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Published: November 18th 2010
The Fishy Ladies in Mopti
On the boat to Timbuktu the rice with sauce tasted 3 times a day like smelly fish, no matter the color or texture of the sauce...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.
Cruising the Niger with Style
From the Dogon country we went back to Sévaré and continued the next day to Mopti: a bussling port town, close to where the Niger and Bani river join. Our mission in Mopti: finding a boat to take us to Timbuktu. Easy task, especially knowing the boat owners love to have tourists on their boats, as they
Transporteur Pinasse
Such a boat we took from Mopti to Timbuktu. It's not really meant to transport people, but it does the trick. always pay a bit more than the locals.... So within 30 minutes we found 3 types of boats leaving the following day or the day after. We settled for the most basic means of transport. Actually Agi was really pushing for it (in order to have the real experience), I wanted to go for one a bit more comfi, but ok: the pinasse transporteur became our boat. 2 days and 2 nights it would take us. Sleeping on top of bags of cement with the watermelon stashed alongside us. But dusty and dark it was. The sides of the boat were closed with blue plastic, just to prevent waves of water getting in the boat. So no light and little ventilation. During the middle of the day you would just rest inside as it was too hot and the sun too strong to sit on the roof. But the mornings and the afternoons were brilliant: watching the river, the birds, the villages pass by with a nice breeze in your hair. This boat was definitely more basic than the river boat we took in Myanmar earlier on our trip. The food was definitely also more basic: everything tasted like scappy,
On Top of the Boat
Best views and a nice breeze, definitely better than inside. smelly smoked fish.
But after 2 days and 2 nights we arrived: Timbuktu. Ok, not really there yet, as the Niger river doesn't pass Timbuktu, but a small settlement 18km east of it. Take a shared taxi (this time we shared one with 3 other guys, a big pile of watermelons and some sheep) and within 30 minutes you're there: Reason #2 to go to Mali: Timbuktu.
Reason #2 to go to Mali: Timbuktu: Cité Mystérieuse
So we made it there: Tickmark. Because in itself it hasn't got much to see or to do. Today, Timbuktu is an impoverished town, although its reputation makes it a tourist attraction. We walked around the town, being approached every 5 minutes by self-imposed guides, or Tuareg boys selling their artisan stuff. Their selling mantra would always be "une plaisier pour les yeux". TBT used to be a grand city in the desert, but by the time the European explorers made it to TBT it was already faded glory for quite some centuries. The banco (mud brick) mosques have been restored to their former glory, but as a non-muslim you can't enter them.
Scattered around in the city are quite
Agi going to the Toilet
The 'toilet' was at the back of the boat and could only be reached by walking over the roof to the back, as the engine and the cargo blocked access to the back. And then climb to the side in order to slide inside.... some libraries. TBT is said to have had one of the earliest universities in the world. Islamic scholars, more than 40.000 students, but this was a long long time ago. What remains nowadays are the manuscripts. There is no central library, the 'books' are in the hands of rich families. But in recent years more and more attention is given to these manuscripts in order to catalogue and restaurate them if needed. We visited one library and indeed more than half of their docs were just rotting away, waiting to be restored. They were working on it, but they still have a long way to go.
But we also wanted a more permanent proof that we've made it to TBT. So we headed to the tourist office in order to get our passports stamped and signed. The director actually did it himself. But the good thing was that, we started chatting to a Tuareg man in the director's office. Nice guy and without hassling we arranged through him to spend the next night in a Tuareg camp.
Spending the Night at the Tuaregs
The Tuareg are a Berber nomadic people. They are the principal inhabitants of the
Inside...
Dark and not much ventilation. They had to close the sides of the boat in order to protect the cement bags from getting wet. Saharan interior of North Africa. For over two millennia, the Tuareg operated the trans-Saharan caravan trade connecting the great cities on the southern edge of the Sahara via desert trade routes to the northern (Mediterranean) coast of Africa. We just settled for a short 8 km camel ride into the desert. So the day after we arranged the trip, we were picked up from the hotel by Ines, the cousin of the man we met in the tourist office. His companionship: 2 camels. With hindsight we were happy we only did an 8 km trek. It wasn't comfortable at all. The bl##dy ship of the desert kept on rocking and the so-called 'saddle' wasn't stable and comfi at all. Maybe in case we both had 10kg's more fat on our bums, then it could have been more comfi... But ok, 8 km is still fine and we went into the desert when the sun was already setting, so not too hot. Lovely views though.
We arrived at the camp, but it was just a single tent. The other tents were scattered around. Apparently these guys don't like to live close to eachother. But we were welcomed by Ines' wife,
who didn't speak French at all and a shy girl of ~8 years old. They did there stuff and we just looked around and enjoyed the silence. After some time we had a good chat with Ines, including the situation between Mali and Al Qaida. He didn't like them. Disturbed too much ordinary life and business. We got a basic pasta served for dinner and enjoyed the tea afterwards. At around 20:30 it was pitch dark and we were lying on a mat under the stars ready to sleep. I slept good, really good.
Breakfast was again basic, but ok. Then Ines gathered the camels and took us to a nearby desert school. There they do the best they can to give boys an education (indeed boys only, no girls. So no wonder that Ines' daughter and his wife couldn't speak French. They are excluded from the educational system). Didn't look that promising... Afterwards we headed back to TBT. Us on our two camels (by that time Agi had called hers Ludmilla) and Ines just walking in front of us. Nice trip.
Next day at 5am the public 4x4 brought us back south again. Agi wasn't that happy,
as a nice big fat lady was basically sitting on her hip all the time, but we made it back in one piece. The one issue was getting to our next destination: Hombori. The 4x4 from TBT stopped in Douentza at 11am. By 6.30pm the score was 5:3:0. We saw 5 southbound buses towards Bamako, 3 north-westbound to TBT and 0 towards Gao in the north-east. We needed a Gao bound bus.... SHIT!!!! But just before 7pm we got on one and we relieved. The bus was shit. I had to sit on a jerrycan in the corridor, but we made it to Hombori just before ten. The cold beer never tasted so good.
Chasing Dumbo
Next day we took it easy. Looked around in the village, which basically can be done in 20 minutes as it's only a few mud buildings alongside the main road. As we did not really find a place to eat, we went back to the campement and ordered lunch there. The local NGO expats eat there every day, so we thought it cannot be bad. And indeed, the food tasted good. While eating a local guy started talking to us. Not too
The Kids playing in the Water
This is actually where our boat stopped, ~18km away from Timbuktu. The Niger river doesn't go through Timbuktu. pushy, just general chit-chat. The topic of the local desert elephants came up. According to LP these migrating elephants they only return to Mali from Burkina Faso around December/January, but the guy said they are already around and it's possible to spot them in groups of 15-20. A little light came up in our eyes. He said ~6 times it was 100% sure to see such a group, so after some discussion we decided to extend our stay in Hombori and go to trace the elephants next morning.
A jeep picked us up next morning at 5 am and we drove into the bush-bush. No road, no tracks, so it really felt like a safari. Soon the sun came up, however there were no signs of Dumbo. We met some local herders who confirmed that the elephants are in the region and were spotted the day before. We drove further to the direction recommended, asked around from other herders, but all just mentioned: yesterday, yesterday. Shit! By 9 am our tour was supposed to be finished, but we decided to search longer. We walked around in certain "hot spot" areas, saw elephant footprints, lots of shit, but still no
Salt Slabs from the Salt Mines
The boats go towards Timbuktu with cement, food and other consumables, but goes back to Mopti loaded with salt from the salt mines north of Timbuktu. The camel caravans still bring them down. It takes them ~40 days. success. Just after 11 am we stopped at a tiny village where some people saw the elephants some hours ago. We decided to walk into the bushes again, suffering from over 40°C and 2 flat tires, while we only had 1 spare tire. But we got lucky. After a 20 minutes walk we got to a small muddy waterhole where 3 huge elephants were bathing, cooling in the heat. These desert elephants are approx 3 meters tall, have very long legs, relatively small tusks and huge ears. We got pretty close to them, approx 30 meters, tried our best to shoot some photos, but some bl##dy bushes were in the way. Anyways, we got a few okay pictures. Unfortunately the show only lasted until 10 minutes as the direction of the wind changed, so the elephants could smell that we were around. They walked away and said good bye by thrumpeting towards us.
After this encounter our guide was satisfied that the mission was completed, so we headed back towards the main road. We of course would have liked to see more elephants, but knowing how long it took to spot these 3 and how hot it was, we
Tombouctou, La Mystrérieuse
Just a little tickmark photo. were kinda ok to leave. The driver showed us his off-road skills going madly on the dirt road, ending up with a 3rd flat tire. Shit, shit, shit! We were not amazed, as our water supply was finished by this time (we planned this trip for approx 4-5 hours...) and we knew we did not have spare tires anymore. But thanks God our driver was also a mechanic, and he had a basic patch kit, so he removed the inner tire somehow and patched it. This took approx an hour, no shade, no water, we were trying to survive in the little shade the car gave by lying on the ground as close to it as possible. But the tire got fixed and we made it back to our hotel.
Our original plan was to visit La main de Fatima in the afternoon, which is a nice rock formation near Hombori, but we were so exhausted that we decided to give it a miss. Next morning we saw it from the bus, so had a glance at least.
Surprisingly our experience with public transport significantly improved from the moment we left Hombori. We got a proper bus which
The Sankoré Mosque
One of the three main banco mosques in Timbuktu. Unfortunately you can't enter them. took us to Sevaré pretty quickly. There we stopped at Mac's Refuge for the night, knowing that he serves a superb breakfast in the mornings. There we met a nice local guy who guides American groups around the country once in a while and he invited us to a local bar with live music. Had a nice chat with him, honest guy, not opportunistic at all. He even insisted on paying for our drinks, which was really impressive. Apparently the people who have enough money in this country can be pretty nice.
Finally the Mighty Mud Mosque of Djenné
Next morning after few hours waiting we got into a local minibus, taking us to Djenné, the town with the oldest mud building in the world. We could sit next to the driver, listening to his Tracy Chapman tape, pretty nice ride. Approx at half way we stopped next to an other minibus. Apparently that car broke down so we took on all their passengers and cargo. There were 2 tourists in that bus, who actually paid for 4 seats in order to travel comfortably. Well, knowing that the passangers of 2 buses were put together, to keep
their 4 seats became a bit tricky, but the German guy was stubborn enough. So he and the lady were sitting indeed comfortably, while the locals were squeezed into each others bones in the back. En Afrique, c'est comme ça! as the locals would say.
The area around Djenné is really pretty, as the town is right on the shore of the Bani river. And the surrounding fields are now flooded with water, on both sides of the road, resulting in lakes with lots of vegetation. A bit like Holland in some parts. To get to Djenné, you have to take a short ferry ride. At the ferry station you can see already how touristy Djenné is, many souvenir vendors come up to you trying to sell their stuff. Got rid of them, made it to Djenné. We found a small family run lodging, got a cheap double room, all happy.
The only major site to see in Djenné is the mosque. But as a non-muslim, we are not allowed to get inside... officially. However, basically every 5 minutes there is a local boy trying to convince you go visit the mosque, aiming to pocket a big chunk
La Flamme de la Paix
Contructed on the site where Tuareg guns were burned after their rebellion had finished in 1996. And it was cleary undergoing a renovation. of easy cash. Or to climb to one of the nearby roofs for a good overview. Well, we did not take these opportunities, not just because of the horrible prices, but out of respect. We have been to enough mosques so far, where we could officially enter. We walked around in town, it has lovely narrow curling streets, some nice buildings and lots of welcoming children.
The second interesting thing to see in Djenné is the Monday market, when the whole area around the mosque is covered with stalls selling anything you can imagine. We decided though not to wait till Monday, also because we heard from some fellow travellers that the market is becoming a bit more a Chinese market selling loads of plastic stuff, losing its old charm.
Back to Bamako
So next morning we took a minibus to the crossing where all the buses towards Bamako stop. Luckily in 3 minutes we were sitting on a comfortable bus bringing us to the capital. We had some technical problems on the way, but made it to Bamako by around 7 pm. Yes, it's a full day ride. We heard about a lovely hostel in
The Holy Koran
Cupboards lined the walls filled with manuscripts originating from the Middle Ages. A large part of the manuscripts are crumbling away, but restorations have begun. Bamako, the Sleeping Camel, so we decided to go for it. And it's really really nice. Only 1 year old, so not in the guide books yet, prices are all right, nice leafy garden with a small swimming pool and a wonderful kitchen. You can imagine the smile on our faces. We were planning to leave for Mauritania shortly, but we ended up staying here for 5 nights. First of all to finally update our blog, as this is the first proper computer with trustable virus scan in this country. Besides that it's the time of Tabaski now, which is a muslim feast for 2 days, meaning that no buses depart till Friday. C'est la vie! No complains, we like it here.
But besides lazing around in the hostel we also went to visit the National Museum of Mali. Small exhibition, but very nice, mostly masks, some archeological findings and textiles. And at the moment they have a special exhibition on Malian music of the '70s with many earphones, so you can listen to the local music. And music in Mali is really amazing.
And we like the local expat supermarket here too. We are really bad in
Going into the Desert
And to be honest, it wasn't that comfortable. the last few days, the money we save on accommodation we well spend on European food. Gouda cheese, Italian mortadella, French paté, Bounty bars, so life is not too bad. Even a budget traveller can splurge sometimes, right?
Next Stop: Mauritania. Tomorrow we'll leave for Nouakchott, the capital. The bus ride should take ~30 hours, but you'll never know...
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Delphine Bernard
non-member comment
hi from Luxembourg
Hi, just to say to you and Agi hello from your ex-EDS colleagues from Luxembourg. We see that you enjoyed your trip and we are happy for you. we are visiting the world with you and it is also very nice. Cheers Delphine