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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