Far is near

3 days ago I was left in Ouaga, the capital of Burkina Faso, pondering what my next move will be. Missed the only bus to Cotonou in Benin I had to figure out what is going to be my next destination. Had a nice chat, beer and pizza with Mr Sumudu and his wife from Sri Lanka and by the time the evening has finished I knew where I was to go next.

They have suggested exploring Togo in place of Benin as there were better connections to Lomé than Cotonou but once I have discovered the journey from Ouaga to Lomé would take at least 18 hours that was off my list. Besides I would need to get a visa for entering the country which would leave me with spending another idle day in Ouaga. With time constraints imposed it was not a hard decission to abandon that plan.

What I have figured out is I have always dreamt of taking the pinasse from Mopti to Timbuctu in Mali and if I would hurry up I could just have made it before I would need to be back in Duentza where Almou would pick me up on the way to village of Teberemt. And so it was, plan was made and my hearth set on doing it.

Next morning I hopped on a ride back to Bobo just to find the same nice English couple that I have came across in Ouaga staying in my hotel. And I seized the opportunity to get as much info as I could as they have just done the same pinasse trip back in Mali. The rest of the evening evolved around finding my lost Malian phone card (thank you mister lamb vendor! 😉 ) and sharing a well deserved chilled Brakina beer with Cruz. And an early hop to bed as the bus leaving Bobo was planned for 6am.

Things got a bit funky after a changed rides in Bla (yap, believe it or not, that is the name of the town. And yes it is worthy of wearing his name, being a blah place 😉 ) hopping on to Bamako-Mopti bus which was a proper African express crammed to the top and more with unscheduled stops at every hut to pick up some more passengers. A proper experience one would expect from riding buses in Africa. Hot as hell and no ventilation. But they do get you to where you want to go. Eventually 😉

That was last night. And today I’ve set out to fix a ride to Timbuktu. Now mind you it is not the best of the seasons for doing it. Low water and strong winds. So for a start there are not many pinasses plying the route. And even those that do they take around 6 days instead of usual 3. And they leave really sporadically. With at least six days to get me to Timbuktu plus time to do the dirt track between there and Duentza I was again running out of options. As I would miss Almou picking me up. Or make him wait for me for days. Either was not an appalling option. It was time to find another sollution. And so I’ve chartered a pinasse from a friend of ours for 2 to 3 days that is going to take me discovering le Lac Debo and beautiful villages surrounding it. Plus some additional hypo spotting. Wanna hop on for the ride?