http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Mali , Dogon Country , Bandiagara en-us Thu, 10 Dec 09 23:06:22 +0000 Thu, 10 Dec 09 23:06:22 +0000 Our mission for Saturday was to merely make it back to Moptihellipjudging from past experiences that was all we could feasibly accomplishhellip and plan our next move from there. Earlier that week we had gotten the phone number of a reputable Dogon Country guide from the Peace Corp volunteers we had met on the bus to Ouagadougou. While we were still in Mopti waiting to get to Timbuktu I had http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-395157.html Thursday 13th NovemberI am now a regular and pay an early visit to the cybernet cafe to find out what has happened to my fellow travellers. Geoff is in Mopti and might call today to Sevare. Mark is making progress and should be in Sevare tomorrow and Migo is still stuck in Ziguinchor. As time is starting to run out for me I decide to head into Dogon country one of the main reasons for coming this http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-348843.html Tuesday 11th NovemberI leave Djenne in the early morning and recross the river Bani on the ferry. I travel through rice fields across the causeway to join the main road to Gao to arrive in Mopti late morning. Mopti is also surrounded by rice fields. In between yes you've guessed it. Millet and cattle The good surface continues but as it's only 120 miles I don't have time to get bored. There i http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-348839.html Pays Dogon. Dogon Country. Beautiful. Spectacular. Surprising.Our trek into the Dogon Country started early from Bandiagara with a drive to Djiguibombo delightfully pronounced Jiggyboombo. After a brief tour of the town we started our walk to the edge of the Falaise de Bandiagara Bandiagara Escarpment and then down the escarpment to the plains below. Our group of two had grown to four http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-275777.html Alright.. as Courtney and I took about 600 pictures during the whole trip and there are just so many of them I decided to divide the Mali trip in Half so that I could put as many pictures as possible for you to see and also so I wont get pissed off with the slow connection and just go a crappy job. Cause yeah really just to post this blog entry takes me a whole afternoon. So much for working e http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-236163.html WellWhat can i say about Mali other than what a wonderful little country it truly isYes it may be one of the poorest in the world with a sadly high infant mortality rate and low life expectancy but the people are friendly beyond their means and make the place what it is... truly wonderful.To start with lets just get rid of any bad things you hear about Timbuktu... if Bob Geldof said is this http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-230990.html From Sevare we drove on 4WD trucks to take us to Timbuktu 7 hours it took for yus to get there an hour on paved road then the dirt tracks started quite bumpy I got bruises on my legs as I was seated at the very back and the space is cramped. There was a lot of checkpoints quite annoying but the drivers are used to it and did not mind itwe got to a point where we need to cross the river to get http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-228531.html After a quick breakfast of bread strawberry jelly and tea we repacked our backpacks and threw them in our crowded septplace. We were on our way to Dogon Country According to Lonely Planet it is in the top 10 places to see before you die so we were all quite excited. We were driving from Svar to Bandiagara to KaniKombol and then hiking for the next three days.Salif told us we were going http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-208821.html I got my first taste of Mali in Banjul Gambia while trying to localize the relevant consulate. This had turned out to be a decaying shack from whose balcony hung the remaining shreds of what must have been once a flag. Inside the courtyard written in chalk on the wall there were a name a phone number and the invitation to call. Had I been elsewhere I wouldnrsquot have given credit to what I http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/Dogon-Country/Bandiagara/blog-197943.html