Sonntag, 3. Januar 2010

26. 12. Falaise de Bandiagara


After a rich breakfast in our slow gourmet restaurant we started late, because all the ingredients had to be bought, and as there was no bread available in the village, the owner baked us some baguettes. Then down over stones and rocks, slow speed. Endless driving, amazing views. Breathtaking landscapes made up for the extreme shaking in the back of the truck. Sometimes we got out to walk a little bit. Wherever we stopped, we were immediately surrounded by children coming out of nowhere. Some shot us fruits from a Baobab.

We stopped in Banani, and Stefan and Igor followed the voices of women. They landed in a courtyard, were old women were dancing around a women holding a small plastic sack filled with gin, laughing, singing, drumming. At least here the women knew how to have fun.

After hours of driving between the rock and a huge sand dune, from time to time passing tiny clay house villages on the foot of the Falaise, we met some Germans, who work in Abuja. They were driving over the sand dune from the other side, and we discussed the route.

Stopping for coke, we saw some wooden gods, seemingly lying in the trash – well, they just were “young” gods put out to the sun for ageing. There was almost no trash around.

Looking for a quiet place to sleep, we drove up the sand dune - deserts are quiet places. Stopping at a breathtaking gorge separating the Falaise from the dune, we heard very distant voices from up the rock on the other side. In almost no time, a big group of children approached, running down from the rock and up the huge dune and asked us for “cadeau, argent, chemise”. We continued to look for a quiet place, but wherever we stopped, and however lonely it looked, we were discovered and surrounded quickly.

At the end, we decided to go down the sand dune back to the Falaise again. Around dawn, we arrived in a small village called Guimini, and stopped at the village green. Surrounded by children, we started to play with them. A 1 year old Suleyman wanted to be in our truck and we let him sit inside. When his father took him away, he cried desperately. Then Manuel asked for a person, who is responsible for the village, and he was brought to one of the elders. We asked, if we could spend the night under the big tree at the village green, and he welcomed us. His son Mamadou came to the truck and we invited him for our instant ramen. He offered to show us around his village the next day.

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