The Trans - Off the Beaten Path

So - I've been a few days in Bamako. Its been interesting. Its a rather dirty city. But I bought another  African dress thing - so that's a bonus.

Let me think - I believe the last thing I wrote about was New Years...but not much has happened since then. We arrived in Bamako and the campsite was super dreary after all the nice wild camps we had. Its just across the bridge from the main city (which is nice because its close) but that also means its noisy and its super crowded because this is where all the overland trucks stop! So there are a massive number of people here and the tents are all crowded on a piece of dirt. I was so depressed I immediately wanted to run away. But luckily they had 2 rooms available so I was able to snag one of those. Way better than sleeping in a dirt patch next to a bunch of people - most of whom I don't like!!!

So the first night was pretty chilled. They have a decent restaurant and bar on-site so I had a great meal with bacon (yum) and that's about all I remember. The next day (must've been Tuesday) I went into town with a couple people. We are basically stopping here to get visas - so most people were busy going to the Nigerian embassy. But the market was super bustling and its really really polluted here and people and cars and motorcycles everywhere. It was a bitch to walk to the market! Once inside we had a wander and jenny wanted to get a skirt made so really we spent about 2+ hours at the fabric and tailor place. But I had enough time to sneak out and buy myself and outfit :)

Then we came back and had dinner and went drinking. Now that we are out of the super conservative countries there are actually bars again. So we went around the corner to the big bar / restaurant type place and then one of the local guides for one of the other companies joined us and took us to the bar street. I promised Kaye I would write nice things about her on here so when she gets to read this after I finish it won't be too mean - so she and Kris are fun to hang out with. And Judith was with us - and she's fun enough when she stops talking...so we had quite a few drinks and overall - I remember it being really good fun. I was ready to do that for the next like 5 days here waiting for everyone to get the visas. But that's all changed now...There are some really beautiful places in Mali - up north of here. But apparently there are some danger zones because there are some terrorist cells and a recent kidnapping in Timbuctu (sp?). So the truck isn't allowed to go to those places. But a bunch of people were deciding to go there anyways. Basically its the group of the most disgruntled passengers (including Geoff and Eti). I wasn't going to go because I didn't want to go in such a big group, but Geoff and Eti decided to leave ahead of everyone else and the others have to wait to get their Nigerian visas. So this morning I hadn't fully decided to go but I bought a bus ticket. And this evening it sounds like its pretty possible to catch the truck up in Burkina Faso (the next country). They said they won't wait for us - but I bet they will because its only one extra day. I hope they do because otherwise I don't think we'll be able to catch up until like the end of the trip. Anyways - so bright and early tomorrow morning I'm off to the Dogon Country. We'll get on a bus at 7am and drive like 8 hours to Djennie (ugh) and sight-see there (there is a huge mosque and stuff) and then have another like 4 hour bus journey to the next city and start a 3 day trek through the villages. It should be really amazing. I'm excited to go and it will be nice to see everything and finally jump in and do something besides just sit on the truck and watch the world go by out the window. But I really hope we can catch up with the truck. And I really hope it isn't too hot...trekking in the heat isn't much fun. But we'll have porters for our stuff and it will be amazing to see!!!  So - I'll be off the map for like 8 days probably. There will actually probably be internet in the city we start in...but I don't know. I'll do my best to update my blog and for sure next time I should have some cool pictures because I'll actually have seen something!!

Otherwise - today we also took a taxi up to Point G - which is the viewpoint over the city. It was a bit of a struggle finding the viewpoint and then finding the way down the hill again. I think we took the long (ie. wrong) route so it took ages in the sweltering heat - I was a bit grumpy once we finally reached the National Museum that I had to just sit in the cafe and have a sandwich first. But then I was slightly better and able to wander around the exhibits. There was a special photo exhibition on too - with lots of different pictures that mostly seemed to focus on climate change and pollution in Africa. Interesting. But I was super happy to get back to the campsite and have a nap!!

So that's what I've seen of Bamako. Now I'm off on a true adventure. Keep your fingers crossed I don't get kidnapped and that I make it to Burkina Faso to meet up with everyone. And keep your fingers crossed that the truck doesn't get their visas on Friday and stay in Bamako until Tuesday, because then we'll meet the truck for sure!!! So - I need to sleep now because tomorrow is going to be a long long long day!!!!