Janet's diary. Travelling with Ollie in Africa
From Bamako to the Dogon Valley
Sunday 18th January
We had left Mopti and all it's madness behind us and now were heading towards Bankass. We had the GPS set to locate a small side road into the Dogon valley and thus avoid us visiting Bankass for there we would surely have to do battle with the Dogon guides again. At 15.30 the GPS let out a beep and there, sure enough, was a track leading off into the bush and a small sign to Kano Bozo.
We were now driving on a soft sandy Piste through dense bush and although we could not see any villages from the track we encoutered quite a few people, herders with cows and sheep mostly. We encountered no other traffic other that the odd bicycle or moped battling through the sand.
It was time to find a place to camp for the night and we soon found a suitable spot. while setting up camp we were visited by a woman with a baby on her back, she asked for water and then went on her way. She was soon followed by a distinguished looking elderly gentleman dressed in traditional robes and carrying a wooden staff. He greeted us and then stood silently watching us as we organised our camp; I suppose that in these parts we are something of a novelty.
With camp set up I started preparing vegetables for a curry, I'm afraid Andrea hasn't improved much in helping with the chores; she still just sits and watches me working. While cooking our meal we had two more visitors, two young Muslim men, possibly goat herders but sadly other than a few hand gestures and some limited French, we were unable to communicate with these people.
It was another wonderful clear night the sky full of stars and the sounds of the night creatures and distant villages. After clearing up at around 8 o'clock we decided on an early night, we were all pretty tired after our night in Mopti where we hadn't got much sleep at all, it was good to be back in the bush again. Day 12. Mileage 210
Week 11. Monday 19th January
It was such a very peaceful spot, so the three of us slept well. We got up just after dawn and were on the road by 8.30. The road continued to be very sandy and it wasn't long before we got our first view of the Falaise. The Falaise is a 150 kilometre escarpment, a long wedge of sandstone pushed up by movement of the earth's plates during prehistoric times and quite impressive when it first came into view
The first village that we came to was Kani-kombole, nestled at the base of the three hundred metre cliff face. Whereas the people once lived high up in the cliff face, they now live on the valley floor in strangely shaped mud houses and grain stores.Following the cliff face eastwards for a further 4 kilometres we came to the village of Teli.Here above the village, high up in the cliff face, we could see the spectacular cliff side houses.Parking the truck at the
edge of the village we walked towards the houses and were immediately surrounded by children. A young man who looked about eighteen came forward, he asked if we needed a guide and we agreed to accept his help. The children were fascinated with Ollie; I don't think that they get many Land Rovers coming through here. They were equally fascinated by our security system when it bleeped on closing the doors.
Guindu, our new guide,took us to the village chief and asked his permission for us to climb up to the old village. We paid the chief the village tax of 1,000cfa and made him a gift of some Kola nuts. He then took us to his house where we were shown into a small room crammed with old carving, masks and other artefacts for sale. We had a good look and asked a few prices, which sounded a bit pricey; there would need to be some bargaining here!So we said that we would return when we came down from the cliff.As we emerged back into the sunlight we heard a lot of wailing and ululating coming from across the other side of the village, then as we walked through the narrow paths we came upon a burial party, making there way to the burial place. The leaders of the procession were carrying the body on a wooden stretcher. Our guide drew us aside and told that it was an old man who had died that morning and warned us not to take photographs.
He led us up narrow path to the cliff face. It was quite a hard climb scrambling over rocks and boulders up to the disused village. After about two hundred feet we came to ledges in the cliff face,here perched precariously, were the ruins of old houses and granary's.The history of the Dogon tells that the people may have originally come from the Nile region. Determined to preserve their traditional religion in the face of Muslim expansion, they migrated to the safety of the Falaise in the fifteenth century and in spite of numerous aggressors over the century's they have remained true to their beliefs. The villages are laid out in Human shape, in twin parts, as the basis of their religion is built on twins. Dogon houses contain niches, as reminders of primitive ancestors, and the granaries are divided into a complex series of inner compartments that represent the Cosmos.
The villages are filled with offerings to their gods and they come in different forms, some are just a simple rock or clay Pilaster covered in sacrifices of chicken blood or millet paste.It was amazing to appreciate that people used to live up here on these narrow ledges. We had to scramble and climb over walls, through narrow passage ways and climb crude wooden ladders in our exploration. It's hard to describe the feelings that we felt being in such an amazing place with breath-taking views out over the plains combining with the wailing of the women,
attending the funeral rising up from the village below us. We spent a good hour clambering around and exploring the old village. Climbing back down to the village we went back the chiefs little shop where we sat and bargained finally,purchasing a Dogon calendar made of cast metal for 5,000 CFA. Then, with our guide Guindo Abdoulaye, preceding us on his moped we continued on our way to the village of Ennde, how these guys manage to ride their Mopeds through the soft sand, has to be seen!...
Just outside the village we stopped and sitting in the shade of a tree we ate our lunch. We soon had an audience of three small children so I cut up some Paw-Paw and gave it to them with some bread.Once more following Guindo we drove through Ennde to the village of Doundourou, where he had said that he would lead us up through the Falaise to three villages situated at the top of the cliff.The roads so far had been very difficult with lots of soft sand, we also had to cross many dry streams and washouts some of these tipped Ollie at some alarming angles and in places there was only just enough room for him to squeeze between the steep banks. We now had to cross a wide sand river and Steve, with some difficulty, made it across and parked in the shade of a small stand of trees. From here we started a very steep climb up a narrow rocky pathway, it was extremely hot and we were sweating profusely.Half way up we met some locals leading two Donkeys down,it must be dreadfully difficult for these creatures to manage such a difficult route.We were almost at the top when the path opened out and led into a small valley where there was a beautiful garden, so green and lush. The whole valley floor was laid out in neat little plots where the villagers were growing the famous Dogon onions, plus, lettuce, Tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and tobacco. Several villagers were tending the plants, watering and weeding them by hand. The whole place had an air of peaceful tranquillity. We carried on up to the top of the cliff where we came upon three villages laid out in a circle, our guide explained that one was Christian, one Muslim and one Animist. We were taken to the house of the chief of the Christian village and we were invited to sit on reclining wooden chair under a thatched "Toguni" this is an open air hut roofed with millet stalks, where elders meet to chat.The chief asked if we would like a drink and on asking what was available we were told Coca -Cola, would you believe,I don't think that we have been anywhere in Africa where you can't buy the stuff.
Steve picked up a game board from the table, it was just a rough piece of wood with two rows of carved indentations, and stones are moved around the board in a set sequence. Guindo tried to explain to Steve how to play, but with little success. While sitting here a young Japanese girl and her guide, who we had seen earlier at Teli joined us. He spoke very good English and told us that in a couple of days they were going to Timbuktu.Andrea said that it was a place she would like to have visited and they asked her if she would like to join them. She said she would need time to think about that.
After exploring the other two villages we stood at the edge of the cliff and were treated to more stunning views across the dry sandy landscape dotted with trees and
bushes as far as the horizon. Andrea asked my opinion as to whether she should go to Timbuktu,I told her that it wasn't up to us and it must be her own decision. As we wandered back to join the others she said that she'd made the decision to go with them. So an agreement was made and a young lad was sent with us to return to the truck and help bring her things back up to the village.On reaching Ollie Andrea collected her things together and we bade her farewell, before leaving us she said that she wished to help with our expenses and gave Steve 10,000 CFA, 10 pounds! We were both, secretly, rather pleased to see her go and be on our own again.
We paid Guindo 5,000 CFA as had been agreed; he gave us his address and asked us to write to him. Saying farewell he "sped" off on his moped, sand flying from his back wheel. He had been one of the best guides that we had encountered so far on our trip.By the time we were ready to move it was after 6pm and the light was fading fast. Try as we may we could not find the track back across the sand river. Rather than get ourselves stuck in deep sand in the fading light and although we were quite close to a village we decided to set up camp here.We tucked Ollie in behind some huge sandstone boulders close to the bottom of the cliff then I quickly arranged our bedding inside the truck and set about cooking some spaghetti and Vegetable sauce.Eating at our table under a very starry sky, we heard strange eerie, sounds drifting down from the cliff face. As I was clearing away the dishes we saw a light coming towards us from the direction of the village. I held my breath for a moment and then three young men, carrying a lantern, appeared out of the darkness. After greeting us they tipped the contents of a large sack, which they were carrying, onto the ground and then we all sat in a circle on the ground examining the contents. They tried to explain using sign language and the few words of French that we could understand, that these were ancient Dogon carvings which they had found in the caves in the cliff face.I was rather taken with two small wooden figurines and after some bargaining we purchased them for 5,000 CFA. One of them now asked me if I had any medicine for his sore ankle. I inspected his ankle and I could see that he had a large open ulcer which must have been very painful.There was not much I could do for him because he really needed to see a doctor but I got my first aid box from the truck, cleaned the ulcer with antiseptic, applied Savlon and covered it with a large sticking plaster dressing. They thanked us and then disappeared into the night. It proved again that you are never alone in Africa. Mali day 13.
Tuesday 20th January.
It seems strange to be sleeping inside the truck again as for some time now we have been sleeping in the roof tent. I had an undisturbed night and so slept well. We were up at 6am and after a quick bite to eat, began packing Ollie. It was while doing this that we saw people coming down from the cliff and we realised where the previous nights strange noises had come from,Now,in daylight, we easily found our track back across the sand river.It was our intention to go as far as the next village of Guimini, but try as we may we could not find the road. Stopping at the nearby village Steve went and asked for directions, without success. He then went and walked around the back of the village but all he could see was un-drivable sand without any trace of a Piste. We decided to re-trace our track along the valley and at around 9.30, between the villages of Ennde and Teli, we pulled off the track where I cooked egg, tomato and fried bread then we had a wash, tidied our selves up a bit and then set off around 11.00.
Back at the village of Kani-Kombole we parked Ollie in front of some mud houses and a man, who turned out to be the chief, came out and beckoned us in. While Steve was locking the truck I followed the chief through a doorway into a compound where, in one corner, there was a large open fire and oven.A girl was cooking food and the heat from the fire was tremendous. In another room we met three people, reclining on the ubiquitous local wooden recliners beds. They were a German couple and travelling with them an Australian guy, they were hiking along the Falaise with a local guide.After introductions we joined them on the recliners and purchased a couple of Coke's. During our conversations they told us that they had met fillip and Nele, our old travelling companions along with Nick and Sarah at the Green Diamond camp site, just outside Fez in Morocco. That was the camp site that had been under water when we tried to camp there at the beginning of our trip.
It was about twelve thirty when we decided that we would drive back in the direction of Doundourou. On the way there I noticed a village at the base of the cliff with quite different shaped houses from ones we had seen so far.We drove towards it in the hope that we could find a track that would lead us there.After a couple of false starts we parked Ollie in the shade of a large tree a couple of hundred yards from the houses.About eight young boys came running down from the village to meet us.I asked them if we could visit their village and one young lad said that he was the Chiefs son and would take us to see his father. Accompanied by the children we set off in long line, winding our way up a narrow path at the base of the cliff, climbing over and around huge round boulders on the way.Halfway to the village we heard the alarm on the truck go off and on looking back saw children scattering in all directions. They must have tried to climb onto the truck and had received a nasty surprise when the alarm went off. Steve went back to check that all was OK but the noise had frightened the children enough for them not to return. Reaching the village we were introduced to the chief who was reclining on his wooden Lounger (they were all the rage here) outside his hut with him were a man carving a large piece of wood with an axe and a woman who we assumed was the chief's wife as she was pounding Manioc. At this point we were joined by a young man who whose who introduced himself as Abdoulay. He spoke quite good English so we explained to him that,if possible, we would like to look around the village and take photographs. Abdoulay spoke to the chief who agreed this was alright and said that he would take us further up the cliff to see a pygmy burial ground. Paying the chief our 1,000 CFA tax and a handful of Kola nuts we set off following our guide through the village along alleyways that were inches deep in dried goat's droppings and then began climbing a very narrow steep path up the cliff with some of the children following.It was certainly worth the effort, we were shown a burial cave and peered into the gloom, it was full of the bones and skulls of what out guide said were Pygmies who had occupied these cliffs before the arrival of the Dogon people. We clambered over walls and through the ruined houses and then came upon an old chief's house. This must have still had great significance to the villagers as we were allowed to enter an anti chamber but were not permitted to go any further and the children were not allowed in at all, they all stood outside peering in. On our way back down we stopped for a while in the shade of a huge tree to get our breath back and admire the amazing views across the roofs of the village with the arid tree studded plains beyond.
Back down in the village we took quite a few photographs including one of our guide with his prized possession, a large brown and white bull that lived in his village house with him.The chief was still reclining on his chair when we went back to thank him.Steve took some more photos of them all and then we shook hands and said goodbye. Abdoulay asked if we would write him a letter of recommendation and returned to the truck with us to give us his address. We climbed back down over the boulders, still accompanied by our band of children.
On returning to Ollie I had hunt around in the cupboards and found a pair of bright red plastic sandals that I had never worn.I presented them to the young boy who had originally taken us to the village and had been very helpful to us, his little face lit up with a huge smile as I handed them to him.We drove away and as I looked back to wave, the sight of this little lad standing in the middle of the track clutching that pair of plastic shoes to his chest as if they were made of gold will remain with me for the rest of my life.It was time to start heading back out of the valley, we had quite a bit of trouble finding the right track but eventually found the road that we had come in on.At about 5pm we found a suitable camping spot, quite close to the place where we had camped on the way in.For dinner we had M&S steak in gravy as a treat, with Smash and green beans. After an eventful tiring day we turned in at around 21.00.We should have liked to have spent longer here but with only limited time to get to Abidjan on our temporary passport, we had to push on. Still, we now had some wonderful memories of the Dogon country, quite a unique place.Day 68.
