Day 11
My last day in the Sahara. One more trip to the dunes and then 14 hours of driving, minus air conditioning plus dust, back to Bamako. We had a 5:45 am departure in the Pinasse for my final visit to the Rose Dune. I had on a jacket and I was still cold in the half hour ride crossing the river. We landed at the Songhoy village of Qoyma again, but this time we went south up the big Rose Dune. The sun came over the horizon at 6:50 am but was mostly behind some thin clouds at the horizon. Since it was now or never, I went ahead and took pictures whenever the sun seemed to get a little stronger. At 7:30 am I quit and started back down the dune. I thought the best pictures I took were panoramas back toward the village with the river on one side, the desert on the other side and a beautiful long line of dunes in the background. If I didn't have my great Sahara sand dune picture by now I never would.
The Rose dune and the village Qoyma.
By the time we got back to the hotel, and I packed up my personal gear and camera gear and the crew got the truck packed it was almost noon. Our cook Al-Movmine wasn't coming back to Bamako with us. He'd recently made a successful wife-hunting trip among the nomads. He'd selected a wife but now he had to come up with a sky-high dowry, that he didn't have. Apparently it's traditional that the bridegroom's relatives contribute to his dowry needs. So, Al-Movmine was leaving to start a round of visits to his relatives.
We headed south out of town, but first we had to make a
stop at our driver's house. Nimit was
telling me that Al-Hader had a wife and four children. He said Al-Hader had just gotten his wife and
children home after a stay with her nomad parents. Their fourth child was due shortly when he
took her and the children to stay with her parents. The grandmother often acts as midwife for
their daughters. Al-Hader was away when
their fourth child was born. When he got
back his wife's parents had moved their camp but Al-Hader didn't know
where. His new baby was three months old
before he found the family again.
I thought we'd pick up the paved National Highway in Gao
or at the edge of town. But, no, first
we had to take a ferry. I thought we
were already across the river but now we came to a river and got on a
ferry. At the ferry landing, on the
other side, was the Mali version of fast food.
There were men grilling meat over open fires along the road. You just stop and tell them how much you want
and they cut it up and hand it to you wrapped in greasy paper. Nimit took pity on me and bought expensive
lamb, instead of cheap goat, and we ate it while we were driving. Just like at home, it was pretty good.
Coming off the ferry from Gao. Mali fast food, lamb and goat meat
on a roadside grill.
We passed through quite a large area of rock formations
that looks like the American Southwest, to everyone who sees them. I swear that one section looked like it was
plucked straight out of Monument Valley.
Towering red rock formations coming straight up out of a flat
plain. I took a few pictures but there
was such a heavy haze that even nearby formations were hazy. Nimit said the haze always seems to be there.
We drove until dark to Mopti where Nimit checked into a
Bed and Breakfast run by a German women.
I'd thought we'd be camping out doors again so I didn't mind the B&B
with the bathroom down the hall.
Especially since the bathroom had hot water in the shower. Nimit wanted to on the road by 5:30 am in the
morning, so I crashed into bed right after I'd had my first hot shower in ten
days. Day 12
I told Nimit that, on the way back to Bamako, I wanted to
stop and take panoramas of a couple interesting villages I'd noticed on our way
up. He said, if you mean the one with
the little round granaries around the outside, I know right where it is. We got going on time at 5:30 am, which meant
we got to my special village a half hour before sunrise. Since there were clouds on the eastern
horizon, I decided that good light was so far off it wasn't worth the
wait.
Right after sunrise we went through a village with big
groups of people gathered alongside the road.
We thought they were getting ready to setup a market. We stopped and I wandered around taking
picture without many complaints. It
turned out the people were loading goods and themselves into big trucks for
transport to a market in another village.
Smaller villages usually have a market once a week on a schedule that
that allows vendors to follow a route with a different market each day.
Villagers loading their market
goods into a truck. Women and children going off to
market.
We got to Bamako in the middle of the afternoon and
stopped by the downtown Air France Office.
Nimit suggested I check and see if I could get on that day's flight and
leave a day early. No luck, the flight
was full. Nimit said we would want to
come back to the downtown office the next day between 11 am and 1 pm with the
checked luggage. He said checking in the
luggage downtown was a much better option than fighting the madhouse at the
airport, before the flight. We checked
into the Mande Hotel and Nimit said he'd be around to get me at 11 am tomorrow
to take care of the luggage. In the evening I went up to the fourth floor roof of the
hotel, to photograph the sunset across the Niger River. There was a heavy smoggy haze that had been
around all day. Day 10 - Previous |
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6 & 7 | 8 & 9 |
10 | 11 & 12 |
13 & 14 | Next - Day 13
