Tag Archives: Mali

RTS: No place to stay, part II

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?

RTS: No place to stay, part I

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?

RTS: La Maison Rouge, Mopti

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…

Waiting for volcano

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.

RTS: Yoff plage

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.

RTS: Satellite dish

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.

An apology, sort of, I guess…

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.

Destination Sénégal

Story of trying to go to Lomé, Togo to buy a car and drive trough Benin, Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso back to Bamako, Mali but ending up going to Dakar, Sénégal instead.

RTS: The Well

Peul settlers from Chad and Niger causing trouble for local Tuareg population in south eastern Mali.

RTS: Poetry by the lake

Reading very personal poetry on the shores of Mare de Gossi while enjoying the beautiful sunset.