So let’s start at the end. I’m taking 4 months off for travelling. Backpacking trough west Africa using buses, bush taxies, pirogues, Sotramas, camels and the like. My general – infeasible – plan includes visiting 11 countries. Landing in Bamako I’ll make my yearly pilgrimage to Festival au desert in Essakane, just north of Timbuktu, Mali – which is a feat in it’s own right. Three days of music extravaganza in the middle of Sahara desert with almost no sleep, shooting concert pictures, battling immense temperature differences between day and night, friendly Tuaregs and invigorating tea by the camp fire.
After some well earned days of rest deep into Gourma region bushes with the family it is time for some more exploration of Malian countryside before heading across the border into Burkina Faso for some more friendly people and Ouagadougou – probably the coolest name off any world capitals, from there it is off to Benin and it’s lakes and lagoons followed by Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast (heard so many great things about it’s main city Abidjan that I’ll do almost anything to be there), Liberia with some of the nicest and since two civil wars almost empty beaches, war torn Sierra Leone, Guinea suffering from the latest coup d’etat which followed presidents ContĂ©’s death, Guinea Bissau, the former Portuguese colony boasting an incredible Bijagos Archipelago and finally Senegal with lively capital Dakar and nicely laid back city of Saint-Louis. The only thing that is certain from this list is flying back to Paris from Bamako at the end of april and catching a train ride across half of Europe back home – which is supposed to give me at least some time to mull over the feelings, experiences, people, places and events before being hit with a harsh reality of daily routine.
I realise that such a plan is very optimistic unless you just wanna run around the region and only ticking off the places from the list which is not something that interests me. It is more of a general game plan to have at least some sense of direction. Not only it is bound to be changed it is sure to be moulded into something completely different. For a start there are countries already off the list. Guinea with its unpredictable military rulers that are alleged to oversee the killing of 157 people during a peaceful protest is off the list. Which will in turn make it so much harder to go to Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau as they are both almost embedded into its territory which poses huge efforts and detours should I choose to visit them anyway. There is also a similar story with Togo, having planned elections at the end of february and a history of post-election violence. But even more important than following current political situation is my tendency for doing things on the whim – going where the road takes me, staying in places much longer than imagined when somewhere just feels right to stay there. Be it for friendly and interesting people or just the feeling of the place.
