Boating up the river

Miles Travelled: 17550

01 pinasse

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.

02 sailing pinasse

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.