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Archive for March, 2007

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An actual real forest in West Africa

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

Greenery rocks. Especially if you haven’t seen any lately, and even more so if you didn’t even know you were about to see it…

We rented bicycles this morning to ride to a swimming river about 18km outside Bobo. What we didn’t know was that the river is contained within a beautiful lush green canopy forest, an amazing sight if you have a) spent the last five weeks in the Sahel, or b) recently spent more than a year living in Qatar, or especially c) have done both a) and b).

Our little swim was nice but the forest was what made my day. You really learn to appreciate this kind of landscape after travelling for a while in the brown dust of Mali – it honestly felt more like Central America or Indonesia than West Africa. Plus I guess it’s autumn here even though it should be spring – the leaves were falling off the trees which made it even nicer.

We’re now killing time while waiting for the 4pm bus to Banfora, which is also within Burkina Faso’s ‘green belt’. There is a waterfall (with more swimming) 15km outside Banfora so we might get bikes again to visit it, plus a lake with hippos nearby.

By early next week we’ll be in the capital Ouagadougou (Wagga-Do-Goo), and surely I’ll be able to upload photos of Mali and Burkina Faso then…???

Posted in Africa, Burkina Faso, Travel, West Africa | 1 Comment »

A village mask festival

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Mali was a pretty tough experience for us, more than we’d expected. Though it’s a very poor country, it’s also seen as the ‘jewel’ in West Africa’s crown for tourism, so I thought there would be more facilities for travellers. But the transport was extremely difficult and it was hard to find internet cafes at reasonable prices or buy basic items. Burkina Faso is one rung lower than Mali on the UN human development index that I mentioned a couple of posts ago (making it the world’s third poorest country), but so far it seems like it will be a much easier place to travel in. From what we’ve heard from other travellers, transport is frequent and leaves on time (!), roads are good and there is less hassle. Internet access here in Bobo is one-fifth of the price of most places in Mali, so that’s a good start.

Yesterday was our first day in Burkina Faso and we were lucky to be able to catch a mask festival. The ‘season’ for mask festivals is just starting, which is great as I like masks and have become a collector in West Africa, having bought five so far. Yesterday was the final day of a three-day festival in a tiny village called Pala, near the city of Bobo, where we’re staying. In an open space in the village, a series of masked dancers perform a small routine in turn, with the crowd looking on from the edge of the square or, more often, from the rooftops of nearby buildings. It was hard to get a good vantage point but we managed to find an OK spot among the locals. There was a group of 12 or so tourists on a 4WD tour but other than that we were the only foreigners among a few hundred Africans. Some of the performers were wearing bird-like masks and all of them were covered from head to toe in a shaggy outfit – again, the photos will show it better but I haven’t found a good place to upload them yet.

Overall I thought the mask festival was really cool and maybe the best thing about West Africa so far. Wendy prefers Dogon Country and it’s hard to argue as that was an enjoyable four-day trip and the festival lasted only for about an hour. But still, Burkina Faso is off to a good start. It’s still hot, but tomorrow we’re hoping to cycle to a swimming lake that is supposed to be quite pretty, so we’re looking forward to that. We’re also pretty sure we’ll see elephants soon, either here or soon after we arrive in Ghana, which should be great.

A long overdue uploading of photos will hopefully come when we get to the Burkina Faso capital in about a week.

Posted in Africa, Burkina Faso, Travel, West Africa | 1 Comment »

Slow boat up the Niger

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

One more Mali ‘catch-up’ post before getting to Burkina Faso and more recent events…

After leaving Dogon Country, we took a public motor boat up the Niger River to Timbuktu. Because it’s the dry season, the river levels are ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Africa, Mali, Travel, West Africa | 1 Comment »

Dogon Country

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Dogon Country has probably been the highlight of West Africa so far. We met a bunch of cool travellers in Djenne and were lucky enough to bump into most of them again in Bandiagarra for our three-night trek into ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Africa, Mali, Travel, West Africa | Comments Off on Dogon Country

Djenne – a mosque and a market

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Well, it's been so long since I wrote an entry that I hardly know where to start. Internet access is both expensive and elusive in Mali so I haven't had a chance to update the blog.

After leaving Bamako ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Africa, Mali, Travel, West Africa | 1 Comment »

The worst bus ride ever

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

Oh, absolutely. Worse than the 12-hour 'shlerk' bus from Risanni to Marrakesh in 2001; worse than the numerous 15-hour cramp buses in south Sumatra in 2003; worse than the 17-hour mountain ride up the Karakoram Highway in 2004; and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Africa, Mali, Senegal, Travel, West Africa | Comments Off on The worst bus ride ever