Dogon Country

The Dogon Country

Day 3: December 30th, 2006

We woke up this morning to a cool day. Probably just over 10 Celcius at sunrise. Below are some of the village locals blowing on some Dogon whistles. We ended up buying a few after a breakfast of Dogon bread [deep-fried batter] and coffee.

We then took a walk to see the village mosque and look around.

This was the day of the Tabaski Festival. We followed the villagers to an open field where they were had morning prayers. Our guide assured us that it was OK to take pictures....we did try to keep at a respectable distance.

We then got underway....on foot now...we hiked about 5 km to the village of Teli for lunch. In the second shot, we stopped for a brief rest under a tree. In the background you can see piles of mud bricks. These bricks are made wherever there is enough water...our guide told us that they sell for 10 francs apiece [50 bricks for $1 US]. The last picture is the view of the older cliff village just as we were coming up to Teli.

We had lunch in this nice courtyard area. The second shot is the sign over the entrance to the courtyard. After lunch we looked around before hiking up to the cliff village. The centre picture is of a goat being butchered. Today was the Tabaski festival and we saw many goats being prepared for the big feast.

The last two pictures are of the cliff dwellings. The dwellings built into the cliff are called Tellum houses. These dwellings predate the arrival of the Dogon; our guide, who is also Dogon, told us that the Tellum were spirit people.....yes....spirit people. They were evil spirits that lived in the Tellum houses....he really seemed to believe it.

The air was very dusty, being close to the Sahara in the dry season ensured that dust was always there. The last picture is of a negotiation over some Dogon masks...the asking price was 1,000 Euros....after much discussion, the final price was $300 US for the lot.

After lunch, we got underway again...we had a few more kilometres to hike to get to Ennde....the village where we would be spending the night. The first shot is my companions up ahead, walking with some women that were traveling between villages. The centre shot is the courtyard at Ennde where we had our supper. The next shot is a Dogon door, the last shot is of our porter [he carried the masks], his name is Ciabu [See-a-boo].

After checking out our rooftop accommodations, we had time to have a quick look around before dark...then it was off to bed.

Another day of new experiences is done.

Day 4: New Year's Eve, 2006

Today is New Year's Eve. We will be covering quite a lot of ground today. Our guide [Keita Abdoulaye, aka Colombie] has informed us that we will be taking ox-carts today....I guess that us fat Canadians did not walk fast enough the day before. We will be going via ox-cart for several kilometres; then we climb to the top of the escarpment to get to the village of Begnemato for lunch. Then a long hike along the top of the escarpment before we descend to the valley and stay for the night in the village of Nombori.

Here are a few shots of the courtyard from the rooftop. This is on the opposite side from where we had dinner the previous night. The village of Ennde has some very nice accommodations. The fourth picture is another shot of cliff-side dwellings. The last one is a large Baobab that was growing nearby. The locals skin the bark off for cooking fuel, apparently it does little harm to the tree.

After breakfast, we took our bags to where the ox-cart was waiting. Our porter, Ciabu, would be going ahead with our luggage. We had no worries about the safety of our bags. It was very apparent that our guide was well-respected and that we would be looked after.

After the luggage was underway, we had one last look around Ennde. Our guide always ensures that we have every opportunity to buy the local wares. The last two photos below are of a very ornate togu-na that was in the village. These are places where the men come to discuss village issues. The togu-na is designed to be low enough that people are obliged to sit inside them. Our guide explained that discussions can get very heated and being unable to stand prevents fights. Our guide is in the first picture, standing on Christophe's left.

Now we are getting underway....before lunch we need to cover several kilometres by ox-cart, then climb the escarpment.

We finally get to the area where the path goes up the escarpment. We say good-bye to the ox-carts and our guide arranges for some porters to assist with carrying our bags to the top. I had no idea that the porters would be women....old women....

Just before reaching the top, and the village of Begnemato...we crossed an area where the villagers had planted gardens of onions and peppers. Constant watering is required in this arid country.

The village of Begnemato was quite a bit different from the other villages we have seen so far. Being on the top of the escarpment, stone was the primary building material. There was also no soil to speak of....requiring the hiking of some distance to get to their fields. We had our lunch in the shaded area in the last two pictures. The second shot is of Ciabu....we parted ways with him at this village.

After lunch we had time to look around before getting underway again. The first picture is a granary, these small granaries are quite numerous in every village. Men can have more than one wife, and each wife has her own granary...as does the husband. The husband's granary feeds the family, and the wives' granaries store grain to be sold at the market.

Our guide arranged for new porters to get us to our final destination, and we were underway again. We passed the sign for the village on the way out. My porter is the women carrying the baby....these people are made of iron...she even fed the baby on the move. It was a long walk...we passed several garden plots along the way, all surrounded by bush or stone walls to keep the goats out.

The next photo is that last one that I took that day. As you can see, it is already getting dark...and up ahead you can see a village. This is not our destination, but is the place where we have to say good-bye to our porters and carry our own bags down the escarpment to the village of Nombori. The rest of the group had gotten ahead of Mike and I. Mike's feet were all blistered and he was not too pleased with the prospect of hiking another few kilometres down the escarpment....but he persevered with the assistance of duct tape [the perfect foot-blister cure]. The climb down was very steep, rocky, and in pitch darkness. Our LED headlamps worked very well, and we made it without incident.

After arriving in Nombori, well after dark, we sat down for our typical supper of chicken and cous-cous....and a few cold beers. Then it was off to bed....I slept like a dead man after this day's hike....so much for New Year's Eve.

Day 5: New Year's Day, 2007

Morning in Nombori.....the roosters started crowing early...I heard them through the night, but they really started getting loud at around 5 AM. It was like they were doing the wave....the sound of crowing flowed through the village as one rooster set off another. Then there's the donkeys.....my word these animals are loud!

Once again, I slept on the rooftop. David slept nearby on another rooftop, and the other three lads slept inside a dusty room. They were just under my roof, and I could hear them snoring through that thick mud roof. After we all got up, we had a leisurely breakfast, there was a bougainvillea tree growing in the courtyard, all in bloom. It was a very nice breakfast.

After the meal, we had a look around the village. Our guide had a supply of Kola nuts for the old folks. Kola nuts are some kind of tuber that is the size of a walnut, has the texture of a potato, and is the most bitter thing that I have ever tasted. The old Dogons seem to like them, our guide tells us that they give you energy when food is scarce.

Here are a couple of old women asking for some Kola nuts....the word is out that there are tourists about.

A few more shots of the village as we made our way up to the older dwellings near the cliff-face.

More shots of the Tellum houses that pre-date the arrival of the Dogon.

More Dogon houses...mostly abandoned near the cliffs, but kept in good stead for the tourists.

A couple of teenagers goofing around for a picture....then we packed our gear, loaded the cart, and got underway once again. We will be hiking to Tireli for lunch...then on to Amani for the night. We are told that Amani has crocodiles in a pool of water....looking forward to that.

This is certainly the dry season.....here is a river bed that is nothing but sand.

A little further on, we came upon another village a spoke briefly with a few locals that were working in the school. We gave them a donation for the school and wished them a "Bonne Annee"...Happy New Year!

We were falling behind again...so we ended up taking a "shortcut" through a crop field in an attempt to catch up with the luggage cart.

And here we are...at Tireli, for lunch. In the fourth photo below, you can see our guide Colombie talking to the "chef du village"...the chief.

After lunch, the chief took us on a tour...somehow I knew that a shop would be on the way. The third shot is your typical toilet facilities....note the kettle for washing your hands. Our guide then took us on a village walk.

As you can see, a good portion of the old village is now deserted...left to the goats. There are Tellum houses all over the cliffs here...quite spectacular. The young lad in the last photo below is Adama Guindo...he is studying English and is in grade 10....a rare thing here. I have since sent him some money to assist with his schooling.

Today, there was also a festival celebrating the new year, and it was also a fundraiser for the village. The tourists each paid a small fee to watch the dancers....it was very entertaining. The slice of village life was as enjoyable as the dancing. In the centre shot, you can see the pots of fermenting millet beer just in front of my brother Mike....I was tempted, but I didn't have any.

In this shot....now getting dark....a village elder stood up and thanked everyone for attending.

It's now quite late, and we still have several kilometres to travel to get to Amani. In the second photo, Christophe is getting ready to leave us....he had a prior committment back in Canada, and Moelai has found us on the trail between villages and will be taking Christophe back to Mopti, then Bamako to catch his flight home. The third shot is a poor one of the crocodiles by the pond....I had to run up quick and take the shot before they all darted off into the water. The next shot is the evening meal, and the final shot is....once again....the rooftop accommodations.

Immediately after the meal, Mike got ill and went straight to bed. It was a rather cold night too.

During the night here, I was awakened by the sound of drums and singing, and the sight of campfires. The locals were partying their hearts out a 100 metres or so away....I thought about walking over...but the fatigue took its toll.

Tomorrow we see a croc eat a chicken!

Day 6: January 2nd, 2007

The donkeys and the roosters were up again early today. The first three shots below were taken from the rooftop where we slept. The chickens cleaned up our food that we dropped to the ground, and I met Derek while taking a short stroll before breakfast.

We sat down to some breakfast before going to see the chicken get fed to the crocs. Mike is trying to get their attention in the second shot...and an old man showed up for a couple of Kola nuts. The croc finally showed and the chicken....live chicken....was tossed into the water....he lasted about 5 seconds, and my shot was just a few seconds late.

After the morning entertainment, we got underway once again. This will be our last full day in Dogon Country. We will be spending the night in Sanga, and tomorrow we will be driving to Timbuktu via Mopti. The fifth picture below is of a group of nomads that move their cattle from place to place. The last shot was of a very rare water-hole.

Mike was still rather ill. So when the cart broke down....it lost a few wheel nuts...he stayed on the cart. The flower was the only colourful thing around. It looks just like a petunia...but I have no idea what it is. The cart was repaired enough to carry on...and we carried on.

We walked a few more kms until we arrived at Irilli. Derek found himself a seedpod from a Baobab tree. Mike waited while we walked through the village....we had time to kill while they arranged another cart. One of the local boys showed Mike to the restaurant where we would meet him.

The next few shots are of what we had seen in other villages, Tellum houses, old dwellings, and such.

Of course...we found ourselves walking past another place to buy trinkets; I ended up buying a small drum. The last shot is another togu-na...there are several of these in every village.

We had a brief rest after meeting up with Mike, then we found our new cart and we were on the road again. The trails that you see are the actual roads that you find in the Dogon Country. Several times we had to get out of the way to let jeeps pass. The third shot below is a termite mound.

We are now coming up to Bamani, this is where we will have some lunch before the climb up to Sanga.

We had a very brief walk around Bamani. I found that the locals here were extremely pushy, trying to sell their trinkets. I did end up buying a goat bag and a necklace after much negotiation....a bag that started out at 30,000 CFA was sold to me for 8,000 CFA...and that was still probably too much.

The first shot is our guide telling us about the local history...and that's my drum he's holding. In the second shot...he's pointing where we have to walk to.

The hike up to Sanga was nowhere near as bad as I had anticipated. It was actually a very interesting climb.

Not quite at the top yet.

Finally....the top. The third shot is the view of the valley that we climbing up from. In the fourth shot below, the trail behind Mike leads back to the edge of the escarpment that we just climbed. The next shot is a building near Sanga...the last shot is a rock quarry....and since there are no machines for a hundred miles....I guess that they quarry the rock with hammer and chisel.

Mike had hired a porter to carry his pack...I guess that it's kinda tough to carry a heavy load when your guts are melting.

A short distance later, we arrived at our hotel at Sanga....our last night in the Dogon Country. We sat down for a few beers and a meal. We also met our driver who will be taking us to Timbuktu tomorrow, his name is Ali and he is Tuareg.

Mike was still kinda sick...and he was straight off to bed...an actual bed. The rest of us looked around Sanga until dark. The last shot is of a rare church...Mali is a Muslim country, but in the Dogon Country there is a mix of Animist, Christian, and Muslim; often all three in the same village.