Miscellaneous Mali

At our first Dogon Village we visited - Begnimato, we had the opportunity to meet their "hunter". This guy goes out most nights to kill whatever moves and is edible. He wears his traditional clothing when he goes out on the hunt - and put it on for us!



These are the lush green tops of onions growing in the "dirt". Their color was such a stark contrast to the surrounding landscape.


Kim is perched about 400m above the plains on the edge of Bandiagara Escarpment. The Dogon people have their villages at the base of the Escarpment and along the ridge. We were visiting a village that is perched along the top edge. Wild.

We think driving in snow is tough...sand can be just as challenging. Although you don't have to worry about frostbite when digging your 4x4 out of the sand...
This is a photo of Bamako from a hill above it...very different from Dakar...and very quite.

This is Timbuktu...

When African's are using the river for transportation, they don't waste any space on the boat. This is the ferry we took to cross a river as we were going to the market at Djenne. There were pedestrians, cars, trucks and bikes. All of them overloaded with goods!!

An ariel view of the market at Djenne which is held every Monday. That is the Mosque in the background - the world's largest mud built structure.

This is the village of Songho where they hold a ceremony every 3 years when they circumcise the boys from their village.

While we were climbing down a trail we encountered two women climbing up. There was a new mom carrying her 1 month old baby boy and the boy's Grandmother. The Grandmother was carrying a 20kg bag of grain on her head. She probably had been walking for 2-3 km with this on her head. Here is Kim caring the bag of grain on her head like the Grandmother was. Even just getting this bag on your head is HARD! We gave these ladies about $2 to thank them for their time and allowing us to take pictures. They were so excited that they threw in a free dance for us!!





Here is a glimpse of the private mask dance that we had. Yes that is an 8m high mask in the centre of the photo. It has a stick rigged to the bottom of it that is held by the teeth of the guy wearing it!



Here are the abandoned houses built under the cliffs. They still use the granaries up there if they have a bountiful harvest. The village only left the cliffs about 60 years ago. Just imagine carrying water, food, kids, etc. up a hill like that!


The Niger River is a fascinating place just to sit back and watch the African world pass by. Here is a boat the is just leaving Mopti on its way to Timbuktu. It is loaded to the point that it's barely floating. If you are sitting in the lower level you are basically looking out even with the water. Kim and I sure were glad we didn't have to spend a day on that (or the 7 days it takes to get to Timbuktu)!!

Sunset over Bamako from our hotel restaurant.