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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