Blogs from Mali, Africa - page 5

Djenne (pronounded Jenny) was the place that everyone was anticipating and we were anxious to get there - but the drive there and the l-o-n-g lunch break just seemed to drag the day out. We were nearly there and discovered that we have to cross the Niger River by ferry - and there was a line up of vehicles and people............but each trip across the river has been a real experience.......switch into African time and just enjoy.......we were soo close that we could see the town but we had to wait for our turn on the ferry and make our way through the barrage of trinket sellers......needless to say that we have purchased quite a few items and they all enjoy the opportunity to bargain with you. Djenne was founded in the 13th century and is ... read more

Our trip actually started on Christmas Day when we left Bamako (still minus luggage and particularly worrying - Michael's medicine) and drove to Segou. It is about 240km east of Bamako and sits on the Niger River - the trip took us most of the day - a good opportunity for our group to get to know each other. We stopped for Christmas lunch on the side of the road and had bread, goat and watermelon. Merry Christmas - we all commented that we usually had watermelon for Christmas at home. It was a really quiet spot and slowly the kids from the village started to come closer to us. The boys are a bit more adventurous than the girls and as they became more confident, they crept closer and helped finish off our lunch and ... read more

That afternoon we headed on our way to Bandiagara, where we would have a night before our Dogon trek started. At the ferry crossing (again pretty quick!) we managed to buy some water bottle carriers made from mud cloth. We didn’t really want them, but the guy kept following us and Ryan kept chucking out really low figures off-handedly and he actually finally agreed! Off we went to Bandiagara, to stay at the Auberge Kansaye owned by a friendly rasta guy. Usually at this time of the year, you need to book months in advance to get accommodation easily...... proof of the scare tactics by the Foreign offices is that we were the only people staying at the Auberge. Again, roof camping was the order of the day which we quite enjoyed. The afternoon was spent ... read more

We crossed into Mali at the Senegal border town of Kadira and first up had another three nights of bushcamps. The Boabab trees seem to be everywhere now, they’re such awesome looking trees! We stopped near a whole group of towering Boabab’s for lunch just after crossing through the border. However, a policeman from the border who had asked (and been refused) bribes from us drove up on his motorbike and decided to throw his weight around and tell us we couldn’t stop on this (albeit public) land. On we moved to the other side of a guard post... approximately 1km down the road..... which turned out to be outside of his ‘jurisdiction’ and therefore we could resume lunch without interruption :-). That day we stopped at Keyes, reputed to be the ‘hottest town in Africa’ ... read more

The other main reason why a lot of people go to Mali is Timbuktu. Everybody has heard about Timbuktu, but not really knowing where it actually was. The only thing you knew was that it was somewhere there in the middle of nowhere. For me personally, why did I really want to go to Timbuktu? The two basic reasons. The name in itself has a funny ring to it. It's a fabled city tugged away in the sand dunes and my final reason, most important reason: Donald Duck. No joke, I'm talking about Walt Disney's Donald Duck. Ever since I was a small kid I read the weekly DD comic and every time he ran into troubles and had to fled Ducktown, he would go to.... Timbuktu! But ok, but first we had to get there. ... read more