We didn´t even know where we were heading to, close to nightfall, when we met a military guy. He said to us he will lead us to a security post. I was not sure if we could trust this guy. He seemed to be friendly but on the other hand we didn´t see another soul and he was carrying an AK47 automatic rifle. Shawn had the same doubts. We were following him back passing a village and he still went on. After a while Shawn was honking and telling me he won´t go any further. I said to him. The guy said the village is after the next hill and I said when I cannot spot a village I turn the car round and floor it. Even when we were very low on fuel. But I did not trust this guy at all. There was a village after the next hill and there was a security post where we could park the cars and stay over night. All of us were turning into chain smokers during the day, but I have to admit, none of us was freaking out and even in situation where we felt totally lost we were acting as team. We figured out the whole day driving brought us just 60km more south. We did 140km but running round in circles most of the time. It turned out the guy was very friendly but had as well an eye on Lena. Later we found out we were only 5km from the next village and only a little bit more than 1 hour from Aourou. We could have made easily the last km. So we asked ourselfes why did this guy lead us 25 km back instead of telling us to go ahead to the next police post?He was a Tuareg and he was telling us as well how the Al Quaida is destroying the lifes of the Tuareg. He even said people are getting mixed up and think Tuareg and Al Quaida are the same people which for sure they aren´t. We needed fuel, so the next morning we were led into the village where we got some fuel out of cans for 1,25€ a liter but at this stage we didn´t care. We were once again the attraction of the village and everybody was watching us while we were waiting for the fuel. With the cars filled up and pointed in the right direction it didn´t take us long before we were on the right road. After being lost for days it feels very good to know where we were heading. Just before Aourou we spoted the first car since almost two days. We stopped in Aourou to get our stamp for Mali. Funny, we were leaving Mauretania on the 9th. and entering Mali on the11th. So two days we were practicly not existant. Finally we hit Kayes and some paved roads.
We asked our way through and found at the end a lodge where we could sleep in the car. Lena took a room. I reckon after all the nerve recking across country driving she needed a nice bed to sleep in. The first thing we did before we even took a shower was going for beer. Close to the place was a night bar and a casino where they sold ice cold beer. This was one of the best beer I ever had. At the first night somebody tried to brake into Shawn van. Luckily he spoted it and he started a riot. The guard who for sure was asleep turned up and said the typical „no problem“ but Shawn was not very easy to cool down. The next morning the world looked different. We had some paper work to do. We spent the day to find insurance for the car and we had to find customs for a „Laissez passé“. This is the document which allows you to bring the car into the country. We went by foot and did at least 6-8km until we found the place. The way back we took aTaxi. I am still surprised we made it. This was the biggest wreck I was ever sitting in, but for local circumstances it seems to be absolutly normal. The afternoon we used to do some shopping. We went to the big market to buy vegetables and fruits. The market is amazing. So colourful and still even when there is no space at all cars and bikes are passing through the market all the time. The prices for food in Mali seemed to be even more expensive than in Mauretania. The only local fruits are bananas. In some supermarkets they sold some apples and oranges but they were totally overcharged. On the market the same. They see a white person and all you are is a milking cow. Always ask for the price in advance and never accept the first offer. We met this guy to buy green pepper. He wanted 1500 a kilo than when I said no 1000 a kilo. Than we went on to the next green pepper 10meters further where they charged us 500. Mali is a part of the CFA countries. As I found out there are not less than 13 countries using the same currency. The exchange-rate is 1€ = 650CFA. Fuel is 600CFA which means 10cents more expensive than Mauretania. We thought we could stay here a couple of days to reload everything. One afternoon we met a french woman, she told us about a project close to Kayes next to the river. We were thinking of maybe going there to have a look.After four days we were relaxed enough and took off. We had to say good-bye to Shawn who was staying another day and than heading for Burkina Faso and Ghana.
He had not much of a choice. In Burkina as well as in Mali and Mauretania Mastercards are not accepted. ATM´s only take Visa. The fact he only had Mastercard and not much money left made the choice easy for him. We had a great time with him and we hope to meet him again. We left the morning of the 15th. We were heading towards les Chutes de Gouina. They are only 8okm off Kayes. The road is a large dirt track passing through Lontou and Diamou. After Diamou the track went into a donkey trail, but no problem for a 4x4.The rest of the day we took it easy. According to my mape Kayes is one of the hottest cities in
Africa. In the afternoon we had already 37-38°C. We met one guy and he said before the rain season Kayes is hell. I can imagine, already now the dust, the polution and the heat doesn´t make it easy to breeth. In the evening some of the french guys from Gouina turned up. They wanted to sell a van in Kayes and when they are not succesful they might go to Bamako for the selling it. After one week of absolut silence we both had a terrible night. The noise level was just very high especially the train station which was near-by. Anyway, we started early to get to Bamako. It was a 620km drive and we hoped we could do it in one day. The road to Bamako was a toll road, what a choke, I asked myself what for we were paying money for. Maybe for all the holes in the road. The first 100km were very bad. Some good parts in between but the holes were a nightmare. Sometimes there were too many to avoid them. The landscape was not changing very much. To be honest it was not the best day to do a long drive. Lena was dozing most of the time and I was just tired after this sleepless night. We didn´t make it into Bamako. It was getting dark before we reached the city limits and driving by night was not very funny. The road was pitch dark and .so were the vehicles. Donkeys, scooters , cars and people and now and than a big truck who took the whole road and I never knew if I am going to hit something or someone. We spotted a very modern fuel station in Kati which lays 10km outside Bamako. We asked the guy if we could spent the night, and like always when they smell a little bit of buisness it was no problem. This night was not much better than the one before. We wanted to sleep inside the car, but the car was so hot from all the driving and than the mosquitos; impossible. In the middle of the night I put the tent up and found at least some hours of sleep. The next
morning the guy was asking for a cadeaux and we gave him a pair socks which we had still left
over from our shopping in Agadir. We thought we could fill at the station before we head into
Bamako. Always take attention when you fill up the tank. In the middle of the filling he said the
pump was blocked and he started again and wrote the amount of money down. Luckily I always
watched the filling process. At the end he wanted to rip me off. He wanted to charge 7000CFA more but I knew the amount and I told him to get lost. Next stop Bamako. Bamako is something different. It is huge, it is chaos. By accident we stopped in front of a youth hostel. We went inside to have a look. Some guys turned up and wanted to charge us 10000CFA per night but at the end we asked at the reception, there definetly was one, and we were charged 1500CFA per person. What we learned so far, the guys turning up as soon as you stop the car are usually the ones who want to rip you off. A so called guide hooked up to us and we were too lazy to hunt im off. So we had this guide around us the whole day. Anyway when ever a so called guide is turning up always ask for a guide card. If it is a real one they have to have one. Ok, he was showing us the botanic garden and the mosque but hey, we would have found these places ourselfs. But it was so hard to get rid of them. In the evening we met Rose, she was an americain citizen and hitch hicking since two years trough Europe and now Africa.
The next day we went to the embassy of Burkina Faso together. Our super guide turned up as well and even I told him there is no buisness today he walked with us. After we were asking our way through and ignoring him the whole time he got upset and left, finally. Don´t get me wrong. We had nothing against this guy personally. We just wanted to explore the city ourselfes. It was quite a long walk to the embassy and trying to get money I learned my banc card was blocked. Funny, Lena couldn´t get any money with her Mastercard and mine was not working anymore. To get the Visa was quite simple, we could pick it up a few ours later. But they charged serious money. 47000CFA. This is 5times the amount of what Mali charged. Ok, I have to admit it was for three month, but anyway, if you just want to drive through the country towards Ghana, Togo or Benin you need to buy one for three month as well. The walk in the afternoon was hell. The heat and the polution. The polution is unimaginable. It is not only the cars who are not really in very good condition it is the cooking. 80% of the Malien people are cooking on wood or on coal and especially in the morning and in the evening when everybody started to cook it was sometimes hard to get any oxygen. After three days in Bamako I had a total sour throat. One afternoon we went into town with Rose. She was this sort of person who gets in contact with everybody very easy. When we first met her she had this guy hanging around with her whom she called my bodygard. His real name was Niaré. Anyway after a long walk through the city and it´s amazing markets we went to the place where Niaré was living. The walk to his house took us quite a while. We left the paved roads.
The polution was so massiv, I had to think about these little kids and was wondering if there is any oxygen left so close to the ground. When we arrived at Niaré´s house he was not present but some of his brothers and cousins were around. He showed up after a while and invited us for tea and all sorts of snacks like fries from sweet potatoes and manjok. The tea ceremony is a part of their life style. It takes hours, but time is what they have. We were hanging lose for a couple of hours. One of his brothers spoke quite good french. Most of the people in Mali speak some french, but it is mostly just the basics. Rose was into learning the local language which is Bambara. After a good hang-out Niaré was walking us back to the lodge. Bamako had many faces. The transport was one of it. Sure they had taxis but they wereexpensive. More interesting are the green vans they had. It was mostly old Mercedes 207 and old Toyota vans. They never had any windows. The side door was mostly taken off. The only thing inside were some wooden benches they had bolted on the floor. There was always a guy sitting next to the not existing door and shouting out loud where they were heading. Some of them are in such a bad condition. Light usually didn´t exist. Crunching and sqeaking noises were totally normal and the exhaust fumes were sometimes beyond imagination. Once we took a ride with them and somehow they were quite well organized. For us it just looked like a total chaos. The second transport are the yellow taxis who pick up anybody and anything. These were mostly old Peugeot 504 and even the old Peugeot 404 pick-ups. Some of them got so many dents it was really hard to tell the brand of the car. You remember the Peugeot 206 adverb in India? That´s how some of the cars looked. Finally they had the overland coaches. When they did not have space in the inside they put everything on the roof. We saw massiv boxes, people, bikes and even goats fixed to the roof. These coaches are the ones you should take care about. They blasted as fast as they could over the countryroads.
And than these guys sitting on the roof....! And the markets. I reckon what ever you need you´ll find it on one of the markets. The best was the meat market. Imagine a big building without doors or windows. The meat was just hanging or laying there without cooling. The first time I made the mistake not to hold my breath. The hole thing smells like a long time dead body. And the billions of flies. The same with the fish. Sometimes we couldn´t see the fish cause it was covered in black by flies. On the other hand they sold good and tasty vegetables. And when we felt hungry we were buying something fried or a sort of soup on the market which cost us sometimes less than 15cents. It sounds bad, but after three days we had to leave. We had the possibility to just leave but all the others who had to stay there to make out their living. How old are they growing. There were not many people in my age around. I reckon most of them die before. We thought about it, where would you start to make the city a little bit cleaner. Telling them not to cook anymore on wood or coal? Even on the markets they were cooking on coal. Or tell them not to use their cars when they are not in good condition. These people make their living with for example by selling wood or coal, making tea, cooking some food and it is the same with the transport. If the cars are somehow moving they are just used to make a little bit of money. If they don´t have money to buy a car they use donkeys. The smog in Bamako was so dense we couldn´t sometimes look any further than maybe 500yards. The morning of the fourth day we left. We asked Rose and she came with usto Segou.
The drive to Segou was not very interesting. Still the same landscape. Once we stopped for lunch. We arrived at Segou and asked for as place to stay. All of them were to far outside. We wanted to stay in walking distance to the festval. Finally we stopped in the city-center and met two guy who were leading us to a good spot where we had shade. We arrived 5 days before the festival started.Did I mention the festival in Segou. It seemed to be one of the largest in West-Africa. Only the entrance was totally over priced. I mean any music festival in Europe is not more expensive than maybe 60€ with the possibility to camp etc. Here they charged 100€ without any facilities. We spoke to some people and this year it looked like there were not many people arriving. On Wednesday the second day of the festival we spotted maybe 50 Europeans. I felt sorry for all the guys trying to make buisness. There was just no work for nobody. And when a white person was turning up everybody was jumping on them trying to sell something. Some of the guides from Mopti (Dogonland) and Tombouctou are completly out of work. The tourists were just too scared to spent time in these regions. And the french airline „Point Africe „ skipt Mali and Mauretania as destinations. Apart of the festival Segou was a friendly city with more or less 100000 habitants. They seriously kept telling us that at the moment there is a cold wave. People are walking around here with ear warmers, you know one of these fur thingies. I have to admit the temperature went down a little bit but hey we are still talking about 23°C in the morning and 32°C in the afternoon.What we did was walking the city at day time to get food and water and at night time the festival was on. The only problem was we didn´t want to spent 100€ for the ticket so the only day to visit the big stage was on Wednesday when they didn´t charge for it. We left on Thursday, the festival was still on but Rose´visa was running out and wedecided to leave together.
We would have loved to go to Tombouctou but we were not sure if it is save to go there. So instead we went to Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso. We stopped once at theside of road for lunch. The border facilities on the Mali side were very simple. The guy was totally friendly,he almost made us going back to Mali. Yes, bye-bye Mali, see you soon.
The link underneeth will lead you to picassa photostream.
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