Mali 2001

The 7th day of my journey brought me from Mopti to the Dogon Country along the Falaise de Bandiagara. Following my guide Youssauf I planned a 7 days long trip through this unique landscape. The first 5 days three Germans from Dresden joined us (or I joined them). Soon we arrived at Djiguibombo, the starting village of our tour. The Dogon is the biggest tourist attraction in Mali, which could be seen on the fact, that the children here welcome all tourists with a "Ca va le bonbon". After dinner we went on to Kani Kombolé. It was gigantic to see, how this Falaise de Bandiagara deviding the country suddenly. Through a fantastic landscape we found a way down the Falaise and found a place in the village to stay the night on the rooftop of a house. Because it was new moon we enjoyed an unimaginable starry sky. I have never seen something like this before. The milkey way was as near that you think you could touch it and douzends of shooting stars could be seen within an hour.

Through Teli we moved on to Endé, the home village of our guide. Because the national holiday of Mali was the following day we let us persuaded to rest here for a day to watch the celebrations in our guide´s home village. But it was just allowed for us to follow a part of the ceremony with a lot of dancing. The next morning we heard that a young girl died during the night. As we heard kids crying during the night we had the suspicion in she died during one of these clipping ceremonies which are still popular, even with girls, in Mali.

The next day Youssauf asked us to stay another day in Endé but, of course, we decided to move on. So we went to Yaba Talu and then to Begnimato.

When we reached Dourou the following day it was time to say good bye to to the three fellows of Dresden and my guide and me walked on ourselves. And I shouldn´t regret. The landscape between Dourou and Nombori was the most spectacular on our tour. At night we reached Tireli. Youssauf was absolutely tired as we were walking about 25 km today to get the time back we lost at Endé. Youssauf hisself didn´t walk more than 7 km with us each day.

The following day was the last one in the Dogon Country which brought us from Tireli to Amani and Ireli to Banani. The next day we left the Dogon country crossing Sangha and Bandiagara back to Mopti. A fantastic tour was over. Back in Mopti I decided to rest here for a day before moving on to Timbuktu.