Welcome
Unofficial Guide Book Supplement.
About 50% of the trip below contains information not in the 2006 Lonely Planet for West Africa. For example one of the embassies has moved - this fact alone could save you a couple of hours, or how about avoiding Bilharzia in one hotel! This is also a useful summary of a good trip which simply packs a lot of highlights into a short a route as possible.
As someone who has travelled throughout the world West Africa can be about 50 / 50, that is to say half work and half pleasure, but you do get the excitement, outside Mali and Ghana, of going to places which have seen very little tourism and consequently they have quite a natural ambience and pristine feel.
Visas made Easy!
Fly into Burkina Faso - get a visa at the airport, spend a couple of days in the capital whilst getting another visa for Ghana. When in Accra (Ghana) get a Visa Entente issued in 4 hours (which covers Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina, Cote D'IVoire). When in Niger get a Malian visa also issued pretty quickly. In Mali visas can be obtained for neighbouring countries too. One post on the web said he had problems getting into Niger with the Visa Entente, and he had to buy one on the border, we had no problems at all. You can run in to problems anywhere always threaten to get the police, and if they are the police (!), say you want to speak to their boss.
Visa ententes are, theoretically issued at any of the participating countries embassies. Apparently this should only be in VE countries, but the Togo emabassy in Ghana issued ours quite quickly.
Usually it is not that much hassle to get a visa as for one reason or anothe you will want to stay in the capital for a couple of nights anyway. I think in many cases, when you factor in the cost of transport, it is also much cheaper to buy them when you are away and often, as most routes go through the capital, more convenient as well.
Top 16 Must Knows for West Africa
1. Speak French well.
Very few people in the Francophone countries speak English. Now, even with reasonable French, it can be quite hard to get a bottle of water! Why because the ennunciation is often not clear, and you may have to haggle. Lots of museum tours etc are in French. Don't go unless your French or someone in your party's French is reasonable. You will manage with poor French but there is a big difference between managing and enjoying your trip.
2. It is probably the hardest area in the world to travel.
The bus services are getting better, but often you will be sitting in a small beat up van for a few hours, before setting off when you are driven Very slowly around roads of variable quality. They pack you in like no where else. There are big comfortable buses now on most routes, and it really is worth working out how to avoid small buses as much as possible. Hopefully the Planet will improve its information about buses especially in Benin - the bus information was useless / out of date. Good French helps to find them!
3. Almost no other travellers to meet.
There are very few people travelling in West Africa. During a 4 month trip we met only about 9 other travellors. Compare that to well over a hundred in Central America. In other words it's not a great place to go if you want to meet other people, and I strongly recommend not going alone unless you are impervious to loneliness. Of the extremely experienced travellors we met a couple were fed up because the negatives were outweighing the positives when going solo. This goes especially for the dodgier countries such as Nigeria. You may well be safe enough in the 'not recommended places' because you have sussed out where to go and how to do it safely, but you are almost guaranteed not to meet any other backpackers. Though there are many aide workers in Ghana, and Mali and Burkina Faso are somewhat weirdly full of tour parties and French expats!
4 Guides everywhere.
Now don't let them put you off going as by and large they are a minor irritation, and sometimes you enjoy the challenge of getting rid of them.
Basically someone comes up to you in the street, pretends to be chatty, asks you lots of questions about your age, name, nationality, and generally befriends you. After which they will finally mention that they have a shop "just around the corner", ha! Will you come and see it. Ouagadougou was the worst for us for this. But everyone says the same thing 'the place I arrived - that was the worst', simply because at first you are friendly. Later you learn to say - and you had better remember this: 'I don't take guides, I don't buy souveniers.' 'Please go away we like to walk alone.' My favourite is this, ANYONE who comes up to you in the street and starts chatting is always a CONMERCHANT. After they have said hello, what is your name, I reply and say 'what do you do for a living' at which point they have to admit they are selling something, which means that you can get rid of them quickly. And that, trust me is the main thing, otherwise they can go on for a long long time. ALSO GREAT: scold them, you know what they are doing, tell them off and they'll walk away like guilty school children.
Occasionally a guide will just come and stand next to you or sit at your table uninvited. If they do just say please do not stand/sit there. It's obvious, but it is wierd when it first happens.
5 No working cashpoints + Money
Okay there are a few, but don't rely on 1 cashpoint in a town as they are often terminally broken. Oh so funny. Take Euros + cashpoint card for emergencies + travellors cheques (just for fun). The CEFA currency is used almost everywhere thank goodness and it really cuts down hassle.
6 General Rip off Bastards.
I used to pride myself on very very rarely getting ripped off, until I went to W Africa. The problem is that everyone wants to rip you off. You get overwhelmed by probability. Behind this is the culture of 'the rich SHOULD give to the poor'. It's their tradition. So if they ask for 2 dollars for water, they don't see it as a rip off, just rebalancing the money distribution. If you are on a tight budget you will have to work pretty hard to get the right price on things. I usually ended up working fairly hard, occassionally I would laugh at them if they really tried it on before walking away but usually I would end up paying 10 percent more for a few things - (not much money) - because it was just so boring to argue all the time.
Two examples of crazy W Africa money desperation - sitting down under a deserted hut roof (not even any walls) in the middle of no where. Woman appears and says it will cost you to use this shade. Oh yes. Or in the middle of nowhere, at a very small waterfall, you will find some guy who has waited all day just for your 20 cents us?? Someone will follow you into a shop and speak in the local dialect to the shop keeper - 'Hey shopkeeper I brought this tourist here, charge him double and give half to me' - this happened about once a month. Coming out of the airport in Mauritania some guy grabs our bags and almost runs out of the airport. All the time I say we don't want a porter, Afterwards he wants a tip. I did not just say no I told him that his behaviour was really really poor.
7 Cost of Water
Water is between 40 and 60 Euros per person per month, or for two people for three months that is about 300 Euros! It works out much cheaper and much more convenient to buy a filter, and take some purification tabs as well just in case. It is also much better for the environment.
8 Best place to Go?
Best - Benin - easily the best - plenty to see. People DELIGHTFUL. Cheap CLEAN!!! A world travellor begged me not to tell anyone, but hey Benin deserves more than zero tourism. Go there.
Worst on the itinerary below - Burkina Faso - pretty useless. Goram Goram not worth the hassle. Bamfora the only place worth visiting. Hotel Baobab, not in the 2006 edtion, there was great, unfortunately it is off the unbeaten track. They have bicycles for free and you can make two lovely rides through rice fields and sugar cane fields to some wonderful cascades (about a 500 meter stretch of them) and on another day to a hippo lake. Though don't count on seeing hippos. The owners are great and their food is good too.
9 Visa Entente
You can get them within a Visa Entente country usually at the Togolese embassy or the Burkina embassy and definitely at the TOGO EMBASSY IN GHANA. They deal them out in four hours. Cool. This visa covers Burkina, Togo, Benin, Niger, and the Ivory coast, so long as you just go from one to the other and do not leave the entente area. It saves some money and lots of time and hassle.
10 Oh that's what you said.
Even if you speak perfect French you will have trouble with the numbers. They do not use your French teacher's clear tones.
phonetically
100 = ss-on
500 = ss-on ss-on
600 = see ss-on
700 = sai ss-on
It was very annoying, having had quite a bit of French tuition to get confused by this! But once you realise what's going on it's fairly easy.
11 Always find out the price
Annoyingly resteraunts often do not have a price list. Always always check the prices of anything you order or they will about 50% of the time try and charge a huge amount of money. It is annoying!
12 Rise and Shine
The air is much cooler in the morning and it is a good idea to do what the locals do and get up at sunrise. Most of the buses leave extremely early as well so it becomes a natural habit to embrace. They may often use the worst minibus for the last bus (often mid-morning) of the day as people don't have a choice to wait for a better one later.
13 Almost no where to buy books
There are a few book exchanges in Mali, but elsewhere you will be hard pushed to find English books. I would take about half a dozen, at least, per person if going again.
14 Take breakfast with you
Sometimes it is inconvenient to have breakfast as some buses leave EXTREMELY early, and it can also be irritating to find yourself in a resteraunt for an hour at that time of day. For what you get, bread and coffee it is also a bit of a waste of money. All in all I strongly recommend a small heating element, tea/coffee, powdered milk and a mug. This doesn't weigh very much and will pay for itself very quickly.
15 You will DEFINITELY need a mobile phone for hotel reservations see below for examples.
16 Consider Overlanding
If you drive a car down you can probably pay for all or at least most of the petrol. You will get to see a lot more and experience less hassle.
Special West Africa Travel Kit
Anti Bite cream - I have met loads of travellers, LP writers, you name it, and for some reason they don't carry this. It does three things - numbs the area for several hours, brings down the swelling and to some extent counteracts the bit. It is a must have, and if you have ever had more than two bites in one area you will know it's a must have.
Mosquito Net - quite annoyingly most of the ceilings are cement, so if you can find some kind of Mosquito net tent arrangement, that would be ideal.
Water purification kit, not just puritabs
No sleeping bag necessary. If you are sleeping in the desert take thermals, Bab Sahara will supply sleeping bags if going camping around Atar.
Mobile
A camera case which keeps the sand out
Nose balm for the Harmattan. This they sell everywhere in W Africa, wipe a small amount at the entrance to the nose and it stops your nose drying out.
Breakfast tea / coffee kit Saves money and time. Maybe, if you don't like mouth numbingly sweet pineapple jam, take some Marmite, Vegemite or peanut butter.
Vitamins with minerals - the diet can be terrible at times.
Recommended routes.
Ignore the Lonely Planet routes. Everyone really prefers a bit of variety to get a flavour of several different cultures and landscapes.
Two Weeks
Benin, the star of West Africa - very untouristy, plenty of variety, great museums, great beach at Grand Popo, loveliest people, park land, no guides and Tata Somba houses.
or
Mali - Hombori was amazing in terms of landscape - huge rock towers, a couple of days there. Dogon trekking and historic Djenne. Pretty nice trip, but people quite intense and some guide hassle. Slightly aggressive vibe in the people.
also worth investigating are Nigeria, and Cameroon. Though we had reports of hassle in Cameroon.
One Month
Ghana, Togo and Benin
Three months
see route below
More than three months
The route below but try and take in Mauritania. For most people 3 months will be more than enough. Mauritania is great but you could maybe include that in a month trip to Morrocco with a side trip into the North of Mauritania - the most exciting part - on another trip.
The Best Three Month Route
Most of this infomation is not in the current lonely planet.
Most of the people we met flew into Dakar because of the cheap flights, however everyone also said the guide hassle in Dakar was phenomnenal and most people thought Senegal was pretty bad, and all right at best. So don't bother.
Air France do flights to Ouagadogou in Burkina. You apply for a visa at the airport and pick it up the next day. Ask to pick it up early and apply straight away for the Ghanian visa. The Ghanian embassy is not open on a weekend. So avoid this.
Ouaga is not great to walk around as the pollution / dust is heavy and there are no pavements so basically you have to walk in the road. The motorcycle taxis are very cheap and definitely worth considering. The Pavillion Verte hotel is a good place to meet people and it has a nice garden to sit in but there are guides everywhere. It's probably best to stay in a central place close to resteraunts or spend a little extra and find somewhere quiet on the periphery of the city with a pool.The Zaka bar is usually empty at night, and it feels weird having a band just play to you and a couple of mates, but it is great during the day. They make a fantastic salad called the Papa Noel. Goram Goram is not recommended. The guide writer obviously had problems with Burkina as there is nothing much to do there so went over the top about the market. The markets in Niger are much better. The items for sale in the markets are more or less the same everywhere in where.
You could either head straight for Mole national park in Ghana, or take a side trip to Bamfora. Bamfora and Bobo Diasolu are great. There is a missing highlight in the book about the Bamboo Bar in Bobo. The setting there is magical, and the bands are extremely professional. A real highlight.
In Banfora go to the Baobab Campement, ask a taximan, they will know it, but they do charge 5,000 to take you there. It is lovely, good food, free bicycles, good host and a couple of great day trips make this a lovely couple of days.
The only hotel in Boromo has closed.
Heading to Mole is a bit of a pain. The LP is always poor for borders as the writers very rarely cross them. At the Hamale border walk about 300 meters past the check point then turn right to get to the bus station. Unfortunately you will probably pick up a guide. A bush taxi down to Wa may be the same price as a bus. Plenty of transport to Wa. Now the big trick with Wa is EITHER to get there as late as possible to take the 3 o'clock in the morning bus ! to Mole. Wa is an absolute dive. Only street food. No cafes. Filthy dirty. OR and probably better get to the Sawla junction on the same day and spend the night there. Unfortunately we spent the night in Wa thinking we could hitch accross from the junction at Sawla on the following afternoon or late morning but there is NO traffic and some minibus guy would not take us until we paid him 15 euros. Unfortunately he kept us waiting from mid morning to mid afternoon, it was a waste of a day. There is a hotel in Sawla, which is much nicer than Wa, so BEST OPTION is to get to Sawla from Bobo in one day. Then wake up reasonably early, about 6, for the bus to Mole. A bus leaves from Bobo to the border at about seven. The name of the bus company is something like Africaligne.
Another alternative is to head back to Ouaga and bus down from there. But the roads from Bobo are fine either way until you get to the Mole road which is bad both ways.
Ghana
CD currency has been devalued. Sometimes the locals quote prices in the old money which can be confusing.
Mole is great. Absolutely great. Nice pool, food, great viewpoint from the hotel patio over a waterhole with views of all of the game. Great.
Kumasi
Going to Kumasi, the VaneSTC bus was excellent and comfortable. However if the bus is going onto Accra or needs a mechanics attention it will stop by the side of a roundabout and not at the VaneSTC station. This is fine as long as you know! You can walk straight out of the back of the VaneSTC station to the Guestline lodge. Rooms very variable in quality, so check out a few. Staff horrendously overworked, so expect tiredness. Check out the upstairs balcony which is a pretty nice place to sit and read and chat.
Kumasi was fine. The market which is mixed with the bus station is totally intense. It takes about half an hour to walk a couple of hundred meters. There is no hassle from the people, just lots of them! We found the taxi drivers absolutely fine, quite intelligent and not trying to rip you off in an excessive way! The Manhyia is marked in COMPLETELY the wrong place. Book ahead for your bus journey south. There are a couple of great side trips out of Kumasi:
Bobiri: 2 great walks. One with a guide through the forest, very interesting if you have not done much of this kind of thing before. Two just walk along the track further into the forest and bare right, take supplies for 4-8 hours, because the track is beautiful. You will see about 60 different species of butterflies which sometimes rise up from the ground and fly about in clounds about you. Really great walk, bare left at the fork.
Bosumtwi: Also suprisingly good. The prices in the guide were a bit wierd. You can get a shared taxi for the last leg about there, 5km approx, very cheaply. There will be an idiot at the lake side trying to convince you to invest in his lake side tree growing project - to preserve the water. Tell him to leave you alone or you'll call the police. (Trees on the lake shore empty the lake, they don't keep it full). Not as much hass as it sounds and you don't need to go down to the lake at the drop off point. Look for a path on the left hand side of the road as you face the lake that has a bit of very old bitumen on the top. Just follow that path around, with one turning clearly marked for about 1.5 hours until you come to a hotel, near to the lake shore. You can swim here and have a very good meal. The setting by the lake is beautiful (grass, shade, hammock), so beautiful you could spend a night at the hotel even though there is absolutely nothing to do apart from read and swim. It is utterly and completely tranquil.
Takoradi: Nice vibe in this pleasant town.But it's just a stop over.
Green Turtle Lodge is famous, so we headed there, but we were told that there are several places just as good on that coastal stretch. You have to book in advance. We didn't and were very lucky that they had room in a tent. Unfortuanately it was a two person tent, and in the Christmas time humidity, the heat was unbearable. You really need a large tent (a 2 man for 1, or a 4 man for 2), or just a mosquito net if you want a good nights sleep. Everything else about the lodge was cool. Great huts. You can swim without any risk as long as you keep reasonably close to shore - there is a rip tide and occasionally people get swept out - but you'd have to be half asleep to have this happen. Boogie boarding is available.
Lots of overlanders are at the Lodge, so try and hitch / offer money for a ride to Cape Coast. We did and it was a fantastic time saver.
We heard that the Elima fort was slightly better than the one at Cape Coast, but for us the one fort was enough! It is very interesting visit. The recommended resteraunt by the side is good, but you will have to wait for ages. If you are hungry head elsewhere! The canopy walk nearby is also great. It is definitely worth stopping at the crocodile sanctuary / hotel for a drink and a bite to eat - very pleasant place. Hotel Oasis looked a bit grimey when we saw it, we headed to Sammo's, you can meet people on the roof there. Unfortunately a bar in front of the hotel has a vast sound system which pumps out the tunes occasinally and you will need ear plugs! Amkred is so close it will be slightly quieter.
Accra
Book store 'Books for Less' has closed down.
You will probably want to head straight to HoeHoe - pronounced Howay - after this. But you will have to stop in Accra to pick up the Visa Entente from the Togolese embassy. You have to swallow it and take taxis everywhere here. Unfortunately sometimes the traffic is very heavy and what might cost 1CD at one time will suddenly cost 3CD's. The Osekan bar sitting on a cliff top is worth the sweat to get there, its a really dramatic place with huge waves. They will try and rip you off if you do not check the prices on everything before ordering. Hey ho.
Apparently you can see hippos, guaranteed in Lake Volta, it is not in the LP though - and we saw herds of them on the river Niger later so we ignored this. Sometimes a hotel will make a huge difference to a visit and the Taste Lodge was very pleasant at HoeHoe. Unfortunately there are lots of average things to do here. The waterfall is very pleasant, but always busy. You can climb a mountain but the views will usually / always be blocked by haze. So hum, we just went to the watefall. Demand to see the price list on entry, or they'll start demanding 10 times as much for a camera etc. Don't take a guide they are quite miserable and you don't need one. If you do climb 10 minutes up to a different viewpoint then a few of the guides will probably get very aggressive and try and get some money out of you. Ignore them. You do not have to pay to go to the look out. You do have to pay extra to go to the top of the mountain. You might want to get the man at the ticket booth to mark your receipt - 'does not have to pay to go to the look out'! Probably worth going as early as possible to avoid the crowds. The cool air is a real relief. It is easy to use the post office. You can get a bus direct to Togo from the bus station. And the scenery driving there is great. We could have gone to the nearby monkey sanctuary, but we thought it was just too much of a hassle. You might however consider stopping there on the way to HoeHoe, esp if you make a dawn start from Accra.
You have probably worked out by now if you are travelling, that it is worth the effort to get up at sunrise. There are many more buses very early in the morning and the wait at Minibus stations is much shorter the earlier you get there. Often you seem to get better buses earlier too. And when people have no choice - eg the last bus of the day often at mid-morning - they can bring out the very junky awful minibuses.
TOGO
Klouto - excellent. Really good climate. Phew. Nice walks around here. Auberge Papillions is good. You can trust Prosper the owner, but you can haggle a bit on the guided walk prices. It is a good place to chill for a couple of days.
Kpalime. The hotel Banfana Banfana is well run but the beds are awful if you are over 6 foot. It is worth going elsewhere just for this. Hotel Cristal is a BARGAIN, though a little walk from the center. This is one place where it may be better to go out of town to a more expensive place with a pool and tranquility. We almost always go central so we don't have to walk far at night back from a resteraunt. There is a lot in the book about hiking around here, but given that you have just done some in Klouto, and given that the views are non-existant due to the haze, you will probably want to move on fairly quickly. There isn't much else to do around there. The current guide is pretty useless about things to do in Togo, but as you will see more or less the same kind of landscapes in Benin. (Ghana / Togo / Benin are the best areas for overlanders as there are plenty of okay things to do which are not worth the effort / impractical if you are using public transport.)
The most important tip: you can buy peanut butter in the market! Opposite the bank on the corner there is a lady who sells nothing but peanut related products. Buy as much as you can carry!
We entered Benin via Lome, and then we went along the coast to Grand Popo. It would be an option to cross at Tahoun, this may take longer, but is probably more scenic.
Benin
Generally much less humid due to the fact that there is less forest in the area. Hurray.
Grand Popo is excellent. A really nice beach. But as you cannot swim in the sea here, staying at the Awale Plage hotel is essential as it has a great pool, lovely gardens, lovely food and well organised management. It is a really welcome piece of luxury after roughing it in Togo. There is a list of things to do behind the reception. Best of these is a visit to the Finnish Cultural Center where, if the owner is in, you might be able to exchange some English books. The museum there is FANTASTIC though tiny. In other words it is full of some very beautiful things, very cleverly chosen. Free too. You will find it 100 meters on the seaward side just before the Auberge de Grand Popo. The Auberge de Grand Popo has good food as all of the Auberge de chain has, but this particular hotel was a bit sterile in general. However the dining area, on a large verhanda was very very pleasing.
Ouidah
One of those annoying places with lots of okay but not great things to do. The Spiritual forest is okay. The main spiritual tree is dead. It is marked incorrectly on the map (it is much further south.) Find a child at the location where it is meant to be and get them to guide you. It is okay, the guide was okay and essential to understand what the sculptures of the gods represent.
We did not bother with the main museum as we had seen several exhibitions about slaves etc by this stage.
The route of the slaves is a long, hot, dry and monotonous walk down a sandy road to the coast. I cannot recommend it. Yes slavery was terrible, but it seems pointless to wallow it, especially after wallowing in the misery of it at Cape Coast Castle. The museum of return by the beach is disappointing, and really is only set out for returning Africans.
There are some resteraunts in just south of town on the route of the slaves, (not in the guide.)
All in all it is a clean reasonable place, but if you are not keen to do the main museum, you can skip Ouidah.
Abomey
Wow what a hassle it is getting from Ouidah to Abomey. Set off at dawn and have a buscuit breakfast. You get a shared taxi to the junction and then wait by the stinking motorway for about an hour (just up from the roundabout) to get another shared taxi or minibus. Alternatively ask around in Ouidah for altenatives - there might be some.
Abomey has a tranquil, pleasant, sociable vibe. The museum there is outstanding. Ignore all the 'palace trail' stuff in the book as the museum is made up of two palaces stuck together and two is enough as their format varies very little. Don't miss the attached art gallery. Some of the palaces on the trail map are incorrectly marked.
Hotel Vulcan was a little gem, it was like a homestay with goats and chickens running around the compound. The owner was extremely helpful and kind. If you fancy some luxury the Auberge de chain has opened up a wonderful place. We went there for an expensive, very good meal.
The bus station is easy to use just beside the road in Bohicon. Nice big buses all the way to Natitingou.
Natitingou
There are not very many errors in the guide book for this area apart from: The Tata Somba houses are pretty easy to get to as the road has improved since the guide book was written. The name of the hotel you want is the Belvedere (on the route to the Togolese border) for the Tata Somba experience. It is about an hour max from Natitingou. Bus/taxi station is at the cross roads. Really wonderful views, nice different landscape and a fairly good guided walk (the guide will find you). Worth staying the night. You can hitch back Natitingou if you catch the early morning traffic.
There are quite a few other things in this region which are worth checking out such as going for a drive in the National Park. We were hoping to meet up with others who wanted to do this but it didn't quite happen. Southern Africa is probably the best place to see game, so we will do that one day. The cost of the vehicle hire is expensive (cheaper in Burkina) and is at a fixed price across town. We spoke to a lot of people about the differences between the parks and it seems that Parc W is still stocking up on game and the distances are a lot larger in comparison to Parc de Parakou.
This would be a good place to end the trip by heading back to Ouagadougo, or if you are still hungry for more you can head up to Mali.
Niger - Niamey
Wow the museum is excellent. Really weird, very different and very interesting. Something for everyone even people who want to look at sample uranium cores!?
THE worst place in the world to try and get a hotel. You could spend about 50 euros in a taxi going from place to place trying to get a room. Everywhere is booked up all of the time. Hotel Universe is the one place where, if you haven't called in advance, you may get a place to stay. It is located just beyond Rond Point Yantala. (The name has changed from Camping Touristique). Be sure to read the guides advice on taking taxis. About 1000 for a private taxi about 200 for a shared.
The Malian embassy has moved.
There are loads more internet cafes.
Ayourou (north of Naimey)
Now it largely depends on when you get there but the Sunday market is excellent. By which I mean it is not too busy. Basically the markets in West Africa all sell the same kind of stuff. You will not see many regional differences. You definitely do not need a guide to see the market though guides will insist you do. You will see quite a few people in town in traditional dress, the Bella - the touareg slaves - were very picturesque. You will have seen quite a few people in traditional dress by this time, so no big deal if you miss this in my opinion.
If the timing is wrong maybe make a day trip out of Niamey to see another market elsewhere.
Ayourou itself was very nice and worth a stop over. All single story mud brick housing, hardly a modern building in town. The hotel by the river (the only hotel) has a water pump opposite to refil your water bottles. Water fine. River trip great, hippos guaranteed. You can also go and see the original Ayourou town built on the river island. Hotel really pleasant, however, due to bilharzia, you may want to wash in the pump water rather than use the showers. The manager said he was going to look into fixing this situation.
Buses leave in the afternoon opposite the post office for Gao - about 4 hours.
DO NOT TAKE THE BOAT TO GOA. They may say it takes a couple of days, but after a couple of days we were about half way there, it takes about 4 days. You need shade or you will die! The police at the border will not let you through, by boat, unless you pay them a bribe. All in all maybe do a half day pirouge round trip from Ayorou but nothing else!
If you meet someone called Abdulla, you will find he is an excellent con merchant. He will tell you the road is too dangerous etc and that you have to take a boat, have to take a guide etc. Avoid him like the plague that he is.
Mali - Goa
Goa is okay. Most of the hotels in the guidebook have closed down, we went to the one by the market the Atlantide. A bit crappy but near the bus pick up points at the Place de Independence. Get there I think about 5 in the morning for a bus to Hombori. Check this. Actually a lovely time to start a bus journey, not that far from the hotel and you can sleep on the comfy bus. Hmm.
Hombori
Absolutely tiny place. Rock formations stunning. The bus rarely stops here so you will have to keep your eye out and shout out Arret! however there is a huge mammoth rock - about 150 meters high or so, the first one you come across which marks the village, which sits at its base. Unfortunately you will find a few guides here, but they get out of your hair quite quickly. The LP is out of date about the rock climbing as there is a guide in town who will take you onto the rocks- trustworthy chap with reasonable prices I believe.
You will be offered all sorts of guided options, but you can do everything yourself aside from climbing and the hand of Fatima walk. WARNING this is a very deceptive walk. It looks as though you can walk up to the pass in the hand of Fatima and then circle around, however at the back the landscape changes into ravines and cliffs and you would be well advised to take a guide for this. The walk is 4-5 hours so take loads of water and a bit of a scramble. To get to the hand of Fatima hail a local and hire a bike. I got mine for a bargainaceous 5,000 cfa. Even if you are a novice, the road is straight as a ruler with very little traffic so you should be okay. Don't bother stopping at the police check points.
Sevare because we had to. Mac's refuge is a bit overrated as it has a bit of a cramped up hiding hole vibe. Rooms great. The meals were feastlike.
We took the Sevare option as the southern part of the Dogon country is meant to be better and you can do the Bandiagara - Teli - Yawa - Bandiagara routh most easily from there. However we opted not to do it. One of the good things about the route here is that by the time you have arrived at the Dogon area you will have seen loads of huts and the landscape at Hombori is better, and you will have hiked in Hombori, so actually you will not feel any particular need to go to the Dogon area. If you are still keen you can do the above route by yourself. Just get a guide in the first village you come across to show you the sacred areas are and to put you on the right path to the next village. YOU DO NOT NEED 24 HOUR GUIDES FOR THE DOGON COUNTRY. WARNING if you do use a 24 hour guide they will try and put up the prices on all food, water and accommodation to scoop off the extra - you will need to discuss this with them then.
Djenne
Djenne was good. Everything straightforward. It is quite full of tour groups though. Especially at Hotel Le Campement where there may be 50 or more at a time, unfortunately it was the only place which had rooms. Book a place in advance and book the bus out a day in advance - stall in front of Mosque.
Bamako and on
The map scale for Bamako is wrong in the book. The distances are actually quite small and it is easy to walk around. Compared to Ouaga it is a fairly easy city to navigate. Aside from the traffic it is a fine city - you can eat and sleep well.
We ended up flying to Mauritania from here and went up north to the Atar region for some 4 by 4ing in the desert.There are buses out of Bamako to Naouchoachoot - ha - but you may have to wait a couple of days for them. Another option might be to cross the border and take some internal flights in Mauritatnia which are very cheap. Alternatively close the loop by taking the bus back to Ouaga and fly home from there.
The Atar region is great but you do have to hire a 4 by 4. We stayed at Bab Sahara. They can help organise trips, try and get one with Sidatti, who really knows the region. There is no reason to take a guide if you go with him. We slept in the desert, to keep costs down. Bab Sahara supplied all the gear for this as well as cooking kit. I highly recommend sleeping out in the desert, Bab Sahara and Sidatti. It is a long way up there and then very far from there, so as has already been mentioned you might want to combine the Atar region with a Moroccan trip at some other time.
We were told that the South of Mauritania was dangerous, by a few people, but then we were told that the Mauritanian authorities have thrown lots of troops into keeping the border secure and now the situation may have calmed down. Bascially there are Touareg thieves who cross over from Mali. So it actually might be worth the risk to visit the area, architecturally it is meant to be interesting.
Check the latest train situations before you go as this may alter the trip a little. All the trains were not running at the time of writing.
Overland it?
Overall as people with their own transport avoided the hassly local transport, they were pretty happy. You don't need a vast Unimog. And apart from the off piste sand dunes in Mauritania and the Burkina/Benin/Niger parkland you don't need a 4by4 (you can hire 4by4's at both locations, and with a guide/driver). You can make it down EASILY in just a normal car, and plenty of people do.Second hand Benz's are the easiest to sell, the profit might just about cover the petrol.
Have a nice one baby. You are welcome to copy, ammend this page and post it up somewhere if you want to.
piersnewberry--(at)--googlemail.com
