a car.”

And throughout the rest of our tour that day, Ollie and her friends kept passing us merrily in a blast of red dust and putting out the same tie-dyed fabrics and T-shirts at every stop. In Madiana, Jola tribal dancers put on a spirited dance exhibition while Ollie showed off matching dresses and head wraps. When we drove along the beach to Brufut to watch Ghanian immigrant fishermen catch and dry fish, there was Ollie holding up her T-shirts.

The city of Banjul, despite its dusty red-dirt streets, was thriving with colorful commerce--from the Guys and Dolls Tailoring Boutique to the Jengoola Bingo Night Club and One Love Workshop. A visit to the National Museum of The Gambia introduced bemused American and British women to the tightly-braided local hairstyle called pess-sa-gorro , or “slap your in-laws.”

By the time we returned to the ship, all the by-now familiar goods were spread out on the dock; the vendors had skipped the museum stop in Banjul in order to beat us back to the pier.

Last year’s Caledonian Star cruise called at some countries that are not on the two upcoming itineraries--Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Togo, Ghana and the equatorial island nation of Sao Tome and Principe.

After crossing the Equator, the Caledonian Star headed south for five days at sea before reaching the port of Walvis Bay on the coast of Namibia. Formerly South-West Africa, Namibia became independent on March 21, 1990, but the town and port of Walvis Bay are still under the administration of South Africa.

The 2,000-mile-long Skeleton Coast, so called because of the many shipwrecks along the way, is cooled by the Benguela Current, which makes many mornings as chilly and foggy as San Francisco’s. The condensation from the fog drifts as far as 60 miles inland to support plant and animal life.

From Walvis Bay, we took a trek into the Namib Desert to see some of its 4,000 distinctive varieties of plant life, including the rare two-leafed plant welwitschia mirabilis . Fed by fog and dew, it can live as long as 2,000 years. Most of the passengers climbed up the gigantic sand dunes, toured the German colonial town of Swakopmund, and photographed the huge flocks of flamingos in Walvis Bay.

At the mouth of the Orange River, which separates Namibia and South Africa, the Caledonian Star made a first-ever cruise-ship visit to Alexander Bay, South Africa, and its vast, state-owned diamond mines.

To tour the mines, we were given numbered visitor tags and loaded onto buses for even the shortest distances, to keep us from setting foot on the very rich earth.

The company recovers diamonds from the desert and beach, and even from underwater--employing diving operations that use a huge undersea vacuum cleaner to suck up the sand. Because all materials at the site--from sand to dirt, rocks to shells--may contain diamonds when they are crushed and sifted, the security is enormous. For every diamond recovered, an average of 20 tons of material are sifted through.

The cruise ended in the beautiful port of Cape Town on a clear, sunny morning in South Africa’s late spring. A morning excursion to the top of Table Mountain provided extraordinary views of the peninsula in all directions.

This winter, the Caledonian Star will be returning to Namibia and South Africa, sailing from Durban to Cape Town Nov. 30 for seven days ($1,595-$2,725 per person, double occupancy). On Dec. 6, the ship makes a similar six-day itinerary in reverse at the same prices.

Then, on Dec. 11, the Caledonian Star’s land/sea package begins in Durban before heading to Walvis Bay, Namibia, on a 12-day itinerary ($2,995-$5,450 per person, double occupancy), and then does a reverse 12-day itinerary Dec. 22 back to Durban at the same prices. All shore excursions are included, but air fare is extra.

The Aurora I offers a series of West African cruises beginning Oct. 29, 1993. The itinerary includes a three-day, pre-cruise stay in Marrakech, Morocco; a transfer to Agadir, Morocco, for sailing; and calls at Lanzarote, Canary Islands; Nouadhibou and Nouakchott, Mauritania; St. Louis and Ziguinchor, Senegal, and Banjul, Gambia, before arriving in Dakar for disembarkation and an overnight post-cruise stay.

Dates for the 14-day program are Oct. 29, Nov. 14 and Nov. 24, 1993. Fares are $3,545-$4,945 per person, double occupancy, plus air add-ons, available at a group rate from Classical Cruises.

For more information on these sailings, contact the Caledonian Star at Noble Caledonian Cruises, P.O. Box 143, Rowayton, Conn. 06853, (203) 866-2220. For the Aurora I, Classical Cruises can be reached at 132 East 70th St., New York 10021, (800) 252-7745.