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 23, Sunday, December 9, 2007 Until just before Banani
Return along the dune until just before Banani. Camping under trees with lots of birds in a windless night. Yaya just wants to go home.
Very early in the morning we still admired Mars, Venus and the stars.
I took some early morning photos of the Falaise and the village in beautiful light.
Very slow start after a hearty breakfast and a sermon from Charles based on the fact that they had once again chosen the worse room, after I had given the room another choice (that actually always worked).
Today a mixture of struggle and cramp. Yaya was about to take the wrong driveway, one that isn't shown on the maps; the petit futé is very bad in this respect. The driveway at Nombori will probably also lead to Bandiagara. However, we now had beautiful views of the plain. Then we just took the wrong slope back into the valley, but that didn't matter because we wanted to make progress slowly. In the morning Yaya thought the route was too long, but it was exactly the opposite – it had been far too short.
The road from Sangha to Bandiagara was said to be good. There was a brief upset, but we prevailed. We found a nice place to camp in the bush. The hammer, which had disappeared, also appeared again.
I was of the opinion that the strong wind would follow again and had prepared my tent well.
Day 24, Monday, December 10, 2007 Drive via Banani and Sangha to Mopti
Battery damage. Car hit. Drive via Banani up to Sanga. Battery halfway empty. Onion fields. Mission Protestant. Drive to Bandiagara. From there on the tar road to Mopti to the Hotel Maison Rouge. Yaya royally rewarded and released.
But there hasn't been any wind! The indicator for this could have been in the many small bird nests. In the early morning all sorts of bird noises and buzzing insects started around our tents again. A bird with the call: barbarus.
Already they didn't have the wind in the tent, I have to endure the title "Lord of the Winds", but "and let loose the wind over the fields" [2] or "did the wind already break?”
Behind Banani we had a slow ascent, but we also enjoyed beautiful views of the village on the slope. We stay there for a while and then had to push the car up the hill.
Sangha -: many onion fields. Yaya doesn't seem to know the place. But then we found the Maison Femme Dogon (Gête de la femme Dogon). There is a poetic book about Amani, but no book about the history of the Pays Dogon. The book about Amani consists essentially of watercolors.
The mission is funded by American Baptists.
A Frenchman wearing a sawmill worker's shirt reported on his journey through Morocco, Mauritania and Burkina Faso; we all had been to Morocco and Charles and Genevève visited Burkina Faso a couple of years before. He wante to go to Togo later to bring textbooks there. Charles already spokeof an incense route of good works. The Frenchman smoked as only Frenchmen do, leaving the cigarette in his mouth, while he told the story about the long journey through the desert, and barely removing the cigarette ashes.
As we continued our journey, Charles had an argument with an onion farmer who he didn't want to have his onion fields photographed. There would have been something objectionable on the other side of the bridge, because there was a naked woman washing herself.
Giant turtle to be seen.
The route to Bandiagara could be managed without four-wheel drive, but was significantly worse than stated in the petiti futé. Bandiagara itself was not particularly worth seeing -: noisy.
Finally, after a bit of searching, we arrived at Mopti's Maison Rouge. Classical music was playing in the bar and I got goosebumps.
The trip ended well, without the expected crash.
In the evening we had a nice dinner in the garden. Plans for the next day. The beer wasn't warm enough for Charles, but I thought it was delicious, cold as it had been.
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] Rainer Maria Rilke: Herbsttag - „und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los“
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