Trip to Tomboctou,Desert,Camel Riding, Timbuktu!
Trip Start
Oct 03, 2005
1
51
57
Trip End
Feb 28, 2006
Timbuktu/Tomboctou, Mali
Monday, January 16, 2006
Quite a long trip - they told me to be on the boat by 1, and I was - of course, that it when the cargo loaders woke up, and we ended up leaving at 7. As the Lonely Planet puts it - Africargh!
Finally ended up leaving, and then got stuck in the sand twice that night, and people had to get off onto the pinasse(a little backup boat that was rowed) so other people could push the boat off - this is partially because the water is low, and partially because the boat was very very heavily loaded with cargo. Stopped for the night later.
The next day it was movement all the way - the views were beautiful. The river is very wide, and for the most part is fringed with scrub and desert, and it's mesmerizing just seeing the sun as you go by. The boat itself wasn't that great - we were on mats in the front in the "luxury section"(a bit more space for yourself), and to go to the toilet, you had to climb over onto the gangway on the side, walk along while clutching to the boat(and the bloody thing was slanted towards to water), get over/throught a jet of water from the engine(and avoid guys bailing water off the side of the lower deck - I got drenched a couple of times, and then at the end of the 30 meters(I think) you moved in to the toilet, which was a plank with a hole over the water and the back of the boat. It was sloping, so squatting was not fun at all since you kept on slipping forward! Gideon, one of the other backpackers, came up with a good observation on the last night - he said that if the plank broke and he fell into the water, nobody would notice until a very long time after - a bit of a scary thought.
A couple of nights I couldn't sleep, and stayed up and looked at the moon - it looks twice as big above the desert - it's also full right now, and seems to even pull your eyes towards it a bit here(and yes, I know I'm hairy, but I'm not a werewolf!).
We also saw some tourist pinasses pass by - lot less crowded and more expensive, but I prefer sometimes I guess to travel like most of the people do - plus it was a lot cheaper(even though us with "white skins" had to pay 5 times as much as the locals).
Malians are very hospitable and generally quite honest, it seems - I did get somebody stealing my bananas on the 2nd day, or they got lost, but I was saved by the other backpackers. They're also always ready to smile, even though they people's living conditions here are not great. In some ways the people here remind me of Laotian in that a lot of them are quite easygoing. They'll also always be offering you food and asking you to share their meals(which I can't do since they mainly eat meat).
On the last afternoon there were a lot of stops to offload cargo and people, etc; - we got off at one "large town" and bought a few things to eat - the only negative thing here was being followed by 10 kids all around town and being asked for "cadeaux" the whole time - I've never seen a backpacker give out a cadeau - I don't understand the perception, really, that the kids have that we walk around with things to give away. Oh well...
The boat shower was great too - there wasn't any! It was basically a hole in the hull where people would go and wash - back to basics.
Finally got in to Kourioume at about 8 am, and got a car to Tomboctou - checked in to a hotel, showered(finally), and set out finding what to do - got to the tourist office, where I got my Timbuktu stamp in my passport(happy days, and yes, I know it's slightly lame), and decided to arrange another touristy thing - going into the desert on a camel and staying in a Tuareg village for a night. Went back to my hotel, got my bags, came over, and then went to this Tuareg fellow's place for lunch.
The Tuaregs look very west-subcontinent - quite Arabic in a way, but I feel that they look more Indian than most Arabs. They are generally a group of herders and salt caravan leaders in the desert areas of Mali, Algeria, and Libya. They had a large uprising against the Malian government several years ago, and lots of tourists were killed, but there is now peace after UN mediation. At first they seem nomadic but they're not really - their villages are small gatherings of houses in the middle of nowhere in the desert, it seems, and a village itself can spread out for 3 kilometers. They have some rigid things according to age - if I remember right, you have to get married when you are 20, and when you are 22, as what I guess is a rite of passage, you have to lead a salt caravan from Taoudenni, a salt mining town which is a ways north, to Timbuktu, keeping with their trading and transport tradition I guess(which has been a part of them for ages).
The camel ride itself was interesting - a tad uncomfortable, and for some strange reason my camel did not have a ring in its nose - the rope went right through a hole in it! The poor thing was bleeding. On the way back they gave us the reins - camels can be quite stubborn, and being on them when they stand up and sit down is fun like it was 12 years ago for me! They are easier to ride than horses in my opinion. The desert is beautiful, even though there was quite a bit of scrub - you have to go out for a few days to get to the really big dunes, and my guide was trying to persuade me to, but I'll probably have to save it for my next desert trip(hopefully Libya and Morocco).
My guide did ask me if I minded going in a group - I didn't, so I was grouped with 4 Americans who had gone to the festival au desert. Generally quite nice people. At night, after dinner, we sat and had tea - the Tuaregs have an interesting way of serving tea - the pouring into the cups, which are like shot glasses, is generally done from at least 30 centimetres(12 inches) above the glass, and you get 3 servings, the first very bitter, the last very sweet, and the 2nd in between - what Natalie, one of the Americans who has been to Niger and a lot of Tuareg villages told me is that someone told her the first one is supposed to be tough like death, the 2nd good like life, and the 3rd sweet like love.
Slept in the guide's tent last night, and was told some mpre about the rebellion, etc., and was given a salad. Was also persuaded to trade my jacket for some Tuareg clothes - I've already been wearing the turban, so am becoming a 100 percent tourist!
Before I forget - Timbuktu is full of sand, which is very hard to forget, to be honest - it's everywhere. The sand is very soft, so walking takes some effort - it's also in everything you eat, especially the bread and rice - you'll be munching dinner, and you'll be feeling 'crunch,crunch' the whole time in your mouth. Everywhere!
Anyways - I'm off to explore Timbuktu for a day then tomorrow I go back to Mopti. Au revoir!
