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The Nigerian Field Society |
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To Tombouctou…and Back October 17th - 25th, 2007
There were 10 of us from 5 countries. With our capable and personable guide, Youssouf, we fit into 3 Land Rovers with variable degrees of air conditioning. The drivers did a most capable job - no one lost a meal or their teeth due to the washboards on the road to Tombouctou!
The roads in Mali are paved, lit with street lights & traffic lights. Donkey & horse carts were filled with people or goods. We saw many camels & bicyclists. Riding a bike in the sand looked hot and tiring, I think I would have opted for the camel! The food was good, wine was so-so, beer available, hotels were good, and those with swimming pools were really welcomed after a long, hot day of driving.
This was a driving trip - our guide arranged enough stops along the way to stretch the legs and show us sights. One stop was a village that produced shea butter. This is exported to be used in hand lotions and other cosmetic products. Shea butter comes from a tree that has bark like a crocodile skin. They soak the nut, roast it, pound it, add water until it becomes a cream colored blob. It also has a faint eucalyptus smell and is quite creamy. The Malians use it for anything and everything - they eat it when they have tummy issues, put it in their nose when they have colds and at even use it for making bricks for their homes.
We spent our first night in Segou, a quaint town with wide boulevards lined with trees & French colonial buildings dating back to the 1930’s. It had a more sleepy feeling to it than Mopti or Bamako. A mud-cloth school was located outside of town. We learned what plants are used to make mud-cloth & got to make our own little piece. There were many artists, so a few of us were able to meet the artist that made the mud cloth we purchased. It was a fascinating stop.
The drive to Tombouctou was long and hot – 195 km on a red dirt road that reminded me of red clay of Georgia. We followed a sandstone cliff for several kilometers then into rolling hills of grasses and trees. One section of golden grass & rolling hills reminded me of Kansas! We did not see much sand until we
On the return trip, we learned the government was going to shut down the airport for a week for maintenance. We had to cut our trip short (did not get to Dogon Country) and head back to Bamako. Stopping only for “tree” stops, we put on our road warrior hats and put the pedal to the metal. By the time we hit Bamako, we had two possible plans to return to Lagos. If the airport REALLY was closed, we’d have to take a three day drive through Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Benin, with all the fun of getting visas and border crossings. Or, if there was a window for the airport being open, get to Abidjan, Dakar or Ouagadougou and reconnect from there.
Cote d’Ivoire was our most likely option, so we chased visas (carry extra passport photos). Fortunately, the staff stayed after hours to complete the paperwork for us. By the time they were done with that we knew we had tickets for a flight out of Bamako to Abidjan and the next day we did fly out.
The airport in Abidjan is wonderful!! Our luggage was waiting for us after going through a very efficient and modern passport control. We found out the next day just how nice an airport it was because we had plenty of time to explore it - our flight to Lagos was cancelled!! So, with NFS help back in Lagos, the airline reps were able to strike a deal whilst we played Spades, read or spend the last of our CFAs for 8 hours. Finally we got the go ahead and hurriedly gathered luggage and Fulani hats, went through all the checkpoints only to find out our plane was an hour late. But we had tickets in our hand and that’s all that mattered. We were going home!
We had a grand time, saw much, bought much, laughed much and kept our cool when the going got tough - but we can now say we have been to Tombouctou…and back!!
Peggy Haueter (USA)
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Lagos Branch
hit the outskirts of Tombouctou & then there was nothing but sand! Our guide here was a Tuareg named Musa. Dressed in a long blue robe and white turban, he lived up to the image of a nomadic tribesman. He showed us three mosques, the most impressive being Djingareyber, which dated back to the 14th century. There are no longer universities in Tombouctou, but a museum houses many manuscripts from when it was a great center of learning. The homes of the earliest European explorers are preserved. That evening, we were driven out to the dunes to have dinner (lamb stew and couscous) and entertainment by the tribe’s women. They sang various songs and one of the men did a dance around the campfire with his sword. It was very exotic. A few of us experienced our first camel ride. 
