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 15, Saturday, December 1st, 2007 Gourma-Rharous and the well in the steppe
It continues to rain. Tires repaired in Gourma-Rharous, city visited. Continue through the bush. First, high dunes. Spring. Migrating nomadic groups. Black volcanic plates. Nice camping under the tree.
Dreamless?
A tough night as it was constantly raining like a shower and of course it rained into the tent of my friends. They went into the car at times. But then they had come to terms with the rain. An excited donkey in the morning. Charles and Geneviève are in good spirits. I had no problems with my tent.
The noise universe of the tent: crickets, wind, birds, rain, donkeys - everything penetrates the thin home.
Yaya said that it rained here at most once every ten years outside of the rainy season - but that didn't make us much happier. Finally a herd of zebu cattle with the one with the white herons. Very close, very peaceful. No shepherds to be seen.
Breakfast in the rain in the Sahel.
Like last year in South America the left front tire that was losing air. Yaya change the tire and had it repaired/vulcanized in Gourma-Rharous [2]. We looked at the market and the meeting of the village elders or something like the district council. It's difficult to photograph - although ten years later I would have asked. Charles roamed the city with a herd of naughty urchins. They have names like Suleiman, Mohammed and so on. With Geneviève I toured the quieter part of the town – unaccompanied.
Then we took a break at lunchtime. Hoopoes can be seen.
Insane experience in a plantless plain, a lunar landscape. There was a well in the middle, the old man lifted about 30 liters from a leather bucket out of the well into a container, while a small boy lead the two donkeys back from about 60 m away. Then the leather container was thrown back into the well and the donkeys pulled up the water. It's an archaic image that we can hardly break away from.
Then a landscape of volcanic origin with lava fields and layers like walls. Great play of colors in this landscape, especially the sudden differences between dark and light.
We found a campsite in a grove, some shelter from the wind under a tree. The camp ass set up early enough, in particular we pulled a black plastic tarp over Genevève's and Charles' tent. I tied down my outer tent and ed it to the ground.
Plans what we wanted to do in the next few days.
An archaic night in the bush, no one far near. When you looked through the tree you got the impression that stars wee twinkling, but it was an optical illusion because the sky had been overcast.
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] Gourma-Rharous has about 25,000 inhabitants, but the town looked like less than that, maybe because there are also 29 villages in the count. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourma-Rharous
.
No comments:
Post a Comment