Real Mali Blog

Now that I have a moment, I thought I would add some details about the start of our trip.

First let me say that Touba was an experience. We left Dakar at 5 am Wednesday the 19^th in a bus that took about 4 hours to get to Touba. After that we hiked about 2 miles up the main road to see the Grand Mosque. It was pretty impressive. We got a tour of the mosque, drank some holy water and then had to figure out where to stay. Touba is one of Senegal’s holiest cities and therefore there are absolutely no drinking, smoking or even hotel/hostel establishments. Our guide was kind enough to offer to put us up at his house for a small fee. We figured that was reasonable and we needed to crash somewhere so we spent the day at his house, had some good ceebujen, café Touba (their preferred drink), tea and conversation.

After that, we had another real early morning, we left Touba at 6 am Thursday the 20^th and got into Kaolack (still in Senegal) around 9 am. From there, we wandered around town for about an hour comparing local bus companies. We ended up choosing “Africa Tour Trans” because they all had the same price but our company promised us AC. Apparently “AC” means two open roof vents. Oh well. We spent about 23 hours to travel the nearly 1000 kilometers between Kaolack and Bamako. The border crossing between Kidira (Senegal) and Diboli (Mali) was pretty smooth. There was a little bit of traffic there when we showed up around 8 pm but we were able to pay for our visas, get a stamp and roll through pretty easily. Bye Senegal.

So, we’re onto country number two of the epic Africa adventure! Mike and I arrived in Bamako around 10 am on Friday, the 21^st. We stayed in a nicer hotel for a night to recover from 23 long, sweaty hours on a cramped bus. We were able to shower, do some laundry in the sink and relax a little bit. We also took an epic wander through downtown to stake out a nice, cheap hostel for the next night. Let me just say that downtown Bamako is insane. We walked through totally packed markets where boutiques run right up onto the sidewalks where they compete for space with the millions of motorcycles constantly roaring up and down Bamako’s streets. There are people, buses, animals, taxis and (above all) motos to avoid at every moment. It felt a lot more hectic, harried, chaotic, dirty and packed than Dakar. It is certainly a very pretty city, surrounded by hills and cut in half by the majestic Niger River. There are even green spaces and parks throughout Bamako. But it is not a city for the fainthearted.

We stayed at a very basic hostel for our second night in Bamako. We explored downtown again and walked through a really cool fetish market. We saw animal horns, skins, bones and dried heads of all kinds: crocodile, boar, monkey, horse and other unidentifiable objects. It was great! We stopped into a local bar Saturday night and just happened upon the final match of the European Cup of Champions. We watched Inter Milan beat Bayern and the Malian crowd was totally behind Milan, largely due to Eto’o, their famous Cameroonian player.

Sunday morning, the 23^rd, we headed back to the bus station and found a 1 pm bus to Segou, 230 kilometers north-west of Bamako. The trip was less than smooth. We had to turn back after about 30 minutes because the driver sensed a problem with the bus. After a chaotic scramble for seats on the new bus, we were on our way. The countryside was also green and beautiful but we had one (major) bump along the way. The driver was barreling down the highway and an unfortunate herd of cattle decided to cross the road. He honked a lot but they didn’t move quite fast enough. He caught one squarely by the back haunches and sent it spinning off into the brush. The front of the bus was a little smashed up but we came out relatively unscathed (compared to the cow.) We loaded up the dead cow and took it to Segou so that the driver/company could pay the herder for his loss. We didn’t get to Segou until around 7:30 (a trip that should take only 3 hours).

We saw the big Monday market tomorrow and explored the town a little yesterday. It is nice to relax a little in a less hectic town for a few days. Tomorrow, we head to the famous mud mosque at Djenne and then Mopti for a hike through Dogon country.

Take care and have a great week!