Day 39 - Mali, Timbuktu - Amber's 28th Birthday
Trip Start
Nov 09, 2008
1
31
163
Trip End
Jul 02, 2009
Timbuktu,
Mali
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Little sleep was had last night with people moving on deck and the sound of bumps in the night emanating from the French man's tent. Poor Murray was awoken by the sound of a 4 year old pissing in a potty next to his head and when he turned to see what the noise was, seeing the mother wipe her clean with her hand. Not the best start to the day.
It only got worse for Murray and Luke, the usual suspects, cause we pulled into Timbuktu harbor early... actually 4 hours earlier than expected. Murray was pleading for another 10 minutes whilst we were already on shore.
Amber meanwhile was awoken with balloons and birthday streamers hung up around the boat. All good until the balloons were tied to her backpack and handed to me to carry.
Opting not to lug grass mats around with us they were either donated to those on board or various sellers at the port who thanked us profusely. Our journey into Timbuktu was a pre cursor for the fun over the next two days. All crammed into two vehicles, ours hot wired and push started by an 8 year old mechanic. No lie. While Amber and Luke sat shotgun in the other secured in by a piece of rope holding the door in place "the African way". To top things off we nearly careened through a market even before leaving the dock area for the 7km drive to Timbuktu centre through endless streets of sand and along the one tarred road.
Our accommodation was on the edge of town so hence on the edge of the Sahara too. Conveniently located across the road from Bar Amanar, the venue Amber had chose through Lonely Planet for her birthday dinner. By 9.30am we had sorted our Dogon Trek, camel ride to the Touregs and 4x4 back tomorrow, all through a local called Ali Baba, leaving us free to explore Timbuktu.
To this end, there is very little to do in this sand blown outpost, except send a postcard and get a Timbuktu stamp in your passport, which we did dutifully all before lunch... except Amber who had to send about a million postcards so busily wrote throughout the day.
Lunch was an exercise of patience. I think Sam put it best "I sat down, ordered potato chips, an hour and a half later I got served luke warm parsnips. Nice." Nibbling at a parsnip Amber chose to go hungry asking me to remind her of this day should she ever complain of a birthday lunch in the future.
Leaving lunch and going in search of something edible around town we strolled past the Mosque to see a bunch of boys running up its crumbling wall pulling more of it down with them. As it's all made of mud it requires constant upkeeping... so much so that everything has to be remud(?) every year.
At 16:00 a group of us went on our camel ride to meet the Touregs, nomadic peoples who trade salt all over the Sahara, also famous for their jewellery. Instead we got taken for a ride by a group of charlatans.
As soon as we boarded the camels the pressure was on to buy from them, more so for Lindsay who was having trouble staying on the camel, holding on for dear life. Let alone listening to some salesman spiel about their jewellery and relation to their family.
Once at the Toureg "camp", two grass huts near a well, (not the camp of Toureg families living and trading together all over the Sahara) and following a shot of tea with 12 sugars, we were all separated from each other. Each man leading a camel picked out his passenger, took them away a few metres, then open his bag of tricks and sell sell sell... each piece of jewellery I make has a story... this represents the sand dunes and stars... this necklace is Toureg passport and so it went. Then once back from the ride, demanded a tip. I didn't pay, especially after being ripped 10,000CFA for a Toureg passport pendant.
Amber's birthday celebrations kicked off around 19:30, at Bar Amanar, with a great meal first, chicken kebabs, steaks, all sorts and 3 Tequila shots in a row for Amber. This was quickly followed by a karaoke session (as you do on the edge of the Sahara) with locals watching and such numbers being performed as Yellow Submarine, Puff the Magic Dragon, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, YMCA in honour of missing Barsby and finished off with New York New York. The boys beating the girls with a score of 99!! Go lads. (Amber - I would like to add that it couldn't really be classified as singing... screaming would be a better word).
All in all a fabulous night and a birthday definitely to remember.
