Highlights , Bamako , Tominian , Sevare , Bandiagara , Dogon country , Mopti , Timbuktu , Gao , Djenne , Bordercrossing to Burkina Faso , Additional information.
It´s hard to walk around here without one, two or more so-called guides glued to your feet knowing better than you what to buy, what you need and where you have to go.
Most of the given information by locals where wrong or they lie to have some business with you. So look around how things are working and you will know how you have to act and talk to other foreigners. The locals made some trouble but failed when we were telling prices to other foreigners.
You will experience the things mentioned above especially on touristy places. Away from the beaten track you will find friendly, helpful and reserved people. Its a pleasure to visit their villages, see their live style and make fiends with them.
In Mali you have to pay a lot of money for less value, comfort and service.
Highlights
- Traveling with the train from or to Dakar is nice especially when you have
a first class sleeper.
- To hike in Dogon country is worth the money you should
spend for a guide.
- There is not much to discover and the journey can get quite hard but the spirit
of Timbuktu is worth a visit.
- What's a pleasure after the trip to Timbuktu to take the big boat to Gao.
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Bamako To get a minibus to the bus-terminal is quite difficult: When leaving the railway
station turn left till you see a taxi rank and turn right. Pass by the taxies
and follow the road. After 500 meters at the second cross road on the left-hand
side stops the minibuses going to the bus-terminal for 200 CFA.
Bittar Bus Company leaves 5 times a day to San for 5.000 plus 500 CFA per piece
of luggage and it takes around 4 hours.
We arrived here at 4 am with the train from Dakar which we had to leave immediately
and were waiting for the sunrise on the platform where a coffee bar serves coffee
24 hours. Some basic meals are also available.
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Tominian
Tominian has around 2.500 friendly inhabitants, a hospital, post office, schools
and a small mosque. When the generator works there is electricity between 4.30
pm and 0.30 am every day and running water when the pump works.
At the main street you will find different stores with basic supply and a butcher's
shop where you can get all meals everyday. There are three pub`s serving beer
but only one has 4 rooms with shared bath and cooking possibilities for 1.000
CFA per person. Meals can be ordered only in advance.
To reach Tominian take a bus from San leaving in the direction to Mopti. Leave
the bus at the village Tion which is just 20 minutes bus ride away from San
and cost 1.000 CFA. From Tion it`s no problem to get a carriage to Tominian
on dirt road for 3.000 CFA all in all. It takes around 45 nice and relaxing
minutes. You also can try to hitchhike if its not too late.
To leave Tominian ask around at the shops on the main road because there is
no regular bus or taxi except Monday where a minibus is leaving to the weekly
market at San around 8 am and will return around 4 pm. All other times the locals
will give you a lift for 1.000 CFA to San or Tion. A minibus from Tion to Sevare
takes 3 hours for 2.500 CFA.
The border to Burkina Faso is only 40 km away from Tominian on dirt road to
Benena and bordercrossing is possible in daytime.
It´s a nice relaxing village where the time seams to go slower. Nothing
special here except you and the big weekly Sunday-market where you will meet
all people from the neighborhood villages.
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Sevare Hotel Oasis, Tel: 420498, is clean, has large rooms, a small garden, friendly
stuff, good menu for 7.500 CFA and cold large beer for 1.000. Its 9.500 for
a room with fan and mosquito grating where two or three persons can stay. Shower
and toilet are shared and kept clean. Good breakfast is 1.000 extra. From the
roundabout walk along the street to Mopti around 500 meters where you´ll
see a Shell gasoline station. Turn left before and its another 500 meters. Its
same way to Hotel Le Bozo.
Minibuses to Bandiagara are leaving opposite the gasoline station at the roundabout
only in the morning and evening hours. They cost 1.800 CFA and takes 1,5 hours
on dirt road.
If you stay here and leave on road its a good idea to register before at the
police station. We haven´t and had to pay 500 CFA per person after a long
discussion with a fucking police officer at the check point.
Everybody how is not selling Dogon stuff is a guide. When you stay longer at the
bus stop you will meet different guides showing you the same letter of recommendation
again and again and...
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Bandiagara The best place to stay is Le Kambary, BP 13, Tel.+Fax 420388 where rooms starts
with 15.000 / 17.000 CFA for single /double with fan and own bath room. For
an aircon room you pay 22.000 / 24.000 CFA which comes with a TV-set. They have
a small apartment too with fan, own kitchen and fridge for 30.000 CFA. Add 500
CFA per person for tourist tax. The rooms are clean and in good conditions and
the food in the restaurant Cheval Blanc is tasty. Breakfast is 1.500, daily
menu 3.800 and the nice tourist menu 4.500 CFA. The location is managed by a
Swiss and is very scenic.
We can recommend a good guide named Allaye Tessougue or better known as Jean-Pierre,
Tel. 420005. He take 4.000 CFA per person and day and additional 15.000 for
his car per day. He speaks English, is well-known to the Dogon people and knows
a lot about them and their area. Its a pleasure to have him aside but discuss
the expense before.
Its the gate to Dogon country where every tourist has to pass through. Everybody
seems to be a guide too but they are not that importunate like in Sevare. The
city itself is quite scenic, has a bazaar and is located at a small river. Like
with every village in the Dogon country you have to pay 500 CFA admission to enter.
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Dogon country
A very nice day trip is to hike from Dourou to Nombori and back. Its around
1.5 hours walk one way and you climb down a beautiful canyon before you reach
Nombori. Here you can get cool beer for 1.200 CFA and lunch for 1.500. Back
in Dourou you can stay at the Campement-Hotel Teriya. A room with a mattress
on the floor and a fan on the ceiling will cost 2.000 CFA per person. Cool drinks
are available too. To Bandiagara its 1 hour by car.
Another nice trip is to hike from Driguibambo to Kani Kombole, Teli, Ende and
from here back to the starting point. This circle took us two days. Its one
hour hike down to Kani Kombole where we got lunch for 750 CFA and cold soft
drinks. From here to Teli its 1.5 hours by feet on flat surface. The ancient
part of the village is on the cliffs from where its very nice to watch the sunset.
We slept on a roof for 1.000 CFA with a bucket shower. They charge the same
for a cool large beer and 750 for vegetable dinner. To Ende its another 1.5
hours along the cliffs. Every five day the weekly market is held here. It starts
at 1 pm and every village has its own place there. From here back to Driguibambo
is quite a hard walk but very impressive because you have to cross a few canyons.
Every Village you enter will charge 500 CFA per person as a tourist tax. With
a guide you pay only in that villages you stay for longer.
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Mopti
The cheapest possibility to stay is the Catholic mission where you get a small
clean room with shower for 5.000 CFA for a couple. The gate will be locked at
9 pm.
Campement Hotel has air-conditioned rooms with private shower, toilet and mosquito
net for 17.000 for a triple. For 10.000 you can get a dark, dirty and smelly
bungalow with fan.
Hotel Ba_Faro is located in the center of the new part of Mopti. For 18.000
CFA three persons can stay in a dark, tiny room with own fan and shared bath.
With aircon its 27.000 CFA with private bathroom. Breakfast and mosquito net
are included.
From here to Timbuktu you can take a 4X4 for around 30.000 CFA which needs
at least one day. Normally as many people as possible will be stuffed in the car.
Another possibility to Timbuktu is by boat. Company CoMaNav (Navigacion) runs
three ships as long as the water of river Niger is deep enough. A boat should
arrive Wednesday evening and leaves Mopti at Thursday evening. The boat comes
from Bamako and left space will be sold on Thursday 9 am at the companies office
when the boat is on schedule. Otherwise you have to wait for the arrival.
Most locals travel to Timbuktu by pinasse. This boats are like large bathtubs
with diesel engine and a roof. They are around 20 to 30 meters long, 6 meters
wide and 2 meters depth. This pinasses will be loaded to its maximum that only
10 cm are left over the water. Than the passengers can enter and squeeze together.
Locals try selling tickets for that pinasses starting at 30.000 CFA promise
a lot of space, mattress on the roof for the night, no other passengers, good
food, one-night-two-days-travel... Go to the harbor and you will see where you
will end up: Little space on some cement bags (if you are lucky) where you stay
for the next three days and where you try to sleep when the other 40 passengers
turns of their noisy radios. Three times a day you get rice with ugly instant
sauce (greetings to Maggi). No space, no toilet but lot of mosquitos and bugs
and you can get that for 15.000 CFA only. That's the way to Timbuktu instead
of walking.
More comfortable and expensive is a exclusive pinasse for up to 10 passengers.
It takes also three days and at night they pitch up tents to sleep at the bank.
For 60.000 CFA per person you get meals and service offered by travel companies.
A exclusive taxi to Djenne is 25.000 CFA including the ferry. You might have
to allow a mechanic to join you. In our case the mechanic changed suddenly into
a guide at Djenne.
If you stay here and leave on road its a good idea to register before at the
police station. We haven´t and had to pay 500 CFA per person after a long
discussion with the fucking police officer at the check point.
Everybody's business seems to get in touch with foreigners. Its hard to get a
minute for yourself. The old part of the town is getting developed now because
of the football competition in 2002. Its an experience to walk around here after
sunset.
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Timbuktu
There is a new Hotel in the center: La Colombe, BP 5, Tel.: 921435. They have
12 nice clean rooms with aircon, satellite TV, international phone and private
bathroom for 18.500 / 22.000 CFA single / double. A bar is located at the ground
floor and a restaurant with nice view on the first.
Hotel Bouctou, BP 49, Tel.: 921612, starts with 7.000 / 10.500 CFA for 1 /
2 person for a dorm with shared clean shower and toilet or the roof on the third
level from where you have a nice view and ends with aircon rooms for 17.500
/ 24.500 CFA plus 500 CFA skin tax each. Breakfast is available for 1.500 CFA
on a large terrace which is also the meeting place for guides, salesman, Tuareg...
Daily menu is good and 4.000 CFA.
Traditional food is available at restaurant Poulet d`Or which you have to book in advance especially for
beer which has to be brought from the far hotel. For instance Tucasu is a big
dumpling which is served with spicy sauce and pieces of meet and in our case
a lot of desert for 2.000 CFA.
A camel tours from 8 am to 2 pm or 4 pm to 7 pm are 7.000 CFA. You start just
behind hotel Azalai and ride to a Tuareg campsite 3 km away. Here you get tea
while the guides open their bazaar around you.
From Korioume (harbor) its 800 CFA to the center of Timbuktu but if you are
late you are lucky with 1.500 CFA.
An exclusive 4X4 to Korioume with a stopover at Kabara where you can buy tickets
for the big boat at CoMaNav office is 11.500 CFA and can be filled with eight
or more persons.
To Gao we took the big boat run by CoMaNav which I really can recommend once
you experienced the local pinasse. Tickets will be sold at the office in Kabara
or two hours before arrival direct at the harbor of Korioume. Expect some days
delay. While waiting for the boat there is a "restaurant" just left-hand
side of the entrance (fence) at the Port du Korioume where you can get soft
drinks for 500 CFA, meals like pasta or rise with sauce for 750 or rent a small
but private room for 4.000 CFA a day.
You have to register either at the police station where you were forced to buy
a voucher for 5.000 CFA for free entrance at the big mosque and museum and pay
additional 1.000 CFA for the registration itself. Or go to the tourist office
where you get your passport stamped for 500 CFA only but than the police at the
checkpoint outside the city might complain about it. At weekend the vouchers are
not on sell.
When the boat arrive you will be told to wait until the chef du couchette appears
to give you your room number but that ends no matter how with given information:
its wrong. Enter the boat right away.
Second class has cabins with 2 two-floor-beds and a little space in between
where a washbasin is mounted. Shared shower and toilet are on the corridor.
You pay 31.152 CFA which includes three edible meals a day and the privilege
to enter the bar where large beer are 700 CFA and soft drinks 300 when on stock.
At third class you have 4 three-floor-beds in a compartment. That's it. Because
its located above the engine so its much more noisy here than in second or first
class.
Its such a pleasure to sit on the upper deck at the rail, watching the landscape
and drinking cold beer. Its a must. When the boat reaches Gao late at night
you are allowed to stay on board till next morning 6 am.
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Gao
The police office where you have to register will open around 8 am which is
too late to get out of here. Bani Transport operate busses to Bamako four times
a week at 7 am. They leave at Plaza de Independence and its 5.000 CFA and 7
hours to Sevare. There was no registration control on the road neither at Gao
nor at Bilali Koyra across the river Niger.
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Djenne
Hotel Le Bozo has basic rooms for 2.500 CFA with mattress on the floor or you
stay on the roof for the same price. Shared shower and toilet are very basic.
The benefit is the restaurant which is a relaxing area. Beer is 800, soft drinks
300, breakfast 750 and good daily menu 2.800 CFA.
From here to Mopti is 1.750 CFA plus 250 per luggage. Only to the junction
for the road Sevare-Bamako its 1.250 CFA and from here to Tion another 1.500
CFA.
Its quite scenic here and that´s why you have to pay 1.000 CFA entrance
fee.
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Bordercrossing to Burkina Faso
There seams to be no more busses going from Mopti to BF. There are daily busses
from Bamako to Bobo-Dioulasso or Ouagadougou. Some are going across Bougouni
and Sikasso, others to Segou, Bla and Koutiala.
We caught the bus to Bobo at Bla at 1 pm for 6.000 CFA and it took 8 hours.
Bordercrossing was possible between 7 and 8 pm.
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Additional information It can get very dry here (less 10%). Its good idea to bring
something against dry nose and lips with.
Guidebooks:
In English: Mali, written by Ross Velton, published by Brandt, ISBN: 1 898323
93 3.
In German: Westafrika Band 1: Sahelländer, published by Reise Know-How.
Maps:
Mali, 1 : 2 mio., published by Institut Geographique National, No.: 3615 IGN
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