Day 43 45 - Mali, Djiguibombo - Dogon Trek
Trip Start
Nov 09, 2008
1
34
164
Trip End
Jul 02, 2009
Sevare, Mali
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Arriving in our starting village of Djiguibombo we are surrounded by children grabbing at our hands, each one of us ended up with two children swinging off each hand... besides from Sam and Jamie who appear to have put on their snotty nosed kid repellent on with arms firmly crossed.
I got one little girl who, initially sweet, quickly turned into a right little cow whenever someone else tried to grab my hand. Nice to be popular but I finished with her when she belted a girl causing her to fall over and graze her knee.
As well as Ali Baba we have a guide, Mamadou who is from the Dogons and very informative. Getting to the edge of the village they tell the children to stay and we are left walking along the hot dusty tracks towards with the escapement.
Halfway down we spot a pool and as we're all carrying somewhat heavy day packs take the opportunity to dive in... well not exactly dive in for fear of water nasties but at least submerge ourselves. Despite being riddled with pootomouth it was lovely!
We then walked to the bottom of the escarpment and onto the next village for lunch and an afternoon snooze or game of cards, shithead being the card game of the day. Kristy amuses us all with her efforts to buy a gun... not just any gun but a massive musket. Thankfully she decides against it... not sure anyone would be sleeping within a mile radius of her had she purchased it!!
This sets the scene for the next few days... not Kristy trying to buy guns but walking from village to village following the escarpment. We start around 8, walk till 11:30/12 eat lunch, relax and generally try to get out of the midday sun till 3:30 then walk on to the overnight village where we sleep on mattresses under the stars on top of roofs.. It's very dusty and hot but beautiful all the same. The locals couldn't be friendlier.
We explore old school Dogon villages set into the escarpment. How they built up there I have no idea but its incredible. A maze of rock paths and huts looking over the African plains. 10 for the panorama, 1 for convenience. The one we visited was no longer in use but apparently others still are.
Deciding to rid ourselves of day packs some hire an ox to transport theirs to the next village. Hearing we were paying 2,500CFA NZ Mike offers to carry mine in return for soft drink. I of course take him up on the offer and skip away empty handed.
We had two birthdays whilst on the trip - Kristy's 32nd on the 22nd and Jamie's 25th on the 23rd. Kristy's started off by me giving her Jager shots at about 10 in the morning... we figured she'd be toasted already if back in Sydney so may as well start early.
As a birthday treat and just cause we can Suzy, Sarah, Kristy and I all hire donkeys to ride 3km to the next village. Bloody hilarious, all stomachs were hurting from laughing so much. I got a runt of a donkey so small that my feet dragged along the ground. This was made even worse when it decided to go cross country through ploughed fields I ended up half running whilst still riding the bloody thing. Sarah fell off hers... twice I think. Suze being a top notch horse rider kept kicking hers to no avail. They obviously don't abide by the same rules as horses. Kristy got the quickest one trotting off ahead of us. Best 1,500CFA I've spent in the a long time. Next on our list of things to ride are cows (we saw locals doing it) and ostriches. Watch this space.
Kristy's birthday evening turned out to be quite eventful with her downing a bottle of tequila... with the help of myself and non drinker NZ Mike. Needless to say she was totally paralytic whilst the rest of us watched on. She did manage to put in a great bargaining effort on behalf of myself for a "bronze" (more wrought iron) statue getting him down from 60,000CFA to two for 35,000CFA. I'm sure Oliver will be thrilled. At least one was Mum Kates.
Due to Kristy's state we didn't risk her climbing up the dodgy ladder to the roof so moved her mattress down and walked/carried her to bed just before midnight. A most interesting night, especially with Kristy's revelations that Sam was lazy, Mike rich, Jamie and asshole, Mum beautiful and me lovely. Thankfully it was all put down to drunkenness and no offence was taken... at least I don't think so.
I would like to say Jamie's birthday was a little quieter but that would be a lie. Kristy started it with a beer for breakfast in the hope of combating her inevitable hangover. We toured the beautiful village built atop the escarpment and had a demo from a toothless village elder smoking a big pipe and dressing up in all the traditional hunting gear. It was either something in the pipe or the cola nuts (gift given to elders) but whatever it was he seemed rather high and merry.
Birthday boy Jamie had balloons tied to his pack making him the centre of attention for all the kids, at one point being surrounded by about 20 of them singing and dancing. So cute. We reached the final village around 12ish having lost some along the way and sending Ali Baba to go find them. Sorry guys! After dining on yet more couscous and some enjoying a few quiet beers it was time to squish back into the non maxi maxi van and bump and grind our way back to Bandiagara.
