It has been a long day of a lot of travel. Yesterday we had been assured that transport out of Hombori would not be a problem as today was the market day there would be buses leaving at 9:00 and 10:00. Getting up at 7:00 everyone else had a “petite déjeuner” that I refused to eat but was given a rather good egg sandwich (all 1,000 CFA each). Packing up we headed out at about 8:30 and as we were walking down to the road we were annoyed to see an almost empty bus pass us on it's way to where we wanted to go: Sévaré (just on the junction outside of Mopti). From Sévaré we hoped to catch a local bâchée to Bandiagara which is the gateway to “Pays Dogon” (Dogon Country). We learned later that this was the 8:00 bus (which we had not been told existed).

Our guide from the hotel eventually took us down the back streets of the village to the far side near the hospital and school at the security checkpoint where 5,000 CFA was collected from each of us and we were told to wait. It turned out to be a long wait as we found a place to sit under some trees. The game of hitting a big rock with some small rocks while we were sitting on the ground soon lost it's appeal (I won most of the time anyway, of course, they would say that THEY won all the time but I know who I would trust!). Eventually at 10:30 a bus arrived that was completely empty (save the driver and “apparenti”). We were only too happy to board and sat in different rows along the windows. It was a relief that the money we had paid to the man beside the road was indeed correct and we were on the bus to Sévaré with no problems.

The trip back was uneventful with our stopping to pick up passengers basically the whole way. Every stop, of course, the sellers would swarm around the bus hoping to interest someone in what they had. The bus did have a couple of problems as we stopped for them to open a panel in the floor opening up to the drive-train at the back. This was a bit worrying but eventually we arrived in Douentza at about 12:30. It was unclear as to whether we would be stopping for a short or long time so we played it safe and stayed on board (though Chris did make a quick trip out to see if he could get some meat though they wanted him to buy the bowl as well to take with him!). We agreed that when we arrived in Sévaré we would try to find something to eat.

The trip from Douentza to Sévaré was not a trip we had done before. We had traveled in the other direction to Mopti (just beside Sévaré) but never beyond it (as we had taken the boat north to Timbuktu from Mopti). This road is really on the outskirts of Dogon country with large hills of stone instead of the massive rock formations of Hombori. Pulling into the bus station at Sévaré (after taking a left at the junction in the road, right leading to Mopti, and straight on for Bamako) we were immediately swamped with people wanting to show us to the way to a bus we did not want or wanting to sell us some frozen water. We were a bit overwhelmed after the time on the bus, it was now 3:30 and we had been on the road for about 5 hours so far and still had a bit more to go.

Ebrima and Diana split with us as they were running low on funds so they had determined that they would go into Mopti to see if they could get some money before continuing on to Bandiagara so we left them to arrange their transport to Mopti.

Walking around the terminal we eventually determined that no one was serving food so we left the terminal area and were shown where to wait for the bâchée to Bandiagara. 1,400 CFA each and we were added to the list. Though some were charged for luggage to go on the roof we pretended we didn't know about that so ended up paying nothing extra. The bâchée was not full so we had to wait a while before they had the requisite 16 people.

It was amusing to see that in all our wanderings around the bus terminal a man with a cart selling soft drinks followed us all the way out of the station and down the road to where we were waiting for the bâchée. We rewarded his determination by purchasing some very nicely cold drinks (and at 250 CFA, the cheapest I can ever remember paying for a soft drink).

A while later we all piled on the back of the bâchée with our larger bags going onto the roof. There were 14 of us around the back bench with another sitting on the tire in the middle and another two in the front cab beside the driver. I was sitting in my normal corner near the cab but ended up getting quite wind-swept as we headed into Bandiagara which was another 60 km down the road (I gave my fellow travelers a constant update as I watched the road markers count down the distance).

We arrived in Bandiagara to be immediately swamped with people wanting to either be our guides or find us a hotel. Anne had already suggested she would like to stay at the “Le Cheval Blanc” (the “White Horse”) which was a bit of a walk back along the road then a few blocks off to the right. Along the way we stopped by a place we had heard of on the main road which was, unfortunately, full. We got to Anne's hotel which is very nice but a bit out of Chris, Sue and my price range so we walked with her there then got into the car of a man who had been following us wanting to show us the wonderful hotel owned by his brother. The hotel was a pit. Not very nice at all. Two very dark (and VERY warm) rooms with the sounds of small feet above the mat ceiling (rats) and the roof was not very nice either (where they also offered spaces). We turned him down and eventually had him take us to Auberge Kansaye that is right on the river.

It is not a really fantastic place but it is clean and, contrary to what it said in the guidebook, offers separate rooms as well as the roof. Sue and Chris took a room while I agreed to take a place on the roof. The toilet facilities are not so nice – on the first floor it is just a pit latrine with the shower stall through another door around the corner. Entering the hotel from the street you are immediately inside the narrow front courtyard which has a few tables set up and a bar to the far left. There is also a group of Canadians staying here who were chatting at one of the tables though we did not disturb them. The surroundings are actually quite pleasant with the river running along a channel made of smooth, level, rocks. The trees on the opposite side of the river are also just teeming with storks (or egrets, I am not good on birds).

Having got a bit settled and leaving my bags with Sue and Chris we headed out to meet Anne for dinner. We had arranged to meet her at where the bâchée had dropped us off which we found with the help of some local boys who took us the back (and shortest) way. The streets are not any different than any of the other small villages we have visited with rubbish all over the place and open sewers. Not something we are not already used to in The Gambia. Meeting up with Anne we asked our guides to take us somewhere with some good local food. They obliged taking us to a small place inside the market (which is just beside our hotel) where they sat us down at a coffee/tea stall (handy, the others placed their orders I visited the small shop next door for my “Jus de Pomme”) but then they went to their family's compound (we guess) and brought back food for us. It was rice with mutton and tomato sauce. A bit unfortunate that we noticed that the stall next to us was just being set-up by a lady who had at least 8 or 9 different dishes she was serving up to a growing number of local people. We could have had something from her…It was pitch black but we managed to find our food and it was quite good, thank you (with the leftovers going to some children on the street with small buckets for that purpose).

We returned with Anne to the first roundabout leading to her hotel where she assured us she would be able to find her way back to the hotel (with one of our guides for assistance). Chris, Sue and I headed back to the hotel. Interesting thing about this hotel is that the rate is the same for whether you are in a room or on the roof: 3,000 CFA each. It is a long way up here to the roof but I was pleased to see that someone from the hotel had set everything up for me, complete with mattress, sheets and a bed net. A shower is all I need before calling in an evening.

Tomorrow we sort out our trip to the Dogon Valley (just to the south and east of us).

⇒ Continue to Day 18 - Wednesday, August 4th, 2004