Advertisement
Published: February 20th 2005
Pays Dogon
The cliff face above the village of Tele. Dayi, the guide is on the left of the pictureSome places are tourist honey pots for a good reason. The Dogon country is one of Mali's tourist honey pots. It deserves its status. The villages of the Dogon people are clustered around picture postcard scenery - a remote escarpment that was easy to defend from rivals. The Dogon people also have a unique culture. It's a must see destination best done by walking from village to village. This means you must be prepared to do without electricity, to use bucket showers and squat toilets, and sleep on the roofs of houses with only the stars and the moon for illumination. I've just come back from the Pays Dogon - it was brilliant! I booked with a tour company - a mistake. It's always better to book direct with the actual guides. You get the same guides anyway! The guide I was handed over to was called Dayi - he deserves to get the business directly, rather than having to get business from touts and agents - who are leaches. He speaks perfect English as well as French and many Dogon dialects. Dayi's details are nouhoumdibo@yahoo.fr, telephone Mali (00223)6145947
To carry on where I left off, with the
Pays Dogon
Kanikombole Hotel last blog:
FEBRUARY 14th
I was still in Bamako. For the first time since getting Malaria I actually enjoyed a meal. The restaurant was very busy, I had forgotten it was Valentine's night.
FEBRUARY 15th
I got the all clear from the doctor and arranged a guide for the Dogon country - paying far too much.
FEBRUARY 16th
I met the boss of the tour company and Mamadou at the station at 7am. The bus was a proper coach, although not air conditioned. So, it was very hot! It was an uneventful journey and got into Severe at 6.30pm. Mamadou booked me into the Hotel Bozo. He hadn't been very talkative on the bus, even though he spoke good English. I was also taking a dislike to him because he was a bit too flash and fond of his state of the art mobile phone. I was annoyed with him when he turned down a room in the hotel saying the bed was too small, without asking my opinion. Why would I care about the size of the bed?
He tried to sell me
a tour of Timbuktoo, but I had already decided I wasn't interested. It wasn't just the price, it was him - I didn't like or trust him. Also, many people have told me that Timbucktoo is very underwhelming!
When I said I was hungry, he drove me to an empty nightclub and abondoned me for 3 hours. It was a good thing I liked the music they were playing. During the evening he also introduced me to Dayi who was to be my guide for the 4 day trip in Pays Dogon. That was fortunate, as I think 4 days in the company of Mamadou would have been hell.
Mamadou eventually returned and took me back to my hotel. I really didn't like Mamadou's attitude - he assumed he knew best what I wanted, and didn't listen to me. It left me feeling out of control, which is important to me. I don't travel to have my life controlled by people with no idea what I want. I like to make my own mistakes.
THURSDAY 17th FEBRUARY
On the morning of the 17th I left the Hotel Bozo with Dayi,
Pays Dogon
Kanikombole market my guide for the Pays Dogon. He was patient and likeable, unlike the spiv Mamadou. We waited a couple of hours for the minibus to fill up at the Severe Gare Voiture. At about 1pm we arrived in the village of Kanikombe and hid from the mid day sun. At about 4pm, after lunch Dayi took me on a tour of the village market and the nearby cliff face with the Dogon Granneries clinging to the face of the escarpment. During the earlier siesta I chatted with a group of French tourists who were also staying in the same place. Dayi and I sat out in the market place until after it was dark, people watching. At night I slept on the roof of a mud building, with only the stars and the moon as illumination. The Pays Dogon has no electric, and the only water comes from village wells.
FRIDAY 18th FEBRUARY
I woke with the sun. After breakfast we walked to the village of Tele. We climbed the escarpment up to the granaries and the Dogon tombs. From the cliff face we could see the village - there was a funeral taking place just
Pays Dogon
Kanikombole market outside Tele.
At 11am, we hid from the sun. After lunch a group of tourists arrived with a Point Afrique guide. I chatted a lot with one of them who was a Quebecois.
When the heat subsided at about 4pm we walked to the village of Ende, where we met the same group of tourists we had seen on Thursday afternoon. We stayed the night in Ende, again sleeping on the roof.
SATURDAY 19th
In the morning we walked to the village of Yebatalou, where we rested out the heat of the day. An American tourist I had seen a few days before was there. We had an interesting conversation about American politics. Neither of us is a Bush or Blair fan!
After the worst of the heat we again set out, this time for the village of Bergoumate. It meant climbing the escarpment. The location of the village of Bergoumate is very dramatic. In the evening the village chief wanted to ply me with the local brew - I tried some, but I had to decline on several occasions. I didn't want to end up drunk and fall
Pays Dogon
The new mosque in Kanikombole off the roof of the building that was my bedroom for the night!
20th FEBRUARY
First thing in the morning we continued climbing up the escarpment towards a village at the top. We were met there by a car which took us to Bandigara. Dayi hitched a lift very quickly with a Spanish couple once we were in Bandigara. They had driven down from Spain in a few weeks and had donated materials and money to the school in the village of Bergnoumate. We arrived back in Severe at about midday. Soon after getting out of the car we saw Mamadou the spiv. He was keen to lead me to his chosen destination - I was rather short with him. He was trying to impose on me again. I virtually accused him of lying. He said there were no hotels near the gare voiture. I said I knew there was at least one - directly opposite the garage. He took the message, after some vigorous discussion. I then looked for a hotel with Dayi. I had no intention of staying in the Hotel Bozo, where I had left most of my luggage before going to the
Pays Dogon
Kanikombole granneries Pays Dogon. I had worn the same clothes for 4 days, and had only taken a very small day pack with me. The Hotel Bozo was very bad value for money and anyway had been Mamadou's choice - enough reason in itself to change!
We looked at a number of places only to find them full. Eventually at the Hotel Flandre, although it was full, they allowed me to stay on the roof. It had the advantage of being cheap and it also had very good and clean shared toilets and showers. Which I made full use of, after the basic facilities in the Pays Dogon.
I didn't do much for the rest of the day, although I spent 2 hours in an internet cafe producing this blog.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0293s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
