Category Archives: Travel

RTS: No place to stay, part II

25 November 2011 – 17:00

Extraordinary adventures from long drive back from Festival au desert in Timbuktu to Sévaré, a ride across half of Mali. Starting early in the morning and arriving late in the evening to find there is no place to crash. What would you do?

Tags Africa, Almou, Crossroad, Desert, dirt track, extraordinary adventures, Festival, festivities, Hotel, la piste, Mali, Mopti, Music, Niger, Niger River, People, river ferry, Road, Road trip, Segou, Timbuktu, Travel, Tuaregs, wee hours, West Africa | Comment (1)

Mali Music Pictures Random Travel Stories Travel

RTS: No place to stay, part I

24 October 2011 – 11:13

Tags Africa, Almou, Crossroad, Desert, Festival, Mali, Mopti, Music, People, Photography, Pictures, Road, Road trip, Sahel, Sunset, Timbuktu, Travel, Tuareg, West Africa | Comments Off

Mali Random Travel Stories Travel

RTS: La Maison Rouge, Mopti

29 September 2011 – 13:27

When you think you really know the place is when you get surprised the most. Mopti in Mali, one of the poorest countries on earth has unearthed a gem of a place. Knowing the city inside out I somehow managed to miss a hotel called La Maison Rouge that has charm, friendliness and uniqueness in abundance. And is topping it all with excellent cocktails and rooms with a view of a million stars in place of a roof. Beat that if you can. I know I can’t and was taken over…

Tags Africa, Backpack, Bandiagara Escarpment, Bani River, Crossroad, Dogon People, Friendliness, Gao, Hotel, Mali, Mopti, Niger River, Pottery Business, River, River Confluence, Road, Rooftop Bars, Salt Slabs, Segou, Sunset, Timbuktu, Travel, West Africa | Comments Off

Mali Sénégal Travel

Waiting for volcano

14 August 2011 – 22:15

Story of braving a great ash eruption, flight cancellations, long queues under baking hot sun in Malian capital Bamako and discovering the best caffee in town that actually serves a proper Italian espresso and above all making it back home.

Tags Africa, Air France, Almou, Ash eruption, Atlantic ocean, Bamako, Cold Beer, Dakar, Mali, Senegal, Sunset, Travel, Volcanic ash, Volcano Eruption, West Africa, Yoff | Comments Off

Pictures Random Travel Stories Sénégal Travel

RTS: Yoff plage

16 July 2011 – 15:33

Story of a simple stroll around Yoff, a suburb in Dakar, Senegal on my last afternoon in the country before scheduled return to Bamako, Mali. Discovery of a local gym on the beach, followed by a proper fish market right there on the sandy beach and all wrapped up with a nice cold bottle of La Gazelle in a plastic stool.

Tags Africa, Atlantic ocean, Bamako, beach, Cold Beer, Dakar, Fishermen, Hotel, Joal-Fadiouth, Local Gym, Locals, Mali, Mosque Layene, Petite Côte, Pictures, Senegal, Sunset, Toubab, Travel, West Africa, Yoff, Youngsters | Comments Off

Sénégal Travel

Joal & Fadiouth, Sénégal

8 June 2011 – 22:02

Twin village of Joal & Fadiouth on Senegalese Petite Côte was my last port of call before returning to Dakar and return flight to Bamako, Mali. Discovering hidden gems along with friendly and chatty locals and miles and miles of sandy Atlantic Ocean beaches.

Tags Africa, Backpack, beach, Dakar, Hotel, Joal-Fadiouth, Locals, Petite Côte, Pictures, Professor, River, Senegal, Siné-Saloum Delta, Toubab, village | Comment (1)

Mali Random Travel Stories Travel

RTS: Satellite dish

5 May 2011 – 11:38

Story about a failed attempt at setting up a satellite dish in remote Malian village of Teberemt deep in the Sahel region. How a bunch of local young guns and a toubab had a go at setting it up in a place without electricity nor with a help from anybody having at least a slightest clue about setting such a dish up. Drying up emergency car battery along the way to failing miserably.

Tags Africa, Almou, Border, Burkina Faso, Desert, Goat, Indigenous Groups, Mali, Muftah, Rainy Season, Running Water, Sahel, Satellite Dish, Teberemt, Toubab, Tuareg, village | Comments Off

Sénégal Travel

La Petite Côte, Sénégal

12 April 2011 – 12:32

First part of Sénégal’s Petite Côte story, covering visits to villages of Toubab-Dialaw and La Somone written exactly a year after I’ve arrived in La Somone and started writing it. To be followed by a part deux including city of Mbur and twin village of Joal-Fadiouth.

Tags Africa, Atlantic, beach, Belgium, Mbur, Petite Côte, Senegal, Toubab, West Africa | Comment (1)

Travel

An apology, sort of, I guess…

10 March 2011 – 13:49

Ermmm, I don’t know how to put this. An apology is needed I guess. To you my readers. See while I was travelling many things happened to me and some of those I’ve shared with you. Some stayed in my head waiting to see the light of this diary. Some I thought I would not share for various reasons. And some that were in the making, drafts so to speak, but never made it to you. Which is a shame. Especially because the only reason for the latter was I came back home and was overwhelmed with other events, people, projects and ideas. Getting back into daily routine. So, maybe, eeerm, those road stories of mine were left lurking in the darker parts of my head waiting and hoping for better times. And it looks like now, 10 months after the coming back home, might be the time for them to resurface.

Tags Africa, Atlantic, Endless Beaches, Mali, People, Petite Côte, Photography, Road, Road trip, Senegal, Teberemt, Travel, Tuaregs, Volcano Eruption, West Africa | Comments Off

Music Pictures Travel

Photos from Festival sur le Niger 2010

14 May 2010 – 13:07

Pictures of Astan Kida, Atongo Zimba, Baaba Maal, Habib Koïté, Nahawa Doumbia, Salif Keita, Sekouba Bambino Diabaté, Tinariwen performing at Festival sur le Niger 2010 in Ségou, Mali.

Tags Festival, Music, People, Pictures | Comments Off