Day 20 - Friday, August 6th, 2004

The sun woke us up quite early. I took some time just to enjoy the view sitting on my mat. Our roof is higher then the others around us and we are able to look out over the ravine only 20 meters or so away and the massive pillars of rock towering above the other side. Looking to the left you can see down the length of the ravine and the floor of the valley beyond. Fantastic. At this time in the morning none of the others in the camp were awake so I made my trip to the facilities which are in a small, divided hut a short distance away from the camp with two rooms picking the one that smelled the least (a bit of a toss-up that decision).

Campement Sleeping Arrangements

Breakfast was the bread our guide had bought two days ago but toasted to hide the fact that it was stale along with “deep fried grease balls” but this time with sugar which, admittedly, does help the flavour. Well, it IS the flavour really.

Before starting out for the day Mamadou showed us around this part of the village (the Catholic section) and also took us to the edge of the plateau overlooking the valley. We could see clearly along the edge of the cliff to where we had started out two days ago.

Looking Out Over the Dogon Valley

Returning to a small rock formation overlooking the village we sat for a few minutes just looking on at the compound life that unfolded before our eyes: Someone putting their washing out to dry, some children playing and, interestingly, the village hunter cleaning some of his weapons. There was an obvious distinction between the tourist Campement and the rest of the village with the well-ordered buildings of the camp contrasting with the random-seeming layout of the more worn buildings of the village. Before climbing down Mamadou pointed out where the ceremonial masks for the various celebrations in the village are hidden in a crevasse in the rock.

View of the Village

We visited the hunter for a few minutes while he showed us his flint-lock guns and his rather lethal looking knives. On the walls of his compound hang some of his trophies: animal skulls, hides and the like. He posed for a picture and we headed back to the camp to move on.

Dogon Hunter

The village is on a plateau but a short distance down, the ravine we climbed up yesterday expands out to a large flat area that is used for agriculture (beans, peanuts and millet according to Mamadou) and is also where the village well is situated. We continued along a path leading through the fields just beginning to show a bit of green but surrounded by tall lush trees. Reaching the far side of the ravine we climbed up and were able to look back on the whole of the plateau area with the village beyond bringing to mind “the land that time forgot”. It would not be terribly out of place to see a dinosaur coming around the corner…Ok, maybe a bit.

The Land that Time Forgot

The flat rocks continued as we climbed over them to the fields beyond stopping at a Campement for a bit of relaxation. At this stop we were shown a book requesting money for a local school and a boy had a dreadful eye infection that made us want to help him though not being doctors we would not know what to do. This is the only village that has made any obvious requests for aid but it does not make it any easier.

Eventually we were back in the landscape that surrounds Bandiagara and arrived in our final village: Dourou. It was just after noon and a bit of an anti-climax as we sat down under the woven mat roof: Now what? The decision was made to return to Bandiagara and have lunch there. Piling into the car (all six of us including the drive) we made our way down the road which was much worse than the one we had taken at the beginning of our Dogon adventure so much so that at one point the driver thought he might have damaged something under the vehicle (stopping showed no obvious problems).

Arriving in Bandiagara an hour later we were taken to a small restaurant beside where we got off the bâchée the other day. The food was not as good (!) as what we have been eating over the past few days: I had a “Domodah” that had very little peanut in it and tasting strongly of fish while others had a macaroni and cheese (but not cheese, it turned out, simply an oil of some kind) which was also disappointing.

We left Mamadou at this point, paying him the rest of our fee. He had been a good guide and very helpful though not terribly talkative. We headed over immediately to pick up our bags at Anne's hotel (and taking advantage of the flush toilets on offer). She had been relaxing by the pool and invited us to do the same so Sue and I took her up on that.

The pool turns out to be made of local rock paved together in somewhat a random pool shape with an uneven bottom (leading to a bit of fun since the water is quite murky as well). We sat around on some lounge beds and looked past the pool out to the street beyond – a different world entirely. A few local people (we think from the hotel) joined us to use the pool for an hour or so and were quite friendly offering us some of their food (eating while swimming at the same time?). We had to pay 1,000 CFA each to use the pool (as we were not guests) but it was worth it (made even easier by Anne being generous enough to pay it for us – how much money did she get from the bank?).

Sue and I got our bags from Anne's room and returned to our hotel at about 5:00. A lady was selling some fantastic meat pies (2 for 100 CFA) out the front that I noticed some local people were crowding around her for so I also picked up a couple. Quite nice after the “dough balls”.

Getting the room situation sorted out (and waking Chris in the room that we found stiflingly hot) we headed out to sit on the rocks beside the river. It was quite pleasant there as we watched the trees opposite filling with egrets – just when you thought the trees could not possibly hold any more another wave would swoop in for a landing. The river is also used for bathing so there were also a few children running around enjoying the water.

Also spectacular was the weather as large dark clouds with periodic flashes of lightening soon surrounded us.

We headed off to the market for something to eat before it got dark (and before the rain started to come down) – back to the same place we had eaten the last few times except this time we tried what the lady had on offer – I had rice with large pieces of meat and sauce (250 CFA) while Chris and Sue had cucumber (!) salad with chips.

Returning to the hotel we sat in the front courtyard having a nice cold drink until the rain started to come when we retired to the dining room inside. Outside it quickly became apparent that my plan for sleeping on the roof would have to be abandoned and I was able to get a room for the evening (since it is the same price either way, no problem!). It is VERY hot in this room though and the window looks out into the middle of the neighbouring compound (I can clearly hear their voices and see them whenever they are out in the compound). I have a bit of a leak in my room as well with water coming in the window but it should be good to sleep in a bed again (and, with electricity, I can recharge my rather overworked camera).

Tomorrow we travel again but this time it is on our way back home. The adventure seems to have ended.

⇒ Continue to Part 6 - The Trip Back


In Bandiagara, Steve stayed at:

  • Auberge Kansaye - Telephone: (+223) 242 04 87