Blogs from Dogon Country, Mali, Africa - page 2

We left beautiful dusty Djenne hoping to be reunited with our luggage sometime today - not sure what the plans are - but something will work out. We had to re-cross the Niger River again to continue onto Dogon country and we shared this experience with a lot of people still making their way home from the market. It appears that there is always a line up and quite a long wait to get across the river and we will do this many times in this trip. While waiting in line one 4 wheel drive vehicle pushed in front of everyone and a great scene developed as one of the guys that we are travelling with stood in front of this vehicle and wouldn't let them onto the ferry........this vehicle was trying to by pass lots ... read more

Why did I always want to go to Mali? Two reasons, and Dogon is one of them. Just imagine a big field with nothing much interesting to see. In itself it's pretty dull and boring, but then for some reason there is a huge cliff-like rock wall there. A bit like the Grand Canyon, but then with only one canyon wall. The wall can be up to 500 meters high. At the base of the wall the Dogon have numerous small villages where they live. This sight is already spectacular, but the Tellem houses are the finishing touch. But I'm rushing ahead. So in Sévaré we arranged a guide and headed off for a 4-day trip hiking along this wall. The guide was a small guy, who actually lived in one of the villages that we ... read more

Geo: 14.4804, -4.19001We made our way from Djenne to Mopti to start our journey to Timbuktu. Mopti is the typical launch point for all those lost souls who think that you have to visit Timbuktu at least once in your life. The options for getting there are numerous. You could fly (not only is this notoriously unreliable, doesn't this miss the point of Timbuktu??), drive (we're planning to drive back, but the mystic of Timbuktu demands a more time consuming adventure to get there), take a public ferry (again, very unreliable and based on the one we saw, the only thing holding it together was the rust), public pinasse, or private pinasse. Not only is the private pinasse far less crowded, you control your own journey and are able to stop in villages along the way ... read more

Well another night out with Yousouf and Arnaud last night. Met a Colonel in the Malian Army who seemed to like me and hooked me up with contacts in Timbuktu. Also he’s a good contact to have. Yousouf finally let me pay for a round (not that I was trying too hard to) and also gave me a CD. An early rise, a bit rough, and I was on the bus all day. I actually met Anil on the bus, which was good so we went to a better hotel than we’d planned in Mopti. Many annoying “guides”, but I can’t blame them as people are so poor here --- well not Yousouf, but most. I feel bad for the children, especially the girls. I am embarrassed of the obscene opulence in which I live relative ... read more

The Dogon is incredible… I’m not going to waste time trying to explain the awesome hiking adventure we had there. Words cannot do this magnificent beauty justice. So I’ll let my pictures do most of the talking! Our basic schedule from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday Afternoon composed of hiking the land, visiting the villages, meeting the locales, sleeping on rooftops, watching the stars and counting shooting stars, learning about the local culture, cursing the heat of the desert, occasionally riding horse carts, always dreaming about water, laughing at our guides eccentric behavior and laid back attitude, and simply looking in awe at the glorious natural beauty that composed this land. Our trek took us through the villages of Konsogou-Ley and Begnemato on Sunday, Indeli, Yabatalou, and Ende on Monday, and Teli on Tuesday morning. We ended ... read more