Transfer fromBamako Airport to hotel

Early in the morning, breakfast, meet with the rest of the group and transfer to the airport for internal flight to Timbuktu.

On arrival, city tour of Timbuktu including:
Djingereber Mosque, built in the 14th century, the oldest clay building in Africa, … houses in clay and gray stones arriving from the area surrounding the city… small markets with few dry vegetables, some slabs of salt, a lot of leather crafts. 

Lunch at a restaurant and excursion into the desert surrounding the two to discover small Tuareg Campement. We will meet the azalai track: the way covered by caravans on the way and down from the salt mines of Taudenni.  Back to the town late in the afternoon.
At sunset the sky is still 'pale red as far as the horizon' like at the Caillié’s time and the town regains the vivacity that it has never lost.

We spend the evening in a regular house, featured with traditional architecture. On the roof, taking a meal like every family. Sitting on a mat. Discussing about life. Looking at the sky (just the sky, in the Sahara, is worth a trip). Part of life here is also the tea ceremony.  Tea is a drink, but also social occasion to meet and spend time with people. We will watch the preparation and we will taste the three cups while a group of Tuareg will play traditional music: women beating the drums and men dancing with swords.  Kids will sit besides us, not begging money, but enjoying the moment and –some of them- sleeping in the mum’s arms.

End the evening in our hotel, happy to have had an immersion in Timbuktu life.

Early in the morning, breakfast and a departure to Nianfounke.  We follow the direction of Niger River backwards.  Through territory inhabited by Fulani and Bella sherpers.

Sunday is market day at Tonka.  In Africa markets are meeting point for people, even before being a place of trade. We will see farmers like Dogon, Bambara, fishermen like Bozo, nomads like Fulani, Tuareg, and Songhay.

WE reach Nianfounke where we leave our 4x4. to spend 1 and a half days cruising on the Niger river, on a big covered pinasse, (local large pirogue) through the most interesting part of the internal delta of the Niger. In this region at the edge between savannah and desert the immense water basin is divided in hundreds of branches, lakes and ponds: a vast “spider web”. Villages are inhabited by Fulani, Bozo and Songhay, some reachable only by pirogue. Beautiful adobe architecture strikes the eyes: the mosques with a “personalized” style in each of the ethnic groups… the homes built along the water courses… the tiny fishermen shelters on small islands… the rangy canoes with an unique shape.

Half way the river turns into the huge lake Debo: a paradise for fishermen and shepherds. The shallow water hosts enough fish to feed the region. And when the level goes down, green grass feed uncountable herds of zebus.  Many birds, come from Europe to escape the winter. At sunset millions of weavers fly in flocks, composing strange figures. In fact, they are “dancing” in the sky.

In the evening, on the edge of the village, watch Bozo dances, Bozo is the main fishermen population in this part of the river.
 

Breakfast at the Campement and end of navigation trough the Lake Debo. At Konna we end  the cruise and we meet our vehicle.
Lunch on board and transfer to Mopti.
 

Breakfast and city tour in Mopti.  The town of Mopti is built on three islands where the Bani and Niger rivers converge. The town is alive with the different cultures in the region: Bozo fishermen, Dogon, Bambara and Bella farmers, Tuareg and Peul shepherds. The market and the harbour are saturated of all colours and smells.

Part of the harbour is occupied by a traditional workshop. Artisans make up the “pinasse”, starting with the production of nails and finishing with colourful paintings on the sides of the boats.  As trade point Mopti is important also for art objects from the region, including a great variety of beads and jewellery.  Lunch at restaurant.

Afternoon transfer to Sangha.  We visit caves beautifully painted with designs made of the classical cosmogony colours of African people (white, red and black) and receive a detailed explanation about the initiation rites that every 4 years take place in this natural amphitheatre.
Arrival at Sangha evening time.
 

Early in the morning, breakfast and meeting with our Dogon guide...  We start our exploration of Dogon cliff.  A path across stones and some millets reaches a hidden village. A dozen people live in an open cave… some adobe dwellings… a spring in the middle… fresh water nourishing generations of lucky families…. Beside the spring the house of Hogon (the high priest) displaying fetishes and trophies. Two items reunited in one single activity: hunting, privilege of a special cast, and challenge to wild forces of the nature, needing spiritual protection.

The voice of people resonates in the cave, and from there to the rest of the valley. The soft light of sunset design long shades in the fields. Now, the silence of the night shortens the distances… the visitors feel to be closer to this amazing world…. Also Sirius seems to be closer.

In the afternoon we see dancing masks.  Dogon masks have deep eyes, framed by vertical and parallel lines. A kind of rectangular box looking at you from an other world. Pure cubist art, with on top of all, the soul of a population living in communion with spirit of ancestors, nature, stars. They dance al together in a circle, accompanied by drums. Afterwards, group-by-group, they run in the ring and start dancing every one with his peculiar movements. Men men stand in front of the masks. Women stay away, on the clay roofs of surrounding houses. Even if a taboo for them, they do not want to miss the performance. Masks are related with death and funerals; women are related with birth and life. They have opposite and complementary roles. Better to avoid any unfortunate clash.

We return back to Sangha by 4x4.
 

After breakfast we leave Bandiagara escarpment and, crossed the Bani River to Djenne.  City tour and lunch at restaurant.

Djenne, the most beautiful and genuine example of Sudanese adobe architecture. The story houses of rich traders families, the Koranic schools, the mosque -that is also the biggest building out of clay in the world- make together a unique inhabited center in the world.

Some details deserve special attention: the technique used to built the roofs, the setting of the rooms in the houses, the Morocco style windows, the Toucoulors gates, the rounded and the square bricks dating the time before and after the beginning of the .... colonization.

In Djenne we understand that a mason can be an artist. These artists, here in Djenne, are called “barrey”. They work just with hands. No tools. Like sculptors. The oldest among them replace the work of the hands with the pronunciation of magic spell, able to support the house, even in case of danger. To build a house like an artist, to protect it like a priest. Here is a “barrey”. No way to understand Djenne without crossing the path of one of them.

Under the sheet of a starry sky the song of a griot will accompany the last Malian night. We are on the roof of a clay house. The songs will talk about old kingdoms, moral codes, and daily life. The single string guitar accompanies a monotonous voice, announcing to everybody his part of truth.

Breakfast and departure to Segou.  Founded in 1852, Segou, keeper of one of the most ancient histories of West Africa, capital of the ancient Bambara kingdom, has an undeniable charm which is well worth discovering. Ancient kingdom of culture and tradition, Segou has inspired numerous writers and historians. Among the most famous is Maryse Condé.

Segou is also the site where Mungo Park, the first European in modern times, gazed upon the Niger River. When he arrived he ‘fell to his knees, thanked God, and drank from the muddy water.’ (Mark Jenkins, To Timbuktu).

We reach Segou, the second day of the music festival.  In the evening concert on the bank of the river.
 

A full day in Segou attending the Music Festival

Breakfast and departure to Bobo Dioulasso.

Bobo-Dioulasso, the greenest of the urban realities in Burkina Faso. Several quarters in Bobo have kept their colonial atmosphere. The train station was built in Neo-Moresco style. In sharp contrast is the old Mosque and surrounding quarter, which was built in the Sudanese style. In 1891 the French explorer Crozat, described the commercial role of Bobo as “…the place where the caravans from the south are bringing cola nuts and tissues (cloth), from the north they are arriving loaded with salt, from east iron handcrafts and glass beads, whiles gold is coming from the Lobi regions…" However, while Bobo has long been the economic capital of Burkina, Ouagadougou has in recent years taken this title from Bobo. Although Bobo is the second largest city in Burkina, life still moves at a slow pace here. Bobo’s sweeping avenues lined with mango trees, the Sudanese style colonial buildings, and the rich mixture of people give the city a texture all it’s own.
 

Breakfast and transfer to Banfora.

Banfora is famous for its market, supplied with a large variety of handicraft. Actually the populations living in the region ( Gouin, Karaboro and Turka) have a great production of items made of raffia, terracotta and cloth.  Around Banfora we may appreciate the “domes” of Fabedougou and the water falls of Kerfiughela (stop for picnic).
 

Breakfast and departure to Gaoua.  Visits to ruins of Loropeni, the tombs of Guen Kings and on to Gaoua. Visit to the Poni museum on the Lobi culture.
 

Breakfast in hotel. Ful day dedicated to the discovery of the Lobi’s ethnic group.

The Lobi of Burkina is the shiest group of this population, spread throughout Burkina, Ghana and Ivory Coast. The Lobi of Burkina is also the one that have the most characteristic villages and thanks to their shy behaviour have maintained intact their tradition. Men still move carrying bows and arrows; old women wear small labial disks. Each family lives in a big fortified building made of clay. Even nowadays the Lobi carve wooden statues for the cult of their ancestors. During our visits we will be accompanied by a guide talking the Lobi dialect, a need, in order to allow us to overcome the innate distrust of these people.
 

Early in the morning, breakfast and departure to Ouagadougou.

In a small village we admire the performance of the Bobo-Bwa masks. Two meters tall and more and skilfully handmade these “flat masks” of the Bobo-Bwa are intricate white with black and red geometric designs. They are one of the most spectacular masks in Burkina Faso. Some masks perform a real theatre “piece”.  The Bwa are savannah farmers who’s society is divided into clan-cooperatives: farmers, blacksmiths and griots (singers whose duty is to sing the events of their past). Most Bwa still practice their traditional religion, using the Bobo-Bwa masks in their religious ceremonies.

Lunch picnic, on road to Ouagadougou, that we reach evening time.
 

Breakfast in hotel and departure to Manega.

Manega museum: one of the best museums in West Africa. A cultural landmark created by the lawyer-poet Frédéric Pacéré Titinga with the goal to re-situate African art in the natural context of village life.

Picnic and back to Ouagadougou for a City tour.

Ouagadougou the capital of Burkina Faso is a town in the Middle West African savannah. The life is in the streets, in a unique fusion of village and town ambiances: old taxi, bicycles, scooters, and donkeys pulling chariots, porters caring loads on the head… On the sides of the street informal traders offering colourful goods, open air small restaurants with beer and music, and everywhere chickens and goats eating the food fall over. A colourful painted board advertises a local «coiffeur» that armed with scissors shaves his clients in the shade of a mango tree. In the street markets colours are brilliant; perfumes and smells are so strong (but not malevolent). In the outskirt a large area is dedicated to the craftsmen’s expositions. A way to appreciate the skills and the products of African artisan, and artists.
Visit to the craft village, for last shopping.

Some day use rooms for last shower and transfer to airport. End of the services.