Basskounou to Timbuktu

---

The land cruiser taxi we got from Basskounou to Lere, on the Malian side of the border was driven by a madman. He was in competition with another 4X4 driver for passengers, and when we stopped to pick someone else we would be overtaken. Therafter, he would try to catch up with the other taxi, driving crazily off road, hitting sandhills, swerving to avoid trees and camels, and all but losing his own passengers. As a result, we went through 3 tyres that day, probably simply exploding as a cause of the sheer speed. It was a great day though, everyone got into the spirit of the chase, and the countryside remained nice and green.

We spent the night in Lere, a town exclusively made of mud, where we were invited to sleep in a family’s compound. Everyone slept outside, under the stars. There was no electricity in the town, so the stars and moon lit up the scene. The next day we listened to music, watched some Malian TV for the first time on the street and waited for a pickup to Timbuktu. It eventually filled up and we made our way out of town, where the landscape became much flatter, with green streams cutting through the mud. We were into the Niger river delta.

That day was eventful again, our driver losing his way, bursting two tyres of the thorny ground, but we were kept entertained by an old grizzled man who thought he was boss, and another old man who was an excellent magician, and gave two shows to everyone on the pickup when we were waiting for the tyre to get blown up (everyone took a turn with the foot pump).

It was a very long journey. As night closed in, we entered Niafunke, where we saw the Niger proper for the first time, and ate roast goat out of brown paper bags. We didn’t get to Timbuktu until around 3am, in stark moonlight, and I slept face down in the sand.

---

Photos

Puncture
On the banks of the Niger

In Timbuktu
Resting after the journey