nobby
Guest
howdy folks, hope everything is tickety boo wher ever you may be.
split up from mindert and graham (other bikers) in bamako, mali and headed out on mi own again, which was nice. long boring streach of tarmack to segou then bla, the odd police check, without the police so blasted through no probs. crossed the niger near san, small ferry couldnt quite make it to shore so a short sojurn through 30cm deep water was required and on to sand (aaarghhh). dirt road to say, where i met, graham. hmm. so, off we pootle to djenne allong more sand, but just the right side of fun. stopped in djenne, had a buchers at the mosque (biggest mud brick building in the world i think), had seen some nicer ones on the way at tityenne and other places, without the chuffin hasstle too. stopped for lunch, bumped into richard and roxanna (again) who were trying to leave by bush taxi and had been for the past 7 hours. fun.
off towards mopti now, graham ran out of fuel, doh. good job i filled mi jerry cans earlier. (he had two 20 l cans but they wer empty...) tarmack again. found place that rich + roxanne were staying in mopti, so dumped the bike and went off to find them and enquire about a boat up the niger to tombouctou. anyway, to cut a long story short, theyd sorted a boat and there was space left for me n mavis. and no, i hadnt seen the boat.
so we all rush round (it was leaving that afternoon) gettin food water etc then head on down to the jetty/harbour/dirty water/ or wotever you want to call it. 'no sir, the boats this way' says the man, pointing allong the beach. er, ok. anyway the boats get smaller and smaller, till we reach one(a verry nice one i admit, it eaven had an on board toilet, more of which later) about the lenght of a bus, and wide enough for three people to sit side by side. they call them pinasses, i call them big canoes. anyway, an hour later and with the aid of 8 blokes mavis is installed, strapped down (kind of) and packed round with luggage. she did make a fine sight, almost on the prow of the boat, verry much like a figurehead. there were 5 europeans on the boat, 2 crew and 10 mlians. very nice relaxing ride that afternoon, niger is quite low at the mo so getting stuck on sandbanks is the norm. its very bizzare being in the middle of a large river and have people standing in water up to there knees (no sporren plague luckly!!). stopped at 12pm, camped on the bank, up at 4.30am and off again, for three days. groovy scenery, lots of herrons egrets and other water birds, even saw a few families of hippos (highlight of the river). lots of mud hut villages on the river banks with big heards of cows and sheep. stopped off at a market in dire, black africans and moor africans all in fabulously colourfull costumes with swords and camels all trading together. arrived at korioume (port just south of the big t) late on the 10th feb, so piched tents ammongst the assembling crowd, rocks n stuff on the 'beach'.
on to tombouctou the next day, wow. my expectations wernt high but for some reason i liked it. hardly any hastle, increadably quiate and peacfull on the outskirts, and the dessert is just, well, there. surprise surprise, bumped in to the big truck from bamako, spent the afternoon there drinking tea and talking about where we were going to kill the sheep! wot? i hear you cry. well, wed arrived in tombouctou in time for a muslim festival (sorry i forget the name) that involves sacrificing a sheep. so the guys in the truck, not wanting to miss out decided to purchase there own personal sheep (or flossie as he was commonly and affectionatly known). so a group of us chipped in and drove off into the dessert with a local to do the deed and cook flossie in the sand. the local guy did the business (yess of course we all whatched, i wanted to see my own reaction), inserted various spices in various parts and burried him in the sand (over coals!) for a couple of hours. the result was, a rather undercooked bit of sheep. ho hum. all was saved and a huge stew type thang made which lasted us all the next day. scrummy. so that was tombouctou. the road south was hell in sand, deep sandy, rutty, sandy sand. we didnt like that at all. fell off lots and gave up at about 3pm to canmp at the side of the piste. after about half hour a bloke turns up and says come and stay at my house, it was the last thing i wanted but didnt want to offend so said yes. i was too tired to try speaking french so went to bed early n left asap the next day. not very good for anglo=african relations i know.
so, finally reached tarmak again (aahh bliss) at douentza and on to hombori for a gander at the various rock formations on the way. then back again past mopti and to bankass for a day of driving round dogon country. some fab roads here, great villages and scenery. oh, bumped into dutch couple on mz's again. from bankass via easy piste to koro and on to the border with burkina faso, again border no hasstle wotsoever. straight down to the capital, ouagadougou(pronounced wagadoogoo)where i am now, waitin for mi ghana visa. seems a cool place, theres a film festival ere in a few days, would like to hang arround but time is short so will leave tomorrow.
so, hope that kept you entertained for a while, cheary byeeee....
k.
split up from mindert and graham (other bikers) in bamako, mali and headed out on mi own again, which was nice. long boring streach of tarmack to segou then bla, the odd police check, without the police so blasted through no probs. crossed the niger near san, small ferry couldnt quite make it to shore so a short sojurn through 30cm deep water was required and on to sand (aaarghhh). dirt road to say, where i met, graham. hmm. so, off we pootle to djenne allong more sand, but just the right side of fun. stopped in djenne, had a buchers at the mosque (biggest mud brick building in the world i think), had seen some nicer ones on the way at tityenne and other places, without the chuffin hasstle too. stopped for lunch, bumped into richard and roxanna (again) who were trying to leave by bush taxi and had been for the past 7 hours. fun.
off towards mopti now, graham ran out of fuel, doh. good job i filled mi jerry cans earlier. (he had two 20 l cans but they wer empty...) tarmack again. found place that rich + roxanne were staying in mopti, so dumped the bike and went off to find them and enquire about a boat up the niger to tombouctou. anyway, to cut a long story short, theyd sorted a boat and there was space left for me n mavis. and no, i hadnt seen the boat.
so we all rush round (it was leaving that afternoon) gettin food water etc then head on down to the jetty/harbour/dirty water/ or wotever you want to call it. 'no sir, the boats this way' says the man, pointing allong the beach. er, ok. anyway the boats get smaller and smaller, till we reach one(a verry nice one i admit, it eaven had an on board toilet, more of which later) about the lenght of a bus, and wide enough for three people to sit side by side. they call them pinasses, i call them big canoes. anyway, an hour later and with the aid of 8 blokes mavis is installed, strapped down (kind of) and packed round with luggage. she did make a fine sight, almost on the prow of the boat, verry much like a figurehead. there were 5 europeans on the boat, 2 crew and 10 mlians. very nice relaxing ride that afternoon, niger is quite low at the mo so getting stuck on sandbanks is the norm. its very bizzare being in the middle of a large river and have people standing in water up to there knees (no sporren plague luckly!!). stopped at 12pm, camped on the bank, up at 4.30am and off again, for three days. groovy scenery, lots of herrons egrets and other water birds, even saw a few families of hippos (highlight of the river). lots of mud hut villages on the river banks with big heards of cows and sheep. stopped off at a market in dire, black africans and moor africans all in fabulously colourfull costumes with swords and camels all trading together. arrived at korioume (port just south of the big t) late on the 10th feb, so piched tents ammongst the assembling crowd, rocks n stuff on the 'beach'.
on to tombouctou the next day, wow. my expectations wernt high but for some reason i liked it. hardly any hastle, increadably quiate and peacfull on the outskirts, and the dessert is just, well, there. surprise surprise, bumped in to the big truck from bamako, spent the afternoon there drinking tea and talking about where we were going to kill the sheep! wot? i hear you cry. well, wed arrived in tombouctou in time for a muslim festival (sorry i forget the name) that involves sacrificing a sheep. so the guys in the truck, not wanting to miss out decided to purchase there own personal sheep (or flossie as he was commonly and affectionatly known). so a group of us chipped in and drove off into the dessert with a local to do the deed and cook flossie in the sand. the local guy did the business (yess of course we all whatched, i wanted to see my own reaction), inserted various spices in various parts and burried him in the sand (over coals!) for a couple of hours. the result was, a rather undercooked bit of sheep. ho hum. all was saved and a huge stew type thang made which lasted us all the next day. scrummy. so that was tombouctou. the road south was hell in sand, deep sandy, rutty, sandy sand. we didnt like that at all. fell off lots and gave up at about 3pm to canmp at the side of the piste. after about half hour a bloke turns up and says come and stay at my house, it was the last thing i wanted but didnt want to offend so said yes. i was too tired to try speaking french so went to bed early n left asap the next day. not very good for anglo=african relations i know.
so, finally reached tarmak again (aahh bliss) at douentza and on to hombori for a gander at the various rock formations on the way. then back again past mopti and to bankass for a day of driving round dogon country. some fab roads here, great villages and scenery. oh, bumped into dutch couple on mz's again. from bankass via easy piste to koro and on to the border with burkina faso, again border no hasstle wotsoever. straight down to the capital, ouagadougou(pronounced wagadoogoo)where i am now, waitin for mi ghana visa. seems a cool place, theres a film festival ere in a few days, would like to hang arround but time is short so will leave tomorrow.
so, hope that kept you entertained for a while, cheary byeeee....
k.
been there , done that and took in the Festival du Desert too as well as the visit to SOS Children Village in Mopti
