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The Road to Sevare
Gotta love rest stops! Especially when you have great scenery! Our mission for Saturday was to merely make it back to Mopti…judging from past experiences, that was all we could feasibly accomplish… 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 called him to schedule a meeting time and place. Thus our plan was to get back to Mopti, and then find transport to Bandiagara, the location he had chosen to meet at on Sunday. But as I’ve learned from my previous adventures plans here in West Africa, seldom turn out the way you intend…however, this time, the change in plans worked nicely in our favor!
With our lesson learned from our first ride, we eagerly paid the extra money to secure front seats within the packed vehicle. So while we were still cramped, it wasn’t any where as bad as the first ride up, and the news would only get better. What took sixteen hours the first time took seven! Wait…seven? How do you go from sixteen to seven?!? It
doesn’t make sense! Oh well, who cares, it was awesome!
We left the city around four thirty in the morning, drove for about an hour before stopping for at the Niger River for a short break and to wait for the Ferry boat services to start. Besides the obvious improvement of the shorter time and comfy surroundings, the scenery was by far superior to the dry endless stretch of desert, dust, and shrubbery of the first ride. Rock escarpments lined the lands to the east of us and exotic desert fauna to the west. We also met this really cool Australian who talked us into staying at Sevare, a town about twelve kilometers to the east of Mopti, that acts as a major transportation hub without all the unpleasantness of a larger city. Since it didn’t take us that long to get there we decided to accept his golden advice.
We arrived around one o’clock in the afternoon and checked into the Hotel Via-Via. Immediately taking a much needed shower, before venturing into the city to locate an ATM…our financial reserves were running a little low (Ghana is so much cheaper than the rest of West Africa……) to
Hotel Le Kambray
This place was beautiful- stone igloos how awesome is that? our dismay however, none of the ATM’s would accept our cards… and of course by ATM’s I mean all two of them… But we did find water!
We went back to the hotel, and discussed our situation over lunch. Things were looking a little bleak until we randomly ran into a woman from California. Apparently she frequently visits Africa, especially Mali. After several minutes of swapping stories, she was very excited to speak English, she offered us the usage of her private car and driver to go to Mopti to use the ATM’s there. Random acts of kindness, sometimes the beauty of human generosity is shown in the simplest yet most enduring of acts. I’m just more and more convinced that I’m completely prayed up, thanks everyone! ^_^
So we went to Mopti, used the ATM, and traveled back to the Hotel. Upon arrival, we discussed financial issues and the remainder of our trip’s itinerary before getting dinner and going to bed.
We awoke the next morning, received a complimentary breakfast and made our way to the bus station. We bought our tickets to Bandiagara, waited about twenty minutes, and then departed. Nice. During the ride there I received a call from Omar to confirm our meeting place and time. When we arrived at the station in Bandiagara we were met by Omar’s friends, who after a few miscommunications, eventually took us to the Hotel Le Kambray. Which would be the place Omar would meet us at around one.
We arrived at the hotel early in morning so we used that time to grab a meal and explore the hotel. Okay, Le Kambray = Pure Awesomeness. Giant stone igloos complete with a swimming pool and mini-golf…sweet. After playing the waiting game, we finally met with Omar. We discussed our destinations and plans, costs and expenditures, what was covered in our payments, what to bring, what to expect…you know, all that good stuff.
While originally we had planned to just stay the night at Le Kambray and start the trek Monday morning, we decided that we might as well get the party started that day. After all we were so close, that it would have been a shame to waste the day. So, following our meeting we broke up, went for a swim and relaxed for a couple of hours before meeting back up with Omar and checking out of the hotel.
Our first destination, the village of Konsogou-Ley, was reached by vehicle, but the remainder of our Dogon Country trek was by the occasional horse cart and the inevitable foot…
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Richard
non-member comment
having just visited Mali I enjoyed your artcle. You may wish to take a look at my thoughts on http://richardsmindspaces.blogspot.com