On the Niger River
Day 9: January 5th, 2007
Today was another early morning, we picked up some bread at a kiosk across the street from the hotel. We hopped in the landcruiser and headed for the river. We would be having breakfast on the boat today. Our guide chartered a private boat for the trip back to Mopti. We will be two nights on the boat, arriving at Mopti on the third day.
In the first shot we are getting our morning bread, the second shot is the gate at the edge of Timbuktu. In the third shot we say good-bye to our driver Ali, we will meet him again in three days at Mopti. In the last shot, we are on the boat and having our breakfast.
The following shot are some of the things we saw along the way. The river was quite a busy thoroughfare, and there were lots of small villages as well on the banks. You will also notice that we are warmly dressed...it was quite a bit colder than I had expected.
Our guide asked us if we wanted fish for lunch....and we did, so he bought some from a fisherman. The fourth picture is our guide Colombie, a very friendly and helpful fellow if there ever was one.
We came across the only real wildlife that we would see.....hippos!
Lots of fishermen and other boat traffic on the river.
Lunch is served...there's fish in there somewhere. The driver of the boat is Sanduci, his son [in the ball cap] is Ama. Both very nice fellows. Ama was in charge of bailing the boat [it leaked a little] and cooking the meals. Most meals were capped off with a little watermelon.
The first two shots are of a public boat that sank.....the public boats are typically overcrowded and overloaded. The last two shots are of some children in a Bozo village where we stopped briefly [in the late afternoon] to buy bread. The kids were selling the bracelets for 500 francs [$1 US] a bundle. We bought a few of them. It was here that we realized that they were calling us "too-bob"....our guide told us that this was the local slang word for "white-skin". He also told us that the local phrase for "black-skin" was "farani". It became a bit of a game for us and the kids....they would call us "too-bob" and we would reply with "farani".
It was well after dark when we stopped for the night at the village of Niafounke...the home town of Ali Farka Toure; a very famous Malian folk singer who passed away not that long ago. We slept on the boat....it was rather cold.
Day 10: January 6th, 2007
We woke up and were under way at about 5:30 AM. It was comfortable in the boat, but it was a cold night. The turbans came in handy in keeping our heads warm. Once the sun came up, we had a little breakfast; then we sat back and relaxed.
Just before 11 AM, we stopped at the village of Akarra to buy some fish, coffee, and supplies. Our guide did not want to get his feet wet, so Sanduci carried him to shore. We waited on the boat and took some pictures of the locals as they watched the "too-bobs".
The girl in the green dress was rather interesting....she constantly gave us grief for taking her picture, but she was always in the perfect spot to have her photo taken. I guess that women are the same everywhere.
Shopping is done, and Colombie is getting back to the boat with dry feet....thanks to Sanduci. In the third photo Sanduci is holding up our lunch.
This river is a very busy place, and the public boats are a common sight...and they are loaded to capacity, and then some.
Just before lunch, we stopped at the village of Akka to buy some bread. Mike got out of the boat and took a few quick photos in the village.
Lunch is served...and David got the head....lucky guy! We then found ourselves in Lake Debo. This is an area where the river spreads out into a very large lake. At one point we could not see the shore in any direction.
Across the lake now, and we are following one of the many river channels. It's a good thing that the boat captain knows the way.
We would see quite a few camps by the river, our guide tells us that the people here are Bozo. They fish for a living.
It's getting late now...we travelled for a few more hours before stopping at the village of Sabo. This will be our last night on the river, tomorrow we will be in Mopti once again.
Day 11: January 7th, 2007
Another cold night. I slept rather poorly and was up before dawn. I went for a brief walk, and I spotted a very cool looking mosque in the town. I came back to the boat to see if my pals were up yet, and they were rousing. There were also some teenaged girls coming down to the river to fetch water. Once they realized that the "too-bobs" were harmless....they lined up for a few pictures. The last photo is the view of the mosque from the riverbank.
We had to go have a look before we got underway again. This is the village of Sabo. Too bad the lighting was rather poor, this was the only mud mosque that I had seen that was painted.
We are underway again. We passed a fisherman and bought a couple of fish for lunch from him. In the last shot you can see the little charcoal stove used to cook our meals.
The third shot is of Mike making use of the toilet facilities. No need to flush here....it's just a hole to the river. In the next shot, Mike is trying to keep from falling off the boat.
More sights on the river....and me in my turban.
Now we are back in Mopti. It is just past Noon and we will be staying here for the night. Then tomorrow it's off to Djenne. Tomorrow is Monday, and that's market day in Djenne. I am looking forward to it. After we went to the chief's house to re-collect our bags, we checked into the hotel. After that we spent some time checking out the harbour....always a busy place; people selling things, doing their laundry, and washing their cars.
A few more shots of the harbour. In the last photo, Derek is ordering some shirts from a local cloth salesman and the taylor. He wanted a shirt with chickens on it....and that's what he got.
More shots of the harbour. The fifth shot below is of pallets of salt slabs that came on the boat from Timbuktu. The last shot is another example of the sanitation in the Third World.
Colombie is now taking us to the other side of the harbour to see the boat factory and check out the market. The last shot is out of focus, but I kept it to show their forge. The kid spins the bicycle wheel to turn a blower that keep the coals red-hot. The craftsmen use hammer and anvil to make all the steel items for the boats....including the nails.
After we were done here, our driver Ali met up with us again, and he drove us to a pizza restaurant. Very nice restaurant, prices were a little high though. Tomorrow it's off to Djenne.