All the way to Timbuktu

It’s hard to tell everything that has happened during two weeks of traveling around West Africa. Short version:17 Lithuanians took four NISSAN cars and went all the way through Ghana, Burkina Faso and up to Timbuktu in Mali and returned through Burkina again and Togo. An impressive, adventurous and really fun journey worth telling grandchildren about:) you can see the road we took in red (it does not include the short detour that our car did, going from Bobo-Diaso (in Burkina) to the border of Mali to see if we can get the visa at the border. We found out that it would make things more complicated so had to turn back, but funnyly enough we had already left Burkina:) So now I have only three empty pages left in my passport which contains four stamps with Burkina Fasso written on them:)):
Meeting others. It was one of the most adventurous things I've done in Ghana. I left Accra on 7th of February (Wednesday) at 2 pm. From the very beginning it was quite a promising journey in terms of adventure. Bus took me to Tamale and in the middle of the night I had to find another bus station and take another bus towards Wa. Here’s when small miracles started to happen. Accidently there was another woman who had to take another bus, so I went with her. At the station I found out that to take a bus to Wa I had to come a day before and put my name on the list. I thought “well isn’t this nice… 4am stuck in some town in almost middle of nowhere”. But then again, accidently there was a guy who had a ticket, but couldn’t go, so he sold it to me!:) So I got to Larabanga, which is 6km from Mole national park, where I was supposed to meet everybody else. I thought I’ll walk:p but again – accidently – I met a guy I’ve met there a couple of times before and he took me to Mole on a motorcycle!!! For the record – it was the first time I rode motorcycle – it’s quite fun;) But it’s not all… I come to reception and they tell me “everybody has checked out!”. Again the same thought “well isn’t it nice…” But somehow I managed to find out that they checked out from the motel, but went for an overnight safari and so after three hours of waiting I finally heard Lithuanian language! Made me quite happy;)

The group. People I have been traveling with were quite diverse in terms of age, background, view to life and traveling. It made the trip a bit more interesting and a bit more complicated, especially for Saulius:) But we traveled quite friendly;) And of course had tons of fun:

These are the pepole I spent most time with: (at Djennie)


The cars. I’m sure it must have looked pretty impressive to see four cars with Lithuanian flags passing by. We looked as some kind of delegation and at the numerous police check up points that we have down here, we were greeted with respect, somewhere even soluted:) Once the guy who was driving was asked “are you an ambassador?”:))) As there were four cars and the distance quite long, you may imagine that we did have some issues with them.


Casualties (I know the count just of two cars): a bird, a chicken, a pig (!), almost a motorcycle and plenty of “almost” donkies, sheep and goats. Two cars (including ours of course) had flat tires.





Our car also had some issues with overheating after fancy driving in Sachara… And these are just bits of all the things happening… Oh and by the way – I drove a car in Ghana and in Burkina Faso!:)))) In Mali I drove only 500 m due to “almost motorcycle casualty”:)

Burkina Faso. Forget everything they teach you at school or you find in statistics. Towns of Burkina Faso are really quite well developed. In Ouagadougou (the capital) the gutters are covered, the streets have lights, they have side walks and French culture is felt in small café’s. I have to admit that I was really surprised by what I saw.


Yet, in the country side people live very simple. Most of them are farmers as opposite of Ghana, where most of them are traders. And just as you cross the border cars and traffic jams are substituted by donkies, motorcycles, mopeds and bicycles. And such views:

At first evening in Burkina Faso some guys met an owner of a local restaurant, who studied in Russia and knew Russian quite well. We also had breakfast at his place and he offered to come with us and show us a bit around:) He was really useful. I think we would have wandered much longer to find some places… But what are the odds?;)

The second night we spend in an amazingly beautiful place with a gorgeous waterfall.

Not much can be said about it, just look at this:

Burkina is not really rich with historical monuments, but here’s what we managed to find:

These are the ruins of something. They don't know exactly what this could be. The speculations go from some banished "king" having his small village here to a some kind of fort used for slaves. The stupid part of this is that they don't actually do the excavations here and don't really try to find out. Though it could be one of the very few touristic places in Burkina.




Animals. I know it sounds a bit snobbish, but it’s already quite hard to surprise me with some animals. During this journey we’ve met:

Hippos (somewhere in Burkina Faso)

Camels (at Timbuktu)

Donkies (aren’t they cute?:) but also SOOO sad, seemed quite suicidal: they would stand on the road as if waiting for the car tohit them and then would turn around and go to the side only when the car would be very close to them...)

Elephants (in Arli national park in Burkina Faso) . we met the whole family with small elephants. Didn't want to disturb them a lot, but they were just a few meters away from us:)

Scarabs (or commonly known as shitbugs:p). The desert is full of these little insects. They are quite funny and totally not harmful.

Mali is historically much richer than Burkina, but economically looks much less developed. Though we didn’t visit the capital – Bamako. We heard it’s a much more impressive place than Ouagadougou. So don’t take my words for granted in this case.

Dogon country. Now this is among the most impressive things I’ve seen during this trip. Until the end of the colonial era, the Dogon were one of the few African peoples who had most successfully retained their culture and traditional ways of life. Even now, despite the presence of Islam and Christianity, Dogon people have largely held onto their animist beliefs.

All this used to be river and very rich land. Therefore the Dogon people think crocodiles are sacred though they haven't seen a real crocodile for a couple of centuries I think:)

This information I found in the internet: Once the residence of the Tellem people, the Dogon moved into the Bandiagara escarpment around the 14th or 15th century. At first sharing the escarpment with the Dogon for a few centuries, the Tellem were pushed out and migrated to Burkina Faso. The tiny buildings of these short people can still be seen, perched safely in higher parts of the cliffs. We were told that those small “houses” were those of pigmees and that Dogon people kicked them out around 11th century. You can choose whom to believe;)

Djenie. is a historically and commercially important small city in the Niger Inland Delta of central Mali. It’s a town where they have the biggest building in the world built from mud and, let’s be fair, shit. I’m sure my sister wouldn’t appreciate the “stunning” architecture, but I have to say it’s pretty impressive.

Everything in that town is made from the same materials. In the past, Djenné was a centre of trade and learning, and has been conquered a number of times since its founding. Its historic city center was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. Timbuktu and the Sahara. Today, Timbuktu is an impoverished town, although its reputation makes it a tourist attraction to the point where it even has an international airport, in spite of the fact that a recent poll showed that 34% of young British did not believe the town existed, while the other 66% considered it "a mythical place".

I don’t think many people would understand me, but for me Timbuktu has also been quite a mythical place, something from the glorious past and I really felt that special vibe while being there. If you’d take out the mobile promotions from the street, it would be the same view as for travelers hundred years ago. It’s both calm and in a way sad…

Timbuktu is currently (end 2006) a candidate in a competition to choose the New Seven Wonders of the World. I don’t think it deserves this title, because I don’t think a lot of people would actually appreciate the mystics about the city. It’s a wonder just to some…

You know how we think that we are very different countries etc. Well we're not that different after all, in Timbuktu kids also go "down the hill" with rogutes:p just it's not really a hill, and not really "rogutes", but the fun is similar, I guess:p
Timbuktu is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed since 1988. In 1990, it was added to the list of world heritage sites in danger due to the threat of desert sands. And that’s easily seen, as you just need to go a couple of hundred meters from the city “center” and you’re in the desert.

Here’s where we camped for two nights. It was really impressive…

And here’s where I saw the most beautiful sunset in my life:
After Timbuktu. That’s when the whole plan started to change. Some cars went straight back to Ghana, to have more time to lie on the beach. Some followed the plan and therefore went a couple of thousand kilometers in two days. From Sahara to Atlantic Ocean and ended up in Lome, the capital of Togo. Here the most important place to mention is the Voodoo market. It’s pretty macabre I have to say, but impressive none the less:
And some interesting things we saw on the way:

Baobabs. They are really huge and impressive trees. I'm not surprised they were used in the Little prince to mean something that can be very hard to get rid off:) They seem like they would be standing there for ever...

I cannot put all the nice views that we saw on the way in my blog, nor the pictures can reflect accurately how gorgeous it really is...

I guess some of you might be wondering how hot it actually was. Here's one proof: (but I also have a picture of a car termometer, which shows 49 degrees!). Though it didn't feel that bad any time... I hope I'll not be cold during summer in Lithuania:D

After this trip I can easily say that I don't care much where I sleep - I did in on the roof of a house, in a normal bed, on the floor near the normal bed and most often - in the car:) and the means of transportation don't matter as well - a weird canoe with water comming from everywhere didn't bother me much, though some people were quite scared:)

P.S.For more stories and pictures please go to Saulius' blog;)