Patrick's Postings

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Pictures

Some pictures from the last few weeks:

A view of the Bandiagara Escarpment with a Dogon village in the foreground.
The caves in the escarpment that the Tellem people used to live in. It is unclear how they got up (or down) to them but it is suspected that as little as 500 years ago the area was dense jungle and there were vines that could be climbed all over the face of the escarpment. The Dogon now bury the dead in the caves.
Dogon meeting place. The ceiling is high enough only for people to sit so as to foster peaceful solutions to problems.
While in the Dogon villages we slept on rooftops under the stars. The stars were amazing at night and the glow of the escarpment at dawn was incredible.

Some dancers in traditional dress during a mask dance that they performed.


The largest mud structure in the world, the Grand Mosquee in Djenne, Mali.

The boat that we rode on for 3 days during our trip up the Niger River to Timbuktu.


Me with the beard. I have since shaved it off. The tan lines were not pretty.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas

I have had an amazing few weeks. To start, I went to Timbuktu. Whatever you may have thought about Timbuktu, you were probably correct. It took us 3 days by boat to get there, and when we did we found the barren, sandy, dusty, dry almost non-descript place that you wanted it to be. Spent 2 days there, which was more than enough. The place is full of nothing, if you can picture it. The jeep ride out was great and horrible at the same time. 8 hours down a dirt path and you definitely felt like you were coming back from nowhere, as a trip from Timbuktu should be.

The day after getting back from Timbuktu we headed out to Dogon Country for a trek through the villages. The Dogons are still living pretty much as they were 200 years ago, with very little sophistication in their lives. The only exception being the Ronaldinho jerseys, but really you never can get away from them. I can't describe the experience yet, it is just too fresh and amazing so if you want to know more click here. I'll post my pictures when I get somewhere with decent internet access.

From Mali we head through Burkina Faso (which is currently at the early stages of a power struggle, so that will be fun) and head into Ghana for the new year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Mali

We have crossed into Mali, where we are going to spend the next two weeks or so. The past few days have been forgettable, mostly because I have been suffering from a stomach bug that has completely drained me. Starting to feel better now and hopefully it stays that way.

Tomorrow we start off on an exciting 10 days. The first part will be spent making our way to Timbuktu. Depending on the wind direction we will either take a three day boat trip up the Niger River and a one day jeep trip back after a night in Timbuktu or jeeps up and the boat back. After that we are going to be taking a three day trek through Dogon Country, eating in the homes of locals and sleeping on their roof under the stars. The Dogons are quite an interesting people. I will write more about them after the trek.

If the schedule remains the same we will be spending Christmas in Bandiagara.

If I do not have the opportunity to write again, Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Into the Desert and Out the Other Side

The last week has been spent driving across the Sahara Desert in order to make if from Agadir, Morocco to Nouakchott, Mauritania. Some of it was on paved roads, some on hard packed roads and some through sand. There were times where a wrong turn would lead us into a mine field (luckily we made the right turns). Except for one night in Nouadhibou, all were spent bush camping in some of the most remarkable locations I could ever imagine. The first night was spent on a cliff overlooking a shipwreck on the coast, another night we camped in a flat expanse that stretched from horizon to horizon, another was spent in ancient sea bed miles inland and well above sea level but covered with shells and the last was spent at the base of a large sand dune. Each night we were treated to an amazing sky full of stars and then at around 9 pm the moon would rise. There was a full moon a few nights ago, and when I came out of my tent at around 3am there was a perfect circle of clarity around the moon and then the haze from the sand and dust in the sky filled the rest of the darkness. It was one of the most amazing sights ever. To top it all off I saw for the first time the Milky Way in the Northern Hemisphere, and it was incredible. The trip itself was great. There were long stretches where the scenery didn't change much, but when it did it was pretty dramatic. We had a local guide, Ahmed, from Nouadhibou to Nouakchott who knew the region well and helped us get through the sticky sand. We only had to dig the truck out 6 times and there was only one blown out tire, so it wasn't that bad.

On the way into Nouakchott Ahmed brought us to his sisters home. His family are nomadic camel farmers, so they live in tents in the desert and drift about to find vegetation for the camels. We sat in one tent and drank camel milk and mint tea for about an hour, everyone pretty much just making hand gestures to communicate. It was one of the best parts of the trip so far.

We leave later today to re-enter the desert as we head towards Mali. We should arrive in Bamako, Mali in about 5 days time. Bush camps all the way. After that we will head to Timbuktu and to Dogon Country.

Now for some pictures from the trip so far:

The village of Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains


In the medina in Fes





The 3rd largest mosque in the world in Casablanca



The fishing boats in the port town of Essaouira


The location of our 1st bush camp in the desert



A sand storm that engulfed us one evening in the Sahara



A camel



Where we had our last bush camp before Nouakchott in the Sahara

Friday, December 01, 2006

Heading into the Sahara

We've made our way down the coast from Marrekech, first stopping off in Essaouira and now we are staying in Agadir. Both are beautiful coastal towns, though Essaouira still had a traditional Moroccan feel to it while Agadir feels more like a town anywhere on the European side of the Mediterranean.

We are making our preparations to start out across the Sahara. We are stocking up on fruits, vegetables, water and diesel for the crossing. The tough part is that we aren't sure how long it will take. We might get lucky and get through it in 3 days. We might get stuck every day and it could take over 3 weeks. With that in mind we need to prepare for the worst and ration food and water accordingly.

Once we do set out from Agadir, the trip will take an exciting turn. So far we have only bush camped (i.e. not stay at a camp ground) one time. From here until probably the end of February it will be pretty much all bush camps. That means no toilets, no showers, no laundry. Baby wipes become your only means get cleaner.

The intended path of the trip is different that originally planned. We are not going through Chad and Sudan into Ethiopia as originally planned. Instead, when we get to Cameroon we are going to head south through Congo, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Angola and into Namibia before heading north to Kenya via Zambia and Tanzania. And before we get to Cameroon in late January (probably, anyway) we will go through Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria (but not the really bad parts of Nigeria).

I'll update as we go, but I don't expect to have access to the internet too often, perhaps only once or twice a month.