Mali: In a pirogue without a lifejacket

Driving in Africa during the raining season is a challenge. We tried to go to Djenné shortly after the end of it and experienced it! The River Niger was still very high and we couldn’t reach the place from where the usual ferry departs. The solution: a small pirogue… for the three of us (and some more people)!!

Good that Tear Drop is not afraid of the water! In any case they didn’t have lifejackets motorbike size!!

About Djenné, it is a spectacular place, with all the houses and an impressive mosque made out of mud. Definitely, it’s worth a visit!

Mali: Peaceful war land

We are very proud and very happy we went into Mali. No travel advice recommends visiting Mali in these days, but we were informed it was a beautiful country and that around Bamako it should be safe. In fact it was, we survived it and, even more, we loved it!

I just leave you with some random pictures for you to enjoy. No Mopti nor Timbuktou (we didn’t think it was safe enough to go there)!

Other curiosity is that we spent 10 nights in Mali, and we didn’t pay for a single one. The first night we stayed in a village with (almost) no man, then Samuel hosted us in Bamako, we stayed in a Chinese sugarcane plant close to Segou and we used our 2 seconds tent the rest of the way till we left to Burkina Faso!

Market Mama in Bamako

Niger River in Segou

Niger River bank in Segou (people cleaning sand)

Child in Segou

Child in a small village on the way to Djenne

Village on the way to Djenne

Food storage houses

Food storage house

Mosque in Djenne

Niger River, close to Djenne 

Djenne

Djenne

Mali: Só eu sei porque não fico em casa!

I am a fan of the team on the other side of the road, but I am surprised to find some Sporting fans in Mali!!

Perhaps they are the only ones that don’t know about Sporting latest results!

Mali: The 24 to 1 Ratio

In the recently opened road between Senegal and Mali we were driving fairly fast, but it was getting late. Sweet Potato spotted a nice looking village and we stopped. In our broken French: “Bonjour, ça va?” “Nous peux a rester ici?” Five minutes later, the tent was open, close to some little houses.

Next morning, while preparing to leave, we noticed that only kids and women were around. No sign of men.

Where are they?! From my analytical background, I started to join the pieces:
- We were informed the village had about 300 inhabitants;
- Each man has up to 4 wifes;
- The women get married at the age of 15;

If each lady has 5 kids (trust me, this is not an aggressive assumption!!), then, for each man, there are 24 women and kids around! In other words, a village with 300 people has… 12 men. It is not that surprising we didn’t see many men around!!

 

Mali: If they can reduce it once, they can reduce it twice!!

Entering countries is always fun! At the Malian customs, I showed the Carnet de Passage and they replied "Ce bon, ce bon!"... but they didn't have the stamp... I should go to the next city to get it stamped. After the Customs, I went to Immigration. Their answer "You need to do it at the next village. We don't have ink!" Mali was not starting well…

It took us 25 km of driving and another 20 minutes looking for the police station, but we finally found it. Surprised on how we got there without a stamp, they stamped the passports. It costed us 15000 CFA each, no bargaining (we found out later it could have been cheaper if we had done the visa in advance…). 

Next, the customs. After a careful inspection of the Carnet, he said "It is not valid in Mali. You need to pay for a laissez passez. It costs 15000 CFA". We had just paid 30000 CFA for the visas so we tried to save some money. "Oh my GOD! We don't have that money!! We can't afford it". It took us 10 minutes of begging and he reduced it to 10000 CFA. We understood we could go further and offered 5000 CFA... Upset, he left the office and wished us a safe journey.

This time the carnet didn't "save" us

Perhaps we had gone too far… We went back to the motorbike and, when we were almost ready to go… he called me. “Give me your documents!” Ten minutes later we were ready to go!!

We had been warned before: If they can reduce it once, they can reduce it twice!