And in fact, with a good guide or a good guidebook, you can pretty much see all there is to see in one day – mainly the fascinating mudbrick Sudanese architecture, especially the mosques and the studded doors. But I was surprised how much I liked the place, and if I were to do it again, I’d allow one extra day to just take it easy after seeing the sights, wander about and enjoy the edge-of-desert ambience, perhaps take a longer excursion into the desert. We went out to the dunes toward sunset and that was a lovely moment in the trip, but we were really just on the outskirts of the town. (We didn’t feel like a touristy camel ride!) Another nice experience was walking the sandy streets at night to a Tuareg family compound where we had been invited to see the crafts, tourist stuff, that the family makes (needless to say, we ended spending money!). As our acquaintance wasn’t home yet, the family – none of whom spoke English other than he – sat us down on rugs in the open-air courtyard where they slept out of doors, and made tea in the elaborately ceremonial manner that was a joy to watch.
The problem with Timbuktu is getting there. I was booked to fly on Air Mali from Bamako to Timbuktu, and from Timbuktu to Mopti - or, rather, Sevare nearby where I had decided to base myself - where I was to pick up my Dogon trek arrangements. The day before my flight, it was cancelled as apparently the plane had been requisitioned by the government. (This is apparently a regular occurrence; on my return to Bamako, I met a South African journalist team who had counted on flying to Timbuktu but found the scheduled flight cancelled.) Mande Tours suggested that I and the similarly stranded Californian share a 4WD vehicle. To my shock, this turned out more expensive than the flight! (I had to do some serious brinkmanship haggling over this, with some success.) We decided to do it as the only option at that point short of overhauling all our onward plans or cancelling out on Timbuktu, neither of which was palatable. The arrangements involved taking an 8 ½ -hour bus ride from Bamako to Sevare, overnighting there, and getting picked up by the Land Cruiser at 5:30 the next morning for the drive to Timbuktu. The bus ride was not uncomfortable – West African buses, and even minibuses, are no “chicken buses” a la Guatemala – but tedious, something I would get used to over the next three weeks in both Mali and Burkina: distances are long and the landscape tends to be monotonously flat and scrubby.
It took us about 7 ½ hours in the 4WD to get from Sevare to the bank of the Niger where we had to transfer to a pinasse for a some half-hour ride on the river, landing at Korioume; here another 4WD was waiting to take us the rest of the way into Timbuktu. (We were told that later in the dry season, it was possible for 4WDs to ford the river and go all the way to Timbuktu.) It was, if nothing else, a memorable trip. Our driver was excellent, an unflappably cheerful Songhai who however spoke only French; fortunately, a Tuareg friend of his hitched a ride to Timbuktu, who spoke English and was invaluable in helping us communicate with locals along the way, particularly in negotiating photos. The first couple of hours, in the cool early morning and along the paved main highway toward Gao, was pleasant and the views of the Sahel interesting. Then we turned off onto the road to Timbuktu, and it was 5 hours of some of the worst roads (or lack of them) that I have experienced; sometimes the “road” would be so rutted or deep in soft sand that our driver would veer off to detour through the brush. We were pretty much thrown about in the back of the vehicle, and when we crossed paths with other 4WDs crammed with up to 8 people, I began to think the cost of our arrangements well-spent! Our travel to Timbuktu was further held up when, fording a supposedly shallow channel of the river to the pinasse-ferry point, our vehicle bogged down in the middle of the channel, and neither the combined efforts of a dozen men nor that of another 4WD could haul it out; it was beginning to look grim until a monster of an overland truck lumbered up and easily pulled it out.
And yet I have to say that I enjoyed the experience. The very challenge of the country we went through made the ride interesting, and it varied from a scenic escarpment through wasteland and forest to grassy savannah. And where we passed human scenery, the wild and isolated setting often lent it an all-the-more exotic, almost mythic, flavor: camel riders in robes and turbans, herders driving their goats to a well, a thatched village at the foot of the escarpment. Halfway through the drive, we stopped at a Fulani village called (I think) Bambara Maude and our stop there was for me a highlight of my Mali trip – a completely untouristy village on the bank of a small lake with the villagers in their colorful garb unselfconsciously going about their daily tasks, drawing water from the well, washing clothes at lakeside, minding the children. The next afternoon on our drive back, we passed the same village in the middle of its Sunday market, and this was a wonderful scene – herdsmen in blue cloaks and pointed hats with their cattle, the women vendors a riot of color: to me it was more memorable than the Djenne Monday market! Finally, the pinasse ride on the Niger caused me to fall in love with the river, and it is now my biggest regret that I did not allot the necessary time to travel between Mopti and Timbuktu by river.
From my comments on both Timbuktu itself and our travel there and back, it should be obvious that I think it a destination well worth the time and trouble – and in fact more time than I had given it. A couple of final points about my stay there: The Bouctou Hotel where we stayed was quite nice – CFA 12,000 ($16) for a room with shared toilet/shower - with a separate terrace overlooking the town where drinks or meals are pleasant, though touts hover about (but are nowhere as aggravating as in East or North Africa). The markets in Timbuktu were the least attractive I visited in West Africa. Dining at one of the spots around them (we ate at Poulet d’Or) is guaranteed to treat you to the taste and texture of sand in your meal. Our guide in Timbuktu, incidentally, Mohamed Hamzata, was excellent, very articulate not only about the tourist sights, but his opinions about his town and country.
|
My visit to Djenne, squeezed in between Timbuktu and the Dogon country, suffered by comparison with these two highlights of the trip. It was also prejudiced by the effect on my schedule of the flight cancellation. I had been supposed to spend a night in Djenne, allowing two days to get to know it. But because getting to Timbuktu and back by road entailed the loss of two days, my Djenne visit had to be limited to a daytrip for the Monday market. This was on a Mande Tours arrangement shared with other people in my Sevare hotel, which was convenient, and probably a necessity for a daytrip. Our guide, who would also be with us on the Dogon trip, was extremely knowledgeable about everything from Malian music (he played an unending series of “griot” music tapes) to the history of every town we passed; he talked until our eyes began to glaze over!
The ride to Djenne was interesting, passing photogenic Bobo village clusters with their distinctive Sudanese mosques, and the process of jockeying for place on the ferry across the Bani river was lively and colorful. Djenne undoubtedly deserves to be a highlight of Mali: its mosque is by far the most impressive and beautiful structure you will see in Mali, and the color and teeming activity of the Monday market right under its walls are dramatic. (We were able to climb up to a rooftop where the views of the market below were superb.) But it was extremely HOT when we were there (hotter than in Timbuktu!) and a foot tour of the old town left us feeling wilted and drained. I imagine having an overnight there would have allowed us to enjoy the town in cooler hours; the Campement, where we took refuge for coolness and cold drinks, seemed a very nice place to stay and I regretted missing out on that. I also have to say that I found the inner streets of Djenne dismayingly dirty, more so than other Mali towns like Segou or Timbuktu. Also, the great experience of the village Sunday market just the previous day, necessarily reduced the impact on me of the famous Djenne market.
|
I had mentioned earlier my unhappiness over Mande Tours suddenly shifting me from the 4-day foot trek I had originally signed on for, to joining a 3-day vehicle tour after the guide contracted for me (and who had already been introduced to me) got sick. This was relayed to me an hour before the vehicle tour was to start (my own trek had been scheduled to start the following day). I considered cancelling out, getting a refund, and looking for other arrangements on my own. But it all seemed too much hassle, and as my main objective was to see the Dogon country rather than have a trek per se, I reluctantly opted to agree. In actual fact, it worked out well enough. The tour covered pretty much the same route as the foot trek; what was left out was one night in the village of Kani Kombole. (Mande Tours tried to compensate by paying for one night’s stay and meals in Sevare after the tour.) There were three others on the tour – the California woman, who had been with me in Timbuktu and was now a good friend, and two Japanese boys who’d been on the Djenne tour as well, nice kids though their English was very limited; and we had the same very competent guide as in Djenne, Dicko Hahaboun. It was very congenial company which I suppose I might have missed on a solo foot trek. And of course travelling by vehicle was comfortable; though evenings were cool, by midmorning it was very hot, and the Dutch couple I’d spoken with, had told me of difficulty in coping with the heat while trekking. (Apparently, their guide had been recalcitrant about starting early on their treks.) So, while the cavalier way this was handled still rankles, I guess I should look back on its positive side.
Actually, the Dogon tour was the best part of my Mali trip, and I would do it again, though on a different village circuit. It was a fascinating experience of a whole distinctive culture – it is quite important to be sure you have a good, knowledgeable guide to fully appreciate the social picture and historical background of the villages. The initial 1 ½ -hour drive from Sevare to Bandiagara was on a graded but very dusty road and was (again) fairly monotonous; but from Bandiagara on (where we stopped for supplies), it was increasingly interesting, with views of Dogon daily life in their fields. (Transport to and from Dogon country is another instance where public transport is theoretically an option, but you may well feel the expense of private-hire 4WD is worth the convenience and reliability of schedule.) Our first stop, and first Dogon village, was the very picturesque Djiguibombo which was still on the plateau. After this, we had our first spectacular views of the dramatic drop-off from the escarpment to the panorama of the plains far below. I hasn’t known that you can actually access the villagers on the plains by road (I had assumed a foot trek was required), quite a scenic drive. We bypassed Kani Kombole and went straight on to the village of Teli, spending the day and night there. The next day we moved on to the village of Ende where we had our second night, making our way back to to Sevare on the third day. |
|
