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Boating up the river


Destinations > Africa > Mali > Niger River > Travel Blog: Nathan & Anna's big adven ... > Boating up the river


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Nathan & Anna's big adventure! Around the world twice for travel, service, and mission -- 2005-6.

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Boating up the river

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Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005  14:15

Entry 22 of 103 | show all | print this entry
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Miles Travelled: 17550

We're on a pinasse, an oversized canoe with an outboard motor, chugging slowly down the Niger River toward Timbuktu. The journey is quite peaceful, though the pinasse is quite long and narrow and has an uncomfortable tendency to roll quite a bit. The mantra during the trip is "Respect the Balance!" When one person moves toward the side, someone else has to move opposite to maintain stability. It's also interesting that of our crew of four, there's one person dedicated to bailing out water with what looks like an old juice container. Hmmm... doesn't exactly inspire confidence in its seaworthiness. Fortunately, most of the journey is not too far from shore.

We have a cook on board who prepares meals for us, and we're bush camping wherever we happen to be when the sun sets.

The Niger is the 3rd largest river in Africa, and in most places it seems considerably wider than the Nile we were on just a few weeks ago. It makes a sweeping arc from its source in Guinea-Bissau to its delta in Nigeria.In such an arid country, the river brings an amazing amount of green, from trees along the shore to reeds and wetlands. The river widens out to almost an inland delta, with many channels, lagoons, and marshes. There are also lots of birds, including kingfishers, fish eagles, and egrets.




Latest Comments (1)

Bush Camping (reply)
Nov 21, 2005 09:30 EST by randstaylor 

It sounds like there have been a lot of open spaces where you have been travelling -- to be able to bush camp like that.


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Djenne
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Timbuktu

 
Table of Contents
1 - 20 | 21 - 40 | 41 - 60 | 61 - 80 | 81 - 100 | 101 - 103
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21.Djenne - Djenne, Mali Nov 14, 2005 ( This entry has 4 photos 4 ) ( Comments 1 )
22.Boating up the river - Niger River, Mali Nov 16, 2005 ( This entry has 2 photos 2 ) ( Comments 1 )
23.Timbuktu - Timbuktu, Mali Nov 18, 2005 ( This entry has 3 photos 3 ) ( Comments 2 )
24.Back from Timbuktu - Sevare, Mali Nov 20, 2005 ( This entry has 2 photos 2 ) ( Comments 1 )
25.Bobo - Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso Nov 22, 2005 ( This entry has 9 photos 9 ) ( Comments 4 )
26.Ouaga - Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Nov 24, 2005 ( This entry has 5 photos 5 )
27.Mole National Park - Larabanga, Ghana Nov 27, 2005 ( This entry has 7 photos 7 ) ( Comments 2 )
28.Ashanti capital - Kumasi, Ghana Nov 29, 2005 ( This entry has 10 photos 10 ) ( Comments 1 )
29.The Beach! - Brenu, Ghana Dec 01, 2005 ( This entry has 6 photos 6 ) ( Comments 2 )
30.Accra - Accra, Ghana Dec 04, 2005 ( This entry has 4 photos 4 )
31.The City of Gold - Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dec 08, 2005 ( This entry has 21 photos 21 ) ( Comments 1 )
32.Old and New - Delhi, India Dec 11, 2005 ( This entry has 7 photos 7 )
33.Haveli-land - Mandawa, India Dec 13, 2005 ( This entry has 5 photos 5 )
34.The Pink City - Jaipur, India Dec 15, 2005 ( This entry has 10 photos 10 )
35.Tracking Tigers - Ranthambore, India Dec 16, 2005 ( This entry has 6 photos 6 ) ( Comments 1 )
36.Off the tourist track - Karauli, India Dec 18, 2005 ( This entry has 12 photos 12 )
37.The Taj! - Agra, India Dec 20, 2005 ( This entry has 5 photos 5 )
38.The Holy Ganges - Varanasi, India Dec 22, 2005 ( This entry has 9 photos 9 )
39.Merry Christmas! - Delhi, India Dec 26, 2005 ( This entry has 2 photos 2 )
40.We're Home! - Palo Alto, United States Dec 26, 2005 ( This entry has 3 photos 3 )

T minus 2 and counting | Is this Europe?show all entries
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1 - 20 | 21 - 40 | 41 - 60 | 61 - 80 | 81 - 100 | 101 - 103

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