From 2005/01/11 to 2005/02/22

Strong times of the Malian tour were  :
-- Timbuktu, Dogon Country, Déjénné
.

The border was crossed at Labezanga rather quickly; I was went in precursor. As in the other African countries of ex AOF, controls are composed of the trilogy : Police - passport, visa -, Gendarmerie - passport, driving licence -, Douane, - passport, green card of the vehicle, possibly carnet de passage -.


The route for Timbuktu took :
--a track towards Gao along the right bank of Niger to take the ferry crossing Niger
--a asphalt road from Gao to Sévaré until the crossroads of the track to Gourma-Rharous
--a track on the left bank of Niger to take the ferry at Korioume
--a tarred road to Timbuktu.

 

 

 

Travelling track to Gao
crossing a village

 

 

 

Track in the Malian  Sahel

 

 

 

 

Impression of the banks of Niger

 

 

 

 

Camelides at the pasture

 

 

 

Track to Gao
crossed by a foundation raft
very breakable for vehicles.

 

 

 

 

Port of loading of the ferry to Gao

 

 

 

Landscape of the bank of Niger

 

 

 

Tuareg in traditional costume
 in visit at our bivouac

 

 

 


 

Tuareg and his son
The wife could not be photographed

 

 

 

 

Return to their camp-site

 

 

 

Failing to have put my truck in the sand,
I stacked it in the mud of Niger.

 

 

 

 

To the axle!

 

 

 

Shamefacedly driver!

 

 

 

 

Extraction by vehicles of the group

 

 

 

 

Wait of the protagonists
for the ferry to Korioume

 

 

 

 

Village at the ferry pier

 

 

 

 

Villager with a child

 

 

 

Night crossing of Niger

 

 

 

 

Wait during the crossing
after a long day of unforeseen

 

 

 

 

 

Minaret of the mosque Dyingerey Ber 
Sudanese style
Timbuktu

 

 

 

Room of interior prayer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Room of external prayer

 

 

 

Mihrab, minbar of the mosque
towards Mecque 

 

 

 

 

 

Old quarter
Timbuktu

 

 

 

Cob and stones house

 

 

 

Stone-built of Horgoussou house
Timbuktu

 

 

 

Man with a sewing machine
Timbuktu

 

 

 

 

Venetian blind
Timbuktu

 

 

 

Entry "the Mythical City"!

 

 

 

 

Port
Korioume

 

 

 

Photo satellite
Korioume

 

 

 

 

Cattle float
Niger

 

 

 

Carriage of goods
Niger

 

 

 

 

Port
Korioume

 

 

Impression of the track to Douentza
by sand wind

 

 

 

 

Animalist reserve
Bambara-Maoundé

 

 

 

Watering Camelides
Bambara-Maoundé

 

 

 


Tasty spines of acacia

 

 

 

Old elephan
Bambara-Maoundé

 

 

 

 

From the park of Bambara-Maoundé, the track moves towards the Hombori village and its landscapes like the American West -Monument Valley-

 

 

 

Bivouac at the foot of "La main de Fatima"
Hombori

 

 

 

Main street of Hombori
between Gao and Mopti

 

 

 

 

Market
Hombori

 

 

 

 

Tasty fritter saleswoman
Hombori

 

 

 

 

Diesel station
Hombori

 

 

 

The visit of a village in the Sahel at the foot of the Hombori mounts was the occasion of contacts with the greeting population.

 

 

 

Women

 

 

 

 

Hombori Tondo
summit of Mali
1,155m

 

 

 

Culture of tobacco

 

 

 

 

 

Forge at a village

 

 

 

 

Woman crushing the millet

 

 

 

Cook of summer!

 

 

 

Dramatic landscape

 

 

 

 

Butcher
Douentza

 

 

 

Scene of street
Douentza

 

 

 

 

The visit of the Dogon country offered a marvellous spectacle :
-- traditional Villages with loftcorns,
-- pastoral scenes of women in field,
-- troglodytes dug in cliff like the Latin-American pueblos.

 

 

 

 

Satellite view of cliff
Dogon country

 

 

 

Dogon museum 
Fombori

 

 

 

 

 

Goddess Mother
Museum

 

 

 

 

Carved door

 

 

 

 

Divinities of "the Door"

 

 

 

Pot cultures

 

 

 

 

Loftcorn
with a hat

 

 

 

Disney cartoon!

 

 

 

 

Women washing at the river

 

 

 

Troglodytes in cliff

 

 

 

 

Crocodile in the backwater

 

 

 

 

The progression took again the tarred road to visit Mopti from Sévaré and Djenné taking a track with toll and the ferry before moving towards Ségou then the Bamako capital of Mali.

 

 

 

View of the port
Mopti

 

 

 

 

Wood merchants to the port
Mopti

 

 

 

Misire Mosque of Djenné,
type of the Sudanese style
in banco roughcast of piles

 

 

 

House on floors with only one door
frontage decorated with pillars
phallic pinnacles Djenné

 

 

 

 

 

Wind-braces
Djenné

 

 

 

Butcheries in the open air
 by 40°C in the shade
Djenné

 

 

 

Interior court with a tree
Djenné

 

 

 

 

Ferry to Djenné

 

 

 

Car park of loading

 

 

 

 

Map of the world
Bamako

 

 

 

 

 

Mausoleum of the first president of Mali
Modibo Keita
Bamako

 

 

 

 

The tour continued with the road to the north passing by Didiéni, Diéma, Sandaré, Kayes to cross the border of Mali Senegal at Kidira.

 

 

 

 

Track out of laterite from Didiéni to Diéma
cause of a technical trouble of my truck

 

 

 

Road from Diéma
where the failing part of the truck was brazed

 

 

 

 

Women and children on the quiet

 

 

 

Central square
Sandaré

 

 

 

 

Shops
Sandaré

 

 

 

Dad sews and ...
Sandaré

 

 

 

Mom...
sells chips
Sandaré

 

 

 

Vehicles of organization in repair
Kayes

 

 

 

 

Scene of street
Kayes

 

 

 

Scene of street
Kayes

 

 

 

 

Merchants of clothes
Kayes

 

 

 

The way out of Mali was carried out at a few kilometres in the west of Kayes, then the entry in Senegal at the village of Kidira.
The mileage travelled in Mali was of 3,010 km in twelve days of track and a few hundred kilometres of tarred road.


Tétouan, the 2005/03/20

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