Mali 2001

My last stop before returning was Segou. Segou is a typical French colonial styled town. Wide mainroads and old colonial buildings. My hotel was the Grand Hotel France, one of these colonial buildings were Charles de Gaulle was rested when he visited Mali. Well, unforunaly there was nothing renewed or repared since Charles de Gaulle has been here, but I realy don´t care about this after nearly 4 weeks in Africa.

The rest of the story is quickly told. I relaxed my last holiday in Segou before I returned to Bamako airport. After spending a whole day at Bamako airport they told me that my flight back to Europe was cancelled and I have to take the plane the following day. But Air Afrique paid for a 4- star hotel in Bamako as well as in Paris because I had to stay there for another night as well to get a connection to Germany. When I arrived at the 4- star hotel in Paris I felt like being in a foreign world because of the luxury which I didn´t know to estimate after one month in Mali. I was happy when I returned to Germany. The most impressive journey of my liftime was over. I want to finnish this diary with some words I read the last few days. Somebody asked about a good answer to the question, why he is spending his holidays in Africa. The answer is as good as simple: "For people who know, there is no explination necessary, for people who don´t know there is no explination possible." These words bring it to the point: You have to go there understand why this continent is that fascinating.

(pics can be seen at www.lilien98.de)