Mali Day 7 - Timbuktu

As per my rambling at the start of this blog, Timbuktu [Timbuctoo, Tumbuto, Tombouctou, Tumbyktu, or Tembuch (like I said it doesn't seem to matter how you spell it)] has been the stuff of myth for hundreds of years, an rich oasis surrounded by the ever moving sands of the Sahara.

Many adventurous folk have perished trying to make it across the Sahara from the north, or up the Niger (as we did) had they known the truth back then that the city is little more than a conglomeration of mud brick buildings intersected by narrow winding streets that reach 50 degrees C in the hot season, they might not have bothered... Even now, there's only a few white folk living in town (the largest foreign contingent apart from the nomadic touareg seems to be Libyan..) It's still 99.9% Muslim, but apparently there's three Mormons in town on their mission that have set up a church. These days no one will kill you for doing such a thing, but I'm not sure how big their congregation will be....

You spend a lot of time in Africa wondering about when places had their hey day, as it is usually not immediately apparent while you wander around dilapidated buildings and streets. Timbuktu, unfortunately is no exception. Once a huge scholarly centre, there used to be great libraries and centres of Koranic learning attached to the mosques here, but despite the desert conditions offering some protection, these have long ago fallen by the wayside. Today a few scrolls remain on display and the EU is helping rebuild the main mosque, while a South African firm is building an Islamic university (the first here for hundreds of years).

Locals in Timbuktu greet you by saying "welcome to the middle of nowhere" - mostly as a joke, but in reality, it really is in the middle of bloody nowhere (and you can only get there by camel, 4WD or canoe... there is supposed to be an airstrip here, but I never saw it)

Though it's population is only just 30,000 Timbuktu is quite a lively place and we just happened to be there on the busiest weekend of the year as 5,000 travellers and all the associate support people prepared to descend on Essakane (a few hours north) for the festival of the desert, pretty much doubling the towns population for a week.



This (apparently) is the original well after which timbuktu is named. "tim" being 'well' and "buktu" being the name of the woman who looked after the well

Timbuktu streets. The timber sticking out of the walls is part of the structure and is used as scaffolding each year when new mud is applied after the rainy season (not that Timbuktu gets much rain)

Timbuktu was the meeting place for tradesmen who would travel across Africa from the North, East and South, to barter their goods with the West Africans, who came from...well, West Africa. These days the markets seem to exist for their own sake, collecting the salt (still mined by hand and brought in by camel 40 days to the north) and rice grown locally near the river, and trading these for everything else one might need from Mopti and Segou further upstream. Because it's so remote, desolate, and incredibly difficult to get to (not just because of the terrain and heat there's also plenty of the bandits who roam the desert and rob everyone travelling past) prices are a little higher than usual but it's still bustling with plenty of good stuff.

This guy is selling herbs, teas, salt and various dried nuts and chillies etc.

Foosball - even in Timbuktu the kids love it...

Not quite the stuff of legend, Timbuktu streets aren't any different to any other Sahel town

Outside town in the dunes

Whilst it may look touristy and kinda stupid - these turbans (or shesh) are really comfortable and keep the sand and dust out very well. In the end, everyone was wearing one (you get sick of putting sunscreen on three hundred times a day and still getting burnt...

Enjoying a quite beer on the hotel roof watching the locals play football in the distance.

Luckily we'd filled the car up with crates of beer and water in Mopti before the pinasse trip and he met us in Timbuktu. With the influx of everyone for the festival, the Town quickly ran out of everything.