Day 1 : “Le périple” begins: The road from Bamako to Dogon Country.
We rented a mini-van to take the 14 of us to Bandiagara (Dogon Country) from Bamako (600 km). Out of Bamako we loaded the roof-rack of the car with 100 liters of bottled water. The car was driving excruciatingly slow (“but safe,” mom pointed out). One after the other people were getting sick and throwing up. Three of 14 people were sick! Whenever we stop at “gendarme” or “douanes” or “police” or some other post, kids come running wanting to sell us shea nuts, greasy cakes, tubers, or even soft drinks.


(We climb into a mini-van and leave the capital for "la brousse" (the bush)"

Night fell and we were still over 200 km from destination and then it started pouring. Oh boy. We persevered and kept going. We arrived at the hotel at 11 pm. Driving through the sahel, crammed into a mini-van for 13 hours, and people getting sick – what a first day!