The airport serving Mopti and Sevare is a fairly dilapidated affair and the usual rows of airport seating are all located outside of the small terminal building. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 7 am, but Granpere told us not to go to the airport until 7:30 am. This is only a contradiction for non-Malians. Apparently nobody in Africa turns up for their flights on time, so the airlines fib to their passengers – in this case assuring them that the flight departs at 7 am when in fact it leaves at 8 am. This normally works well, but not today as our flight (which originated in Bamako, the capital of Mali) is delayed for an altogether more familiar reason: engine problems. We are therefore 90 minutes late leaving Mopti / Sevare airport, shaving precious minutes off our very brief time in Timbuktu (we leave again early tomorrow morning). The 45-minute flight aboard a 33-seater twin-propeller plane (with a white pilot, note) is reassuringly smooth. We are even served a croissant and juice, while gazing down at the surprisingly large expanse of the Niger inland delta and its associated waterways.
Granpere has arranged our accommodation, a city tour, and an airport pick-up. Granpere’s fixer in Timbuktu goes by the disturbing name of Ali the Ice. Stan and Sinead are pooling resources and doing everything first class. They are staying at the luxury La Maison (twin-bed room is CFA 40,000 [US$80]) whereas Christi and I are a little ways out of town at the less glamorous Camping La Paix Hotel (The Peace Camp Hotel) for CFA 15,000 (US$30). The hotel is named for the nearby monument (dilapidated but under repair) that celebrates peace between the Tuareg and the government after 5 years of conflict in the mid 1990’s. The Tuareg are members of the Berber ethnic groupings and are indigenous to North Africa. They predate the arrival of the Arabs from the Middle East by thousands of years. The Tuareg are fiercly independent nomads who are constantly demanding more autonomy from central government. This frequently flares into fighting. (Note after the Arab Spring uprising in Libya in 2011, many Libyan fighters and Al-Qaeda supporters fled to the northern deserts of Mali and fought alongside the Tuareg [at least initially] to overthrow the Malian government in early 2012. France quickly sent in troops to quell the uprising).
After checking in to our very basic accommodation, we head off into town to get that all-important Timbuktu stamp in our passports (note later during our travels an inconsiderate Egyptian immigration officer placed a sticky visa right over my Timbuktu stamp – bummer). Timbuktu is not the most stylish of destinations – there are no world class attractions here other than the name – but we wander around anyway in the company of Ali the Ice. And we do it in the brutal heat of the Timbuktu sun. Large clay ovens dot the streets which are used for making bread, while in another shaded street carpenters originally from Yemen carve Moroccan style window frames that are a common sight in the city. The streets of Timbuktu are covered in sand that blows in constantly from the Sahara, but this merely adds to its mystique. A mystique that goes back hundreds of years as European adventurers tried and failed to reach the fabled city. The first European to see Timbuktu was the British adventurer Gordon Laing, in 1826. Even then the city had already begun to fall into decay. Sadly for Laing he was murdered on his way back to civilization by the Tuareg because he would not convert to Islam. A plaque still marks the house in which Laing stayed in Timbuktu.
We begin our tour of Timbuktu with visits to the three main mosques (all of which are Sudanes-style mud mosques): the Dyingerey Ber mosque (also under scaffolding), which dates to the 14th century and is one of the oldest in West Africa. Unfortunately we are not allowed in. Second is the Sidi Yahiya mosque (named after one of the 333 saints to have lived in Timbuktu) built in 1400. Third is the Sankore mosque build a century after the Sidi Yahiya mosque. It is also a university and by the 16th century it was one of the largest schools of Arabic learning in the Muslim world. This mud mosque has recently been refaced – so recently, in fact, that the hand prints are still clearly visible.
We also visit the Ahmed Baba Institute of Historical Research, which holds some 23,000 historical, scientific, and religious texts dating as far back as the 11th century. A huge project is ongoing to protect, translate, and catalogue the collection currently running at 3,000 per year. There is also a unique Koranic manuscript dating to the 15th century that was recently copied by scholars from Mecca because it is a unique text.
Next up is the local market and then another highlight: afternoon tea with two Tuareg fighters, Alfa and Bashir. The tea is sharp and sweet, a bit like the Tuareg themselves. I certainly would not want to get on the wrong side of these guys. And this becomes a bit of an issue when they then try to sell us very expensive Tuareg jewelry. Fortunately, Stan Laurel buys something for his wife and we all survive the experience.
Our last adventure is a sunset / starlight camel safari in the Saharan desert surrounding Timbuktu. Our guides are Mohamed (who speaks pretty good English as do many others in Timbuktu) and his sidekick Sidi. Our camels are Edderie (mine is a brown dromedary) and Ebeditch (Christi’s is a white dromedary). Christi truly enjoys riding the ship of the desert, but I never feel comfortable sitting on other animals. Just getting on and the camel standing up is nerve-wracking enough for me.
More fascinating than the camel ride itself is listening to Mohamed and learning about his life. He participates in the caravan that goes to the salt mines 850 km to the north. Many Tuareg go on these journeys taking their camels with them. It takes 2 weeks to get there and they travel by night. Different members of the team have different jobs: navigating (by the stars), cooking, looking after the camels etc. Mohamed is the cook, but he is learning to navigate by the stars. The last caravan (some 400 camels) of the season arrived in Timbuktu from the salt mines 2 weeks ago. Mohamed has also visited Merzouga in Morocco – a journey that took him 52 days. Return to town by starlight; diner; bed at 9:30 pm. What a unique and fascinating day!
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of broken hearts and broken test tubes.
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