Travelogue Mali 2007 – No. 16 Bamako and Departure

 

This travelogue is about a journey through Mali, which I made together with friends from November 17th until December 15th.
DUS - CDG - BMK - Bamako - Ségou - San - Djenné with Senossa - Mopti - Lac Débo - Niafounké - Timbuktu - Gourma-Rharous - Gossi - Hombori - Douentza - Banani - Bankass - Ende - Banani - Sangha - Bandiagara - Mopti - Bamako – BMK – CDG – DUS
Why publish this travelogue after all these years? I digitalized my handwritten travel diary and thought some aspects are also interesting to the public. Moreover this kind of travel nowadays would risk your live [1], so maybe this travelogue is already giving a historic account.

Day 27, Thursday, December 13th, 2007 Bamako
In the Villa Soudan, disturbance by American women. Eating in the Paillotte.
The street in front of the hotel is quieter than expected, but only until around 6:45 a.m., when traffic starts crossing the two bridges.
Strange art hanging in my room; in particular, a light and a black footprint, a coconut shell [2] (brain shell?) with cowrie and seven figures, six grouped around one, partly white, aim at my crude symbolism. The artist's name is Mohammed Bírata [3].
In the afternoon there was a nuisance with two American women who were talking loudly, so Charles and I had to have a very loud conversation and move chairs.
Charles saw seven chairs being moved around tables and had the idea that they expected seven American women. He reserved the straw hut downstairs for us. But then it turned out that the notables came with wives. We would actually have liked to have a closer view.
Then another digéstive at the bar with the cook and her husband.
Read a lot poetry [4].

Day 28, Friday, December 14th, 2007 Take-off from Bamako
Day use at Villa Soudan. In the evening jeunesse dorée at the swimming pool. Bus taxi to the airport. Departure at midnight. Paris at 6:20. Delayed flight Paris-Dusseldorf.
Woke up in the night, turned the AC on, turned it off, turned it on again, opened the window. Morning mood captured in a photograph.
The departure was getting closer and closer and I only now noticed that I had taken my sandwich knife with me on the plane in Mopti.
And only now did I remember, when we were with the elephants, the following: “Two shots more! An elephant is a pig when it's shot." [5]
The blue belt for the suitcase is gone; now I can't secure the suitcase.
Paid my bills.
Checking in on site was easy; relieved a lot of stress. But then I was already in Sukhothai [6], where I was far too close to M. Partout and Mohammed. M. Partout has probably been a small-time dealer who located the people/customers. In Sukhothai, NGOs and two American women were of the corpulent type and probably also rich. The food was very good but also as expensive as in Europe to exclude the cheap crowd. I couldn't look for souvenirs, because I didn't want to run into the people just mentioned.
Before I got to the other bank of the Niger, I took photos of our hotel; had a  chat to a Touareg knowing that he wasn't a Touareg, of course, and wanted to have his photo taken and rent his pinnace to me, which i declined both.
From the law faculty reference to a lecture -: “Deontologie et ethique du magistrate”.
Saw the inscription on a mini taxi: “Qui sai l'amour?”
Exchanged money at the airport. Geneviève had a cold, Charles suffered from severe intestinal cramps.
Jacques Chirac was not flying with us. I was able to buy some souvenirs – not for me.

Day 29, Saturday, December 15, 2007 Return
Paris at 6:20. Delayed flight Paris-Dusseldorf.
It started shortly after midnight. Lots of lights in the desert. Rising of Venus.
Watched a movie: Shortcut to happiness [7].
From 12 km above Ibiza you can see the lights of Algeciras.
Hardly slept.
The young woman next to me, Ashley, was writing cards about a successful campaign in Mali over the last week (7 days!); according to a sticker, a campaign against malaria.
The stay in Paris was longer and there was also a waiting time on the plane.
In the evening I zapped with my parents, something on TVE [8] looked like Mali -: base jumps from the hand of Fatima.

Charles took this photograph in the Pays Dogon

Links and Annotations:
[1] The U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Consular Affairs for instance writes: "Violent crime, such as kidnapping and armed robbery, is common in Mali." And more risks are mentioned. Moreover it advises: "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mali-travel-advisory.html
[2] At that time I didn't know anything about cocoivores, after all there was a historical figure, namely August Engelhardt, who represented cocoivorism. See also the novel by Christian Kracht.
Christian Kracht: Empire. Kiepenheuer&Witsch, Cologne 2012. ISBN: ‎978-3462041316. Or about August Engelhardt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Engelhardt
[3] Mohammed Bírata – I didn't find him on the intenet, also not mentioned in the petit futé.
[4] Thomas Kling: Sprachspeicher. 200 Gedichte auf deutsch vom achten bis zum zwanzigsten Jahrhundert [Language Storage. 200 poems in German from the eighth to the twentieth century]. DuMont Verlag, Cologne 2001. ISBN: 9783770158133.
[5] This is from a sketch by Marty Feldman in which he wentinto a flower shop and sawno one, kept walking and ended up in the African jungle. At some point a big game hunter with a rifle stormed past him with these words.
[6] A Thai restaurant.
[7] I don't remember the movie, but it doesn't seem to have been any good either. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortcut_to_Happiness_%E2%80%93_Der_Teufel_steckt_im_Detail
[8] TVE – Televisión Española.

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Travelogue Mali 2007 – No. 15 Mopti and arriving again in Bamako

 

This travelogue is about a journey through Mali, which I made together with friends from November 17th until December 15th.
DUS - CDG - BMK - Bamako - Ségou - San - Djenné with Senossa - Mopti - Lac Débo - Niafounké - Timbuktu - Gourma-Rharous - Gossi - Hombori - Douentza - Banani - Bankass - Ende - Banani - Sangha - Bandiagara - Mopti - Bamako – BMK – CDG – DUS
Why publish this travelogue after all these years? I digitalized my handwritten travel diary and thought some aspects are also interesting to the public. Moreover this kind of travel nowadays would risk your live [1], so maybe this travelogue is already giving a historic account.

Day 25, Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 Maison Rouge
Rest at the Hotel Maison Rouge in Mopti. Lousy food. In the afternoon to Mopti for the flight tickets. Dinner again in the harbor at the same table as before when we left Tombouctou.
Strange to be sleeping in a real hotel again.
Waking up slowly and merging into the morning. Pleasant temperature, blue sky, which looked even more beautiful next to the red stone with green trees and bushes.
The doilies on the table and the napkins, which are clearly handmade.
We planned to visit the AME / Agence Diatiguí on Rue Pâtisserie Dogon and to book our stay in Bamako. Unfortunately we could not cancel the Soeurs Blanches (Acceuil).
We found Villa Soudan in Badalabougo directly on the Niger as a hotel.
Watched the shadow cast by a tree's leaves in the wind.
Death of a Cockroach -: the lizard came twice, but we were too close to it, but the cockroach kept going and when the distance to us was right, the cockroach got it (Death of a Clown by the Kinks came to my mind).
Continued lazing around.
We left in the afternoon and found the Agence Diatiguí straight away, which I didn't expect. Charles was too stunned and exhausted by the sun to say anything. Then we calmly bought our tickets at 2 p.m. sharp.
We went to the overcrowded market - especially the market with the dried fish stank. Went to the restaurant by the river. The owner of the pinnace saw that we had taken the same table. He asked about the trip. He could not have learned anything from Mohammed.
The Mopti – Bamako route was 8,500 francs by bus.
The market was full of people, loud, for example the drummer at the shoes, then the smells at the spice stands and the traders with the dried fish, also a lot of colorful plastic and things that you would need on the trip with a pinnace; loud, where MCs were sold. I found a blue pot, but I didn't find any CDs.
A car sponsored by Disabled People's Aid from Germany will take us to the airport.
Then I finally wrote the poem The Little Blue Bird [2], the original idea of which came to me about 10 days ago.

The little blue Bird
It's a little blue bird
The one that follows us for life
And if we look back
We won't see it

Ahead! Ahead!
And can't go back

Then it flies ahead of us
The little blue bird
And don't see him
Don't see him
No longer

Day 26, Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 Mopti / Bamako
Morning flight with MAE and with Captain Michel to Bamako. There to the Hotel Villa Soudan in Badalabougou. Evening scene by the river with dyers and laundresses.
Got up early because we were leaving for Bamako. A mosquito wanted to be in the backpack.
Then we were ready, but the vehicle wasn't there. Someone was sent for the disabled people's bus. Finally it started late and the journey took longer than 15 minutes and we arrived at the airport (Aeroport Mopti Hambojedge) 20 to 30 minutes late. Since there were only a few passengers, there were no difficulties. Propeller plane for approx. 30 passengers, which was not fully occupied. Some NGOs, including Americans. Michel sat in the front and waved hello to us. Nice flight, about an hour 15 minutes, along the Niger. As soon as e moved away from Niger, the landscape is very dry. Geneviève could then go to the window for a while, which was okay. I waved goodbye to Michel, when we rdisembarked. Unfortunately no opportunity to send greetings to Mme. Auer.
Then we made our way to Vialla Soudan, which wasn't easy, but we had a driver who wasn't to proud to ask directions.
Nice view of the Niger from my room, and also the bank building, which we weren't supposed to take photos of. Good swimming pool also in this hotel there were gays in service.
Suddenly things like checking in early started to go their way.
After a beer at lunchtime I felt heavy and tired.
Then I swam in the cool water -: invigorating!
I took some photographss of the magic of industry / industrial romance and then a series “Women at the River”.
Effect of a view over the Niger to the evening city like in my home town Cologne, when one looks across the Rhine River to the cathedral.
The new moon, the lying crescent, with the ashen light descended towards the Niger.
We thought of a laundry, but it was an illegal dyeing factory because dyeing kills the fish. We saw a lot of women slapping cloths on the Niger - the color probably goes deeper then into the fabric.
Eating meat was another disaster for Charles and Geneviève, but it was exactly as Nick Fiddes [3] described it, meat is never what omnivores imagines. And before that, the endless discussions about food with the cook (Fabienne comes from northern France, maybe 40 km from Geneviève's hometown). As a joke, Charles wanted to become a vegetarian. This was how Ulysses, the dog, was fed.
Then I went to bed quite early because I really had been tired.

Links and Annotations:
[1] The U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Consular Affairs for instance writes: "Violent crime, such as kidnapping and armed robbery, is common in Mali." And more risks are mentioned. Moreover it advises: "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mali-travel-advisory.html
[2] Original here: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2009/04/lyrik-auf-twly.html
[3] https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nick-fiddes/meat/


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Travelogue Mali 2007 – No. 14 En Route via Banani to Mopti

This travelogue is about a journey through Mali, which I made together with friends from November 17th until December 15th.
DUS - CDG - BMK - Bamako - Ségou - San - Djenné with Senossa - Mopti - Lac Débo - Niafounké - Timbuktu - Gourma-Rharous - Gossi - Hombori - Douentza - Banani - Bankass - Ende - Banani - Sangha - Bandiagara - Mopti - Bamako – BMK – CDG – DUS
Why publish this travelogue after all these years? I digitalized my handwritten travel diary and thought some aspects are also interesting to the public. Moreover this kind of travel nowadays would risk your live [1], so maybe this travelogue is already giving a historic account.

Day 23, Sunday, December 9, 2007 Until just before Banani
Return along the dune until just before Banani. Camping under trees with lots of birds in a windless night. Yaya just wants to go home.
Very early in the morning we still admired Mars, Venus and the stars.
I took some early morning photos of the Falaise and the village in beautiful light.
Very slow start after a hearty breakfast and a sermon from Charles based on the fact that they had once again chosen the worse room, after I had given the room another choice (that actually always worked).
Today a mixture of struggle and cramp. Yaya was about to take the wrong driveway, one that isn't shown on the maps; the petit futé is very bad in this respect. The driveway at Nombori will probably also lead to Bandiagara. However, we now had beautiful views of the plain. Then we just took the wrong slope back into the valley, but that didn't matter because we wanted to make progress slowly. In the morning Yaya thought the route was too long, but it was exactly the opposite – it had been far too short.
The road from Sangha to Bandiagara was said to be good. There was a brief upset, but we prevailed. We found a nice place to camp in the bush. The hammer, which had disappeared, also appeared again.
I was of the opinion that the strong wind would follow again and had prepared my tent well.

Day 24, Monday, December 10, 2007 Drive via Banani and Sangha to Mopti
Battery damage. Car hit. Drive via Banani up to Sanga. Battery halfway empty. Onion fields. Mission Protestant. Drive to Bandiagara. From there on the tar road to Mopti to the Hotel Maison Rouge. Yaya royally rewarded and released.
But there hasn't been any wind! The indicator for this could have been in the many small bird nests. In the early morning all sorts of bird noises and buzzing insects started around our tents again. A bird with the call: barbarus.
Already they didn't have the wind in the tent, I have to endure the title "Lord of the Winds", but "and let loose the wind over the fields" [2] or "did the wind already break?”
Behind Banani we had a slow ascent, but we also enjoyed beautiful views of the village on the slope. We stay there for a while and then had to push the car up the hill.
Sangha -: many onion fields. Yaya doesn't seem to know the place. But then we found the Maison Femme Dogon (Gête de la femme Dogon). There is a poetic book about Amani, but no book about the history of the Pays Dogon. The book about Amani consists essentially of watercolors.
The mission is funded by American Baptists.
A Frenchman wearing a sawmill worker's shirt reported on his journey through Morocco, Mauritania and Burkina Faso; we all had been to Morocco and Charles and Genevève visited Burkina Faso a couple of years before. He wante to go to Togo later to bring textbooks there. Charles already spokeof an incense route of good works. The Frenchman smoked as only Frenchmen do, leaving the cigarette in his mouth, while he told the story about the long journey through the desert, and barely removing the cigarette ashes.
As we continued our journey, Charles had an argument with an onion farmer who he didn't want to have his onion fields photographed. There would have been something objectionable on the other side of the bridge, because there was a naked woman washing herself.
Giant turtle to be seen.
The route to Bandiagara could be managed without four-wheel drive, but was significantly worse than stated in the petiti futé. Bandiagara itself was not particularly worth seeing -: noisy.
Finally, after a bit of searching, we arrived at Mopti's Maison Rouge. Classical music was playing in the bar and I got goosebumps.
The trip ended well, without the expected crash.
In the evening we had a nice dinner in the garden. Plans for the next day. The beer wasn't warm enough for Charles, but I thought it was delicious, cold as it had been.

Links and Annotations:
[1] The U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Consular Affairs for instance writes: "Violent crime, such as kidnapping and armed robbery, is common in Mali." And more risks are mentioned. Moreover it advises: "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mali-travel-advisory.html
[2] Rainer Maria Rilke: Herbsttag - „und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los“

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Travelogue Mali 2007 – No. 13 Falaise till Ende via Banani and Bankass

 

This travelogue is about a journey through Mali, which I made together with friends from November 17th until December 15th.
DUS - CDG - BMK - Bamako - Ségou - San - Djenné with Senossa - Mopti - Lac Débo - Niafounké - Timbuktu - Gourma-Rharous - Gossi - Hombori - Douentza - Banani - Bankass - Ende - Banani - Sangha - Bandiagara - Mopti - Bamako – BMK – CDG – DUS
Why publish this travelogue after all these years? I digitalized my handwritten travel diary and thought some aspects are also interesting to the public. Moreover this kind of travel nowadays would risk your live [1], so maybe this travelogue is already giving a historic account.

Day 20, Thursday, December 6th, 2007 Falaise
Travel along the Falaise without a guide. Crocodiles. Yaya says he has malaria. Camping under a big tree. Visit from the village elder and teacher.
I slept well.
We wanted to go under the Falaise [2] to Sangha; unclear whether this was even possible.
The day was sunny. Charles had diarrhea but hadn't taken Imodium yet.
“Through a mountain range, desert and empty” (Uhland). Difficult route into Pay Dogon.
We've seen caimans.
Then we found a nice spot under a rubber tree. Already here we were driving through a lot of villages and had less contact with tourism.
In the evening the village elder and the teacher came to get money for a project. But that's O.K., since we were camping here between the fields of the village. We had neglected to ask the name; maybe it was Damassongo.
Different people wanted to sell us something. Geneviève bought a cheap wooden sculpture. We didn't buy soft drinks, because we are self-sufficient and also we did not want to risk getting some weird infection.
Charles and Yaya actually wanted to rest during this phase because both had got a heat stroke. We had been driving towards the sun for too long (Towards the Sun ~ Arno Schmidt). Charles didn't eat anything then. Yaya took aspirin.
Heavenly tent -: very beautiful; but my tent was also ripped.
Early to bed.
Then a terrible wind started, probably caused by temperature fluctuations of rocks and open land. Under certain circumstances also reinforced by the huge tree; in any case, there is a terrible draft and I have positioned my tent in the wrong direction. I had to loosen and move the tent at night and reattach it.

Day 21, Friday, December 7th, 2007 Banani
Continue along the Falaise to Banani. There attack by the boutique owners. Yaya wants to go up to Sanga, but has to go back down. Crocodile pond. Yaya gets whiny and wants to shorten the trip. Nice camping on top of the dune.
The goats stood in front of the tent early in the morning.
Charles was in good spirits again and sang the national anthems of Germany and Switzerland. He had dreamed that Yaya had asked what my job was and he had answered: prison warden. Thanks for that!
Another tire without air, changed the tire before departure. Another discussion followed between Yaya and a Peul with knocked out teeth.
Another lovely day, without the chatter of an additional guide. Villages at the foot of the mountain slopes, but also right in the middle of the rock -: refugees?
Banani [3] was a disgusting place where boutique owners and guides surrounded our car in a malicious manner. We then first took the road towards Sangha and then turned around and drove quickly through Banani again.
We now saw groups hiking from village to village (in the heat!). There were also several toubabs [4] with two sticks (Nordic walking). Um, that looks weird
After Banani, Yaya makes moves to get more money out of us; but this could  be stopped.
We saw caimans again, which Charles interpreted as a sign of degeneration. But at least this retreat area has developed into something like a zoological garden for caimans.
Tireli is not a special place, probably it is just the ringing of the place names Ireli and Tireli [5] that people remember.
We've found a good outdoor campsite in the dunes. The zipper of my tent was repaired, but the wind was already shaking the tent again.
At night a dog with asthmatic barking, perhaps a jackal.
Starry sky with Mars.

Day 22, Saturday, December 8th, 2007 Bankass and Ende (place name) [6]
Battery is flat. Delayed start with lots of help. Drive to the end. Collected petrol for the empty tank in Bankass and took the other road back to Ende. Nice hotel there with a shower and food under the baobab.
Still wind, but much weaker. Into a beautiful morning.
Delay in departure due to battery failure (flat!).
Then we helped push the car. Some villages follow. Then we couldn't get up a steep dune. Yaya lets air out of the tires and we got out of the car. That's how it worked then. Geneviève booked a water bottle carrier.
Then tea time at Guimini.
Finally we arrived in Ende, but find that the baker was traveling and we couldn't get any bread. The Dogon usually only eat millet.
We finally found ourselves on a horribly bumpy ride across a field and decided to move on in a different way. On the track Bandiagora-Bankass we realize that we urgently needed petrol. We drove back a bit, but then had to go into Bankass. There was gasoline there, which was not as expensive as Mohammed had told us in the days of our ignorance. Yaya could also get the tires refilled  and on top of this we found a bakery to buy bread.
We then drove, late in the afternoon, on another track to Ende, after Yaya had asked several times about this specific track.
In Ende we visited three campements and rented rooms in the third campement, where there was a decent shower, which we also needed. We were close to the Falaise with a view of the granaries and huts above us. From the roof you could also see the broken tooth at the end, where the Falaise has broken away on the left and right. (Sketch of the camp in the handwritten diary [7])
We sat under the baobab tree and looked at the stars twinkling through it. After a few days there was also a cold beer. It was right here. Later we sat in the courtyard with petroleum lamps. The smell reminded me of rummy evenings in my grandparents' summer house (Colony Abendruh in Berlin).

Links and Annotations:
[1] The U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Consular Affairs for instance writes: "Violent crime, such as kidnapping and armed robbery, is common in Mali." And more risks are mentioned. Moreover it advises: "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mali-travel-advisory.html
[2] Falaise – short for La Falaise de Bandiagara or in English the Bandiagara Escarpment (in the Dogon country or in french Pay Dogon).
[3] Banani - „Banani is a village in Mali, populated by the Dogon people. ... There is a steep road leading up to Sangha. Toro So is spoken in the village.“ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banani,_Mali And dive deeper into the languages of the Pay Dogon here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escarpment_Dogon  
[4] Toubabs – tourists.
[5] Ireli and Tireli are also viallages, which even appear on maps.
[6] Bankass is a market town and Ende is the name of a village. Ende means end in German and that's where the road ends – without any linguistic reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankass
[7] As this sketch is an insult to the eye, I didn't copy it here.

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Travelogue Mali 2007 – No. 12 To the Elephants and Douentza

 

This travelogue is about a journey through Mali, which I made together with friends from November 17th until December 15th.
DUS - CDG - BMK - Bamako - Ségou - San - Djenné with Senossa - Mopti - Lac Débo - Niafounké - Timbuktu - Gourma-Rharous - Gossi - Hombori - Douentza - Banani - Bankass - Ende - Banani - Sangha - Bandiagara - Mopti - Bamako – BMK – CDG – DUS
Why publish this travelogue after all these years? I digitalized my handwritten travel diary and thought some aspects are also interesting to the public. Moreover this kind of travel nowadays would risk your live [1], so maybe this travelogue is already giving a historic account.

Day 18, Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 To the Elephants
A second time, now with Geneviève, in the car to the dune behind Hombori. Drive through the dune chain to the elephant reserve. With a pisteur - his name is also Mohammed - to the elephants. Then camping in the open, windy steppe.
Despite Autan (Icaridin), I got a few mosquito bites during the night, but otherwise slept well. Some raindrops again.
We bought gasoline and saw the cattle market.
Then the journey continued across the dunes. We saw a group of Tuaregs on dromedaries galloping through the desert steppe.

 

A bird with light blue plumage and dark blue at the edge of the wings, very beautiful to look at. We saw meerkats.
At the trough.

Then through the bush past a lake. Here we saw elephant droppings for the first time, dried up from last year. Then we went into the bush with a boy and listened to an elephant roaring. We discovered elephant trails with elephant urine and fresh elephant droppings. We didn't get far enough, which was perhaps better with a boy as a guide.

But then Yaya found a shepherd who he knew to be a good guide. While we rested, he searched for elephants and found a group. The shepherd's name was Mohammed. Finally we went on a two and a half to three hour hike through the bush. At first we only saw fresh tracks, but the elephants heard us. When the guide said “Psst,” Geneviève let one go quite audibly. Then we got closer to the elephants, heard an elephant fart in the bush (powerfully!) and then saw parts of elephants, here a rump, there an ear. At one point, while trying to get closer to the elephants, we came too close to another one, about 20 m. Mohammed also made a worried face because the female elephant was about to break out of the bush and attack. Then we lay on the ground and waited for a few minutes, which was worth it because then a troop with elephant cows with two little elephants came very slowly out of the bush into the open terrain.
Then we had to move on, because darkness fell quickly and we still had to set up camp. We remained dangerously close to the elephants, but there was no elephant droppings to be seen on a shallow, dry lake. Finally the evening atmosphere surrounded and on top of this we had a clear starry sky.
On some tours there are no elephants to be seen and larger groups would not be safe enough to get there anyway.

Day 19, Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 Douentza
Extremely bumpy off-road ride to Douentza. Nice accommodation there. In the evening there was a heated argument with the designated guide for the Pays Dogon.
Very cold night and the wind blew through the tent. I had neglected to anchor the outer tent because it hadn't been windy that evening.
Our camp was definitely too close to the elephant area. I suddenly heard their roar in the morning.
Cirrus clouds in the still cold morning sky.
The current tent construction at my friends' tent was completely torn in the unprotected area. It was like being outdoors.
Then I also had to remove a thorn from Charles' thumb. There was already a drop of pus in the wound.
“If you don't work for your children, you don't work for anything” - Amadou's philosophy, as bad as his guidance.
Charles reported about a Dominican brother who had a book signed by Sartre. Sartre looked up grimly and wrote RIEN in the top left corner of the endpaper and bottom right -: Sartre (I may have already written this down once).
Still good light on two camels and one of the red dunes.
Long trip.
Burst tire -: quick change; there are only five nuts at the rear right. The second tire also lost air after a while -: second change.

Douentza [2] -: the first campement had tents with eight beds each and you had to pay for breakfast and dinner, run by an unfriendly, grumpy French woman (Chez Jérome), the second campement offered prison cells, the third campement was just fine, at least that's what they said. There also was electric power to charge the batteries.
Washing program – humans and garments.
Negotiations with our guide, who wants 30,000 francs (approx. €45) per person per day, are slow. We offer him half of what an employee earns in a month per day. He doesn't want to, leaves offended and we're glad having got rid of him.

Links and Annotations:
[1] The U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Consular Affairs for instance writes: "Violent crime, such as kidnapping and armed robbery, is common in Mali." And more risks are mentioned. Moreover it advises: "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mali-travel-advisory.html
[2] Douentza is a small town of 30,000 inhabitants. Five years after our visit tuareg rebels took over control of Douentza. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douentza  


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Travelogue Mali 2007 – No. 11 Gossi and Fatima's Hand

 

This travelogue is about a journey through Mali, which I made together with friends from November 17th until December 15th.
DUS - CDG - BMK - Bamako - Ségou - San - Djenné with Senossa - Mopti - Lac Débo - Niafounké - Timbuktu - Gourma-Rharous - Gossi - Hombori - Douenza - Banani - Bankass - Ende - Banani - Sangha - Bandiagara - Mopti - Bamako – BMK – CDG – DUS
Why publish this travelogue after all these years? I digitalized my handwritten travel diary and thought some aspects are also interesting to the public. Moreover this kind of travel nowadays would risk your live [1], so maybe this travelogue is already giving a historic account.

Day 16, Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 Gossi and Hombori
Les mares (round lakes). Camels, people, camping Touaregs. Second tire flat. Reached Gossi at midday. On the tar road to Hombori. We spent the night there in huts at Campement Le Toudanko. Bad food and a correspondingly bad night's sleep.
Little wind, no rain, pleasant, pleasant temperature in the tent.
The left front wheel had to be changed.
The tarpaulin made it stuffy in Charles' and Geneviève's tent, but otherwise the construction worked well.
The morning was cool so I had to put on a jacket. The clouds still looked like rain.
We visited two watering holes with animals, even more dromedaries and hoopoes.
Shortly before Gossi we continued on the tarred road. It's a shame that the beautiful journey through the bush had come to a temporary end.
Gossi [2] by the lake was pretty shabby and there were children here as well, who pressed their noses against the car windows. This time there was also a fourteen-year-old who wanted to look at herself in the outside mirror. “All the wickedness of man is expressed in the child.” Jean Calvin according to Charles.
Spitting is part of traditional society - but that doesn't make it any more appetizing [9].

Quickly we saw a monolith and a group like the Olgas with a landscape like in “Picnic at Hanging Rock” [3]. It turned out that this already was Hombori [4].
Later we see the mountains from Campement Tondanko, where for romantic reasons we preferred two traditional huts to prison cells (rooms looked like this).
We discussed some options with the guide, but it turned out another guide was planned than the one, who showed up. This allowed us to at least curb the excessive prices somewhat.
Showering and washing clothes, especially your underpants, which wasn't possible in the bush. Conversation with three Flemings (♂♀♂).
The couscous tasted good, but it sat in my stomach for a long time and spoiled the stomachs of the others, including Yaya.
Lights out at 9 p.m.

Day 17, Monday, December 3rd, 2007 Dune hike and Fatima's Hand
Amadou will be our guide. Geneviève is sick and stays in the hut. Dune hike with Amadou. In the evening unsuccessful ascent to “Fatima’s Hand”.
Hard night, rain again, then trucks three or four times, noises and smells of donkeys, goats and cattle, then I had to hunt down a mosquito.
Two to three large bowel movements during the night – unusual. I went to the open toilet even while it was raining (the campment is open only during the dry season), but first I had to scare away a huge cockroach with the light of the flashlight [5].
Morning climb into the sand dunes, without Geneviève. At first everything was very peaceful. But then some exceptional dirty kids approached us and wanted to sell things. Shortly after this disturbance, the hike became beautiful over the crest of the dunes with very good views of three mountains, especially the Hand of Fatima, a famous rock formation [6].
Here too or especially here we saw dromedaries.
A Peule woman carrying milk to the market and other women with loads on their heads.

Late morning in the camp -: the echoes of the women's stomping, refracted on the mud brick walls: boom, boom, boom or boom boom, boom boom, boom boom. Here people only count in groups, not as individuals. It's strange and has nothing to do with Africa, but some people can't imagine that there are people who just want to sit by themselves, for example to think or without wanting to talk to anyone.
The men sat in the shade and politicized, while two women were buildig a new hut in the sun, the core of which was already in place.
Amadou [7] the local guide is an ass! We could have had a nice hike through the deepest valley of the Fingers, but at first we were told there was no way there. Only he could go there and then he told us that the French people we had seen were mountaineers. But they didn't have any equipment with them either. I think it was his equipment. We wore hiking boots, he only wore slippers. We then did another hike on the rock, which was certainly more strenuous, but we had to put up with this guide and Genevève because she had become fearful and allied herself with him.
The village where we left our car wanted money for a water project. To do this, they had created paths like the Eifel hiking club.
Overall, investing in the guide was a mistake. We could have done everything better on our own.
P.S. He had eaten almost all of Charles' Nutella [8] at breakfast.

Links and Annotations:
[1] The U.S. Department of State / Bureau of Consular Affairs for instance writes: "Violent crime, such as kidnapping and armed robbery, is common in Mali." And more risks are mentioned. Moreover it advises: "Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney." https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mali-travel-advisory.html
[2] Gossi is as big as Gourma-Rharous. It's about 180 km to Gourma-Rharous and 90 km to Hombori. The incidents in the Wikipedia article happened years after I visited the vicinity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossi
[3] I know the secret behind the mysterious landscape filming in the movie Picnic at Hanging Rock by Peter Weir (1975) as I've talked with the cameramen, whom I met in a restaurant on Yap (Micronesia). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(film)
[4] Hombori is as small a town as Gorma-Rharous or Gossi, but it looks better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hombori (I guess there had been more money because of tourism.)
[5] I didn't remember this incident when I've written about cockroaches: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/07/cockroaches.html
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_Fatima_(rock_formation)
[7] As I like the music of Amadou & Mariam, I was expecting more from someone by the name of Amadou. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadou_%26_Mariam
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutella
[9] I added this remark a little later and it's slightly OT. When I started studying in Taipei it was usual practice to clear your throat an spit on the ground of the bus. It stopped within a short time without an obvious campaign. Also see: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/01/living-in-taipei.html


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