MALI | Thursday, 12 Apr 2012 | Views [140]
For better or for worse, everything eventually comes to its close and so, good six hours after we had left Ségou, our bus ride finally ended. Well, in fact, we didn’t arrive in Mopti, but rather in Sévaré instead, a town some ten or twelve kilometres ... Read more >
MALI | Thursday, 12 Apr 2012 | Views [274]
The vessel I’d been sitting on since Ségou was in such a sorry state, so deformed, that it looked as if I had been chewing it, instead of sitting on it. I realised that I wouldn’t be able to use it as a seat any more, and I doubted anyone would be able ... Read more >
MALI | Thursday, 12 Apr 2012 | Views [92]
French guys and I struck up one of those fast friendships that are often given birth to on travels like this. They were a nice and friendly couple and the fact that they both spoke a reasonably good English certainly smoothed the path for our communication.... Read more >
MALI | Wednesday, 11 Apr 2012 | Views [279]
When I put the final touches to my packing routine in the morning, I realised I couldn’t find my sun-glasses. I looked into every corner of my hotel apartment, checked and rechecked pockets and compartments in my luggage, but they were nowhere in sight.... Read more >
MALI | Wednesday, 11 Apr 2012 | Views [268]
Something must have agreed with me in the whole „ L’Esplanade “ hotel setting right there by the Niger river, so I’d had by far the best sleep in Africa as yet. After nine long hours, which happens so seldom to me, I was as good as new and as refreshed ... Read more >
MALI | Monday, 9 Apr 2012 | Views [176]
A short while later we stopped in Ségou. The town itself, the third biggest in Mali, was most certainly one of those scheduled stops and there was no reason for us not to observe the timetable, albeit with a hefty delay. Hence, when our bus pulled over ... Read more >
MALI | Monday, 9 Apr 2012 | Views [245]
When after what to me looked like less than an hour we pulled over by the roadside again, I was convinced it was just another scheduled stop-over. And I was happy for it. I greeted every opportunity to stretch my legs and sniff around whatever place ... Read more >
MALI | Monday, 9 Apr 2012 | Views [115]
We may have left gare de routière de Sogoniko around twelve. But it took us one hour to leave Bamako altogether. We had four stops inside that hour and apart from filling the fuel once, other three stops seemed entirely unaccountable. Or at least ... Read more >
MALI | Monday, 9 Apr 2012 | Views [303]
Annette could sleep long in the morning, but to her credit, she was not hard to get out of the bed if we needed to rise early. So when we arrived at the Sogoniko bus terminal, it was not even seven o’clock yet. Soon to be, but not yet. Of course, ... Read more >
MALI | Monday, 9 Apr 2012 | Views [307]
Last day in Bamako, first day in the New Year, I was an early riser today. Last night I had the shittiest night ever since I’d arrived in Africa two weeks before. Actually, I’d even set my mobile phone alarm on before I went to bed to make sure I’d ... Read more >
MALI | Saturday, 24 Mar 2012 | Views [308]
In the morning, while I was by myself at and after breakfast in the garden, I realised that if it had not been for the diary I was keeping, I’d have no idea what date it was today. Or any day. It’s so easy to lose track of time when you travel and when ... Read more >
MALI | Saturday, 24 Mar 2012 | Views [245]
This notion about Essakane festival started nagging at me. So while Annette was having her lie-in, I made a decision to look for a travel agency here in Bamako, willing and able to offer me a deal which would include the things I wanted to see anyway, ... Read more >
MALI | Saturday, 24 Mar 2012 | Views [331]
David didn’t let us down. Eventually he did turn up, just as I suspected he would. Sooner or later he had to. We were on our way to the Grande Marché , or the Bamako Grand Market. Annette wanted to buy a few more presents and, having seen the swimming ... Read more >
MALI | Saturday, 24 Mar 2012 | Views [287]
By now it turned not only into a habit, but even routine for Annette to sleep in and go on into the day without a breakfast, whereas I liked to wake up into still relatively fresh African mornings and eat in the shadows of hotel gardens. The „Tamana“ ... Read more >
MALI | Sunday, 18 Mar 2012 | Views [295]
My photographing must be pretty conspicuous. At least, my camera must have been, even if I tried to be as low-profile about it as I could. In general, some people were taking it gracefully, but some played guardians of law and order, and threatened ... Read more >
MALI | Sunday, 18 Mar 2012 | Views [173]
Some three hours into the trip to Bamako, we had a stop-over in a small town of Bougouni. It is a settlement of approximately 20000 people, first established as a hunting camp a few hundred years ago. Some say that as recently as forty years ago ... Read more >
MALI | Sunday, 18 Mar 2012 | Views [117]
Annette was in the bathroom having a shower and I had just returned from breakfast when there was a knock on the door. I opened it and on another wonderful African morning there were two guys standing outside. It took me a few seconds to sort them out ... Read more >
MALI | Sunday, 18 Mar 2012 | Views [170]
Comfort was not the thing we were looking for when we moved over from the bus into the minibus. So what you don’t look for, you don’t miss if you don’t get it, either. I was more than ready to put up with somebody’s elbow wedged between my shoulder ... Read more >
MALI | Sunday, 18 Mar 2012 | Views [318]
Crossing an international border on foot somewhere in the middle of West Africa was fun. Only once in my life had I had an opportunity to do the same, and that was much closer home, between Austria and Liechstenstein. But this one was in everything ... Read more >
BURKINA FASO | Sunday, 18 Mar 2012 | Views [340]
My original plan had been based on the assumption that we would reach Sikasso in, say, four to five hours, find ourselves a hotel there and then still have enough time to explore the town. All the sources indicated Sikasso was not a place where you ... Read more >
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