Expert: Ernest Tufft - 10/1/2006

Question
Hi, Ernest,
I'm travelling to Mali in Dec. with a friend who usually travels fancier (I'm a backpacker/overlander), but is athletic and adventurous.  What would be a good itinerary?  (The Dogon valley trek is essential.) How would you recommend we get from town to town?
Can you recommend some off the beaten path places?
Thanks!
Nancy

Answer
Hi Nancy,  You can check out my pages for Bandiagara, Mali, and other Mali pages w/photos as virtualtourist.com.  My member name is atufft.  Few people get a chance to revisit the escarpment where the Dogon live, and so I don't recommend taking the "off the beaten path" although there are some trails less frequented.  The north and middle end have the Tellem ruins, which are high up in the cliff, much like Mesa Verde, as well as the most scenic Dogon villages.  I recommend going all the way to Bandiagara before accepting any guide services.  This is important because for literally hundreds of miles away, tour guides and travel agents will be harassing you to take their services.  Although a guide to walk along and make introductions at each village is virtually necessary, it's best to get a guide right near the trailhead.  Take a pop-up mosquito net for two, available on-line, and plan to sleep in rather primative encampments.  You'll want to take your own food and water, so work this out with the guide, who can also provide porters to carry your stuff.  There are good bargains on wood carvings and such along the way and so its useful to have some guys around the porter the water and extra junk you may have.  Donkey carts are also available, but if you are a good hiker, this won't be necessary.  There's only one really good hotel in Bandiagara, and I recommend staying there before and after the hike.  The French-Swiss owner is very helpful and can help make arrangements if you like, but his prices may be higher than can be bargained for in town.

If you fly to Bamako, you can take buses or minivans past several towns.  Unless you are nervous about mixing with the locals, this is recommended as a dramatic cost savings.  The buses are well used and occasionally break down, but they are not uncomfortable really, reasonably reliable, and frequent enough.  Gas and hired drivers are much more costly.  Strange as it may seem, personal security and risk of theft in West Africa is generally not a problem.  Though you will likely carry mostly cash for your hotel and restaurant transactions, nobody on the bus will be much interested in the bundle of bills you have stuff in your day pack, along with the camera and other electronics that may also be there.  We actually enjoyed very much the adventure of finding our transportation as we went along, and while we did have a bus break down one day, we nevertheless managed to keep to our itinerary.

From Bamako, Segou is a good stop for a night.  We stayed in a modest hotel that had a view of the Niger River, which is really quite beautiful in a strange sort of way, with the pole pushed and loaded perogues traveling up and down the wide muddy river.  Across the river from Segou are a number of villages worth visiting.  If you are short of time, you can go direct from Segou to Djenne in one day, with the bus dropping you off at the crossroads to Djenne.    For us, this was the day the bus broke down, and we (my wife and I), were concerned because we were dropped off at about 12 midnight, and had to bargain for a taxi in the darkness.  We ended up paying the huge price of $15- for a 15 mile ride in a wreck with bad brakes and bad lights, but like so many other such experiences in Mali, the adventure in the old rusty wreck was well worth the expense:-)

Djenne is worth a couple days, one day for the mud mosque and market (try to arrive on a Monday for the market, I believe--check your notes), and another for visiting the many villages in the area.  There are local guides that will show you around for a very low price.  At the time of your visit, I believe it will still be quite wet and muddy in the area, so you might be able to take a boat, otherwise a scooter is a good way to get across the barren expanse.

We didn't go to Timboctou, but arrangements for this trip can be made either in Djenne or Mopti.  Mopti is a busy city, but it's also worth a day.

We traveled through Burkina Faso and Ghana so after you have browsed this link, ask again any questions you may have.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/m/

Have fun--Ernest