Dogon Country

Good day everyone! Michael and I just got back into Mopti after a night in Bandiagara, a 3 day hike through the Dogon Plateau and another night in Bandiagara. We had a wonderful time hiking through a gorgeous part of Mali and I highly recommend it to anyone!

We stayed in Djenné for a night and saw the town. The mud mosque was pretty impressive. On the way from Djenné to Mopti on Thursday we met a very nice Peace Corps volunteer who gave us two good guide recommendations for Dogon country. So, we contacted one and on Friday we met with our guide, Mabo, in Mopti to discuss the travel arrangements and itinerary for our trip. We decided to stay in Bandiagara Friday night, 75 kilometers from Mopti, because it is a more common “jumping off point” for the Dogon country. Like in Djenné and Mopti, we stayed in a nice little hostel on the roof with some basic mattresses because it is the cheapest and coolest option.

Saturday morning, our guide had some vehicle problems and sent us his very trusted friend, Ibrahim. Given no other option, we started our journey with Ibrahim, who was called Pygmy all along the trail due to his somewhat short stature. He was very friendly and reliable and we ended up having a fantastic trip. We left our backpacks at the hostel and set out with only the basics. Saturday morning, there was a cultural festival in Bandiagara celebrating the 25 year anniversary of the collaboration between some German NGO and the Malian people. We stopped by and watched dancing, masque parades and the usual ceremonial (bureaucratic) formalities. After that, we had a typical Malian lunch of rice and peanut sauce and then got a ride out onto the actual Dogon Plateau.

We stopped by the village of Djiguibombo and walked around, learning about the Dogon culture. I’m not going to relay everything we learned, but feel free to look it up or come check it out for yourself. We started our hike on the top of the plateau and immediately began the descent into the valley. We were greeted by a sizable dust storm that later gave way to brief rain storm that was much appreciated as it brought the temperature down considerably. We waited out the rain under an overhang in the cliff wall before continuing our descent into the small village of Canicombo. We finished the day at the village of Teli, doing a total of 11 km. After a lovely dinner of macaroni and chicken, we slept on roof mattresses at a small hostel.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early. After a breakfast of eggs, bread and instant coffee, we headed up to the old village of Teli which consisted of mud houses and granaries set into the cliff wall. In the morning, before it got to 100 degrees, we hiked 10 km to the small village of Yabatalou. We had couscous and chicken for lunch with some traditional Malian tea. Tea in Mali is much like in Senegal where you boil Chinese green tea and serve it in three installments with increasing amounts of sugar. We hiked 4 km to a village called Boundjourou which was very lively as it was their weekly market. We walked around, took in the sights and smells, and got to try locally-made millet beer. Then, for the fun part, we got to climb up the plateau, which was a 500 meter (1640 feet) ascent. The path was manageable and the view from the top was breathtaking and, needless to say, totally worth the climb. We spent the night on the roof of a small hostel in the village of Begnamato.

Monday morning we had another early start, getting up around 6:30 with the sun. We had bread and coffee for breakfast and then another round of tea. In the morning we hiked 5 km to the village of Konsogou. We walked around the area and learned about different Dogon funeral ceremonies. After that we finished our stay in Dogon country with a 5 km hike to Dourou, a major village where we caught a car going back into Bandiagara. After lunch in Bandiagara we checked out the bi-weekly market and then said thanks and good-bye to our guide, Ibrahim.

We looked into ground transport to Ghana and found our best option to be taking an early bus out of Mopti Wednesday morning. This gave us time to hang out in Bandiagara for Monday evening and relax before taking a mini-bus to Mopti Tuesday morning. We decided not to spend time in Burkina Faso because there didn’t seem to be much of interest and we wanted more time to explore Ghana (and maybe Togo if we’re lucky). So, tomorrow it’s off to Kumasi (Ghana) direct from Mopti by simply cutting through Burkina Faso.

Have a wonderful week and I’ll update y’all again from Ghana.