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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