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 Debo - 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.
Eight months before
We – a francophone couple (Charles and Geneviève) and I – met in Switzerland for wintersports and thought about traveling to Mali. It's completely unclear how we came to this decision, but we did organize something, although the trip only really developed while we were executing it. We knew we wanted to go to Bamako, we wanted to boat along the Niger, we wanted to go to Timbuktu and then back through the steppe and visit the Dogon Country, but that was about it. Of course we found out about all the sights there were, but we hadn't organized anything from outside Bamako.
Just before the trip
Shortly before the trip I was received a book as a gift from Dr. Dagmar Stein (†) about Mungo Park, but didn't have time to read it. It was an elaborate but not scientific edition. I would have liked to have had a reliable map and information about the route, e.g. the places he had visited. That doesn't impair the adventure, but it reduces the usefulness. By the way, Mungo Park and Robert F. Scott were very similar in poor expedition planning - oh yes, Charles and I were no different.
Day 1, Saturday, November 17, 2007 Flight to Bamako
Flight Cologne-Paris-Bamako. Arrival at 9:20 p.m. and night taxi ride to Bamako-Koura to the Centre d'accueil de la Mission catholique.
Finally the journey started on a Saturday and we arrived. It was a bit chaotic, but then it worked out better than expected. We took a very rickety taxi, but it took us to the hotel. It was more of an inn run by nuns [1]. It was probably already a mistake, maybe we should have gotten a real hotel, but at least we had somewhere to stay.
First impressions: heavy environmental pollution and the crescent moon was quite flat.
Evening walk “in the heat of the night”.
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] Foyer d'acceuil de la Mission Catholique. Dominique Auzias & Jean-Paul Labourdette: petit futé Mali 2007-2008. Paris 2006. ISBN: 2746915944. p. 128.
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