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Excellent guide for Dogon Country, Mali tours
LRobishaw Says: Moussa Timbine' is an excellent tour guide in Mali. He lives in Bamako but will go all over the country. He is also Dogon, and a wonderful guide for seeing Dogon country. His English is excellent.He has trained extensively for his job, and has a good understanding of...
flynboxes Says: Spend a night out here and chances are you will be offered a chance to see a dance. Next to beer sales to tourists..this is probably the local villages/chiefs next most profitable source of income. The dance lasts 30 minutes or so and includes most of the folks in the...
flynboxes Says: From Bandiagara you will catch a cab or motorcycle to one of the trail heads. I think we stopped at Dourou for lunch and to visit the market prior to heading out on the plateau to Begnimato which is a 4 mile hike and probably the most fun as once you get down off the plateau...
Arroyo floor below the escarpment
atufft Says: At the bottom of the escarpment is a decent place to eat with a view from a shaded rooftop area. There are several vendors selling dusty old dogon artwork and they can be bargined for. The problem for the bigger souvenirs though may be transporting them out of the area. Make...
The Hike: Descending the Escarpment
atufft Says: At road's end, hiker's traverse first through a village with stone houses. There are few provisions here, so it's better to have these things purchased and brought from Bandiagara, as per previous tip. Walk through the village and proceed across shallow soiled agricultural...
Dogon Logistics: Escarpment Descent
atufft Says: In Bandiagara, it's recommended that a guide and encampmente package be worked out. Normally, a contract that includes food, encampement, and if necessary, donkey cart be agreed upon. The guides have albums of pictures and reference letters, which should be in the language...
chrisvandenbroucke Says: Day 4 of 4In this village, Benigmato ended our wonderful trek. It's was a great but tough experience
Helpfulness
Rice and chicken, rice and chicken with sauce.....
These are pretty much your options here at the camp sites. I'm not knocking it as it was filling after a day spent hiking thru the sandy trails. The spice up the sauce and will add sweet potatos to it which tends to make it even more filling. They may even have spaghetti in place of rice in some places. If you need some variation..you will find local markets along the way with some fresh fruit and other produce. Pick some up and you should have no problems getting them to cook it up for you at your camp site. As with the rest of Mali the chickens are of the skinny sort here and makes your wonder what they feed them with back home
Favorite Dish: Pick something up at the market if you get tired of the rice and chicken.
Written Jan 21, 2009
Address: Any village
flynboxes Says: Thanks to cheap Japanese/Chinese imports, the world has gotten a bit smaller for some Africans. At most came site you can find a local with one who will give you are ride for a few bucks. I got on one because I had to catch my ride back to Bandiagara pronto after a long...
atufft Says: Below the escarpment tourists either walk and have a backup 4-wheel drive, or they use a donkey cart. I like the donkey cart because the 4-wheel drive is expensive and unnecessary. At the foot of the escarpment, the guide or you can make arrangements for a donkey cart to put...
flynboxes Says: You can get everything from fresh roasted goat here to kola nuts and other made in China junk. The meat markets are interesting....you can get your extra dose of protein from all the flys swarming around. This where the locals shop so you will see more practical things such...
at foot of the Bandiagara Escarpment: Choosing Dogon Artwork
atufft Says: At the foot of the escarpment is a great place to bargain for carved wooden Dogon artwork. The doors and masks are extremely popular, but don't expect it to be as old as it looks. Dirt and dust cover much of the work, which can be easily cleaned off once back home. However,...
flynboxes Says: All the guide books and some of the local tour agencies advise you to bring Kola nuts for the local village hogans or chiefs.....I saw plenty of people doing this. I on the other hand did not.Most of these villages in Dogon country have tourist camps with an array of...
atufft Says: The modern Dogon people living in this remote area still live more or less as they have for centuries. The unique conical buildings with thatched roofs and carved doors are particularly interesting for architecture and anthopology fans. The doors have locks, and the many...
The Telem Architecture isn't Dogon
atufft Says: Before the Dogon tribes drove them out, the pigmy Telem peoples populated the escarpment. Their considerable mud architecture still hangs on cliff side voids in the escarpment, in a way similar to the pueblo architecture of Mesa Verde, a place more familiar to Americans. The...
Marketing Milk in Dogon Country
atufft Says: African women are the world's leaders for their elegant abilityt to balance loads on their heads. The youngest girl soon learns to carry a load like a woman. On the hike down the escarpment though, we saw the ultimate of this skill. Women carrying milk to market, many in...
Transportation from Bandiagara to Koro
atufft Says: Those heading on to Koro and Burkina Faso should consider carefully their transportation options. We left on a Sunday and were obligated to hire a car and driver. After negotiating the consider sum of $35 for a 4 two hour trip (gas is expensive in Mali), the van was loaded,...
atufft Says: Even in Segou and Mopti, guides pleaded to return to their "home" in Dogon Country, showing us photo albums and reference letters. Yet, the costs of keeping a guide from Segou or Mopti is greater than from Bankass or Bandiagara. Our guide was the supposed brother of a man we...
flynboxes Says: Dogon is not a dangerous place....but you do have to watch out for a few things like the millipede below. Medical care in Dogon Country is sparce at best and most options involve hiring a car at the last minute to get you to Bankass or Bandiagara...and in Africa a tourist in...
flynboxes Says: In the dry season it can get warm out here. While it stayed in the 90-100F degree range while I was here and was not bothered by it I did manage to dehyrate myself one day. The dry air and occasional breeze caught me off guard. If you stay on the trails you are usually never...
While Bandiagara is a flat town of relatively little interest, beyond it lay the escarpment where the Dogon people live. The escarpement paths wind over barren rock and through canyon like passages......
Bandiagara is a small town near the great Bandiagara escarpement (the "falaise du Bandiagara"). It is in the center of the so called "pays du Dogon", a part of Mali where the Dogon people live. This...
If you decide to go hiking in Dogon Country..chances are this is where it will start. The pic below is from one of the starter villages you will probably visit prior to heading out onto the plateau....
From Mopti we rode with a 4x4 to Bandiagara on a sandy road. Bandiagara is two hours (75 km) away from Mopti We changed cars and a big Peugeot brought us to our first Dogon village: Dziguibombo We had...
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