1948 hrs. In the lobby of this small hotel. It’s not much of a lobby, more of a small room with a desk. I am about a minute’s drive from the airport, Mopti is down the road a small ways. Last year I was staying there, this year, here. I am leaving at some point tomorrow for Timbuktu by a boat up the Niger. I don’t know what time I am leaving, I am just hoping that the people who are taking me to the boat know that I am here. Travel in Africa is always a little loose. The flight here from Bamako left over four hours later than it was supposed to. It wasn’t late, they just changed the time. If you got there on time, you had plenty of time to wave away the mosquitoes.
I have been here about a day and a half. The sun is bludgeoning until about 1600 hrs. and then it allows you to walk around some. The roads here are red clay and when the setting sun hits them, they are amazing. I went walking until about dark today. Not much to see, most people are off the roads, I guess because of the temperature, I don’t know.
New Years in Dakar Senegal sounded like a missile strike. The size of the fireworks being sold on the streets were of the blow-your-arm-off kind and when detonated, the sound is substantial. This kept up until about 0500 hrs.
A few days ago, I flew from Dakar to Bamako, Mali and from there to here. I am in one of the most utilitarian rooms I have ever been in. The water comes on now and then so you have to get while the getting’s good. One florescent light, more ants than I need but the door locks and I will get at least a few hours of sleep later on so I can’t complain.
At the airport in Bamako, I met some other people who are going to the Desert Festival, very cool. I think you have to be a pretty cool person to want to go to all the trouble to get to the festival. It’s not an easy journey. I am back for my second dose.
Good news, Mahmoud, the guide from last year just walked out of nowhere. He said hello and told me that we are heading out at 0900 hrs. So great to have some hard information on that. Will definitely make sleep easier, knowing there is a definite go time. Mahmoud seems the same, intense, polite, thorough.
I don’t know what this river trip will be like but hearing so many good things about it last year from people who had just arrived in Timbuktu via the Niger, I had to give it a shot, so off I go in the morning. I should be back on the grid in a week and then from there to Ireland and onwards.
Thank you for all the letters about the upcoming dates. I am looking forward to getting them started.
I have lined up several cool pre-tapes for the radio show. Engineer X and I started working on them last summer. I will do more in February when I get back to Los Angeles. I will be working on them from the road and will put together some great ones. While I was back in LA last week, I loaded all the incoming CDs that had arrived into my hard drive, so I have plenty of new sounds to draw from.
I will hopefully have a lot to report on when next I write you from Bamako. Until then, I hope your holiday, what little is left of it was good. Thanks for reading this. Henry
No comments:
Post a Comment