mali 9: douentza --> koro
per usual we awoke at half five with the sun already up, though not yet hot. alex and i were keen to hike to the cliffs that were visible across a few verdant kilometres outside of douentza. we took off down the road, eventually settling on a dirt road that went in the general direction, between some houses and into the fields behind. the cliffs were of a size and at a distance so as to appear very remote.
along the way, we passed a few people on bicycles heading into douentza, through the fields. alex began to tell a joke to pass the time: so this guy gets fed up being made fun of and goes to joke telling school...
it's a good joke; half an hour later the punchline hits. we've been walking for quite a while - several km - and the escarpment looks about the same as it did when we started. but it is getting much hotter and the ground is starting to suck with each step. we're wearing flip flops, but have brought our track shoes for the climb ahead.
very shortly it becomes impracticle to dodge puddles and the trail we follow submerges into an amorphous swamp, a river running over its banks. it gets deeper but we're wearing shorts; soon the water is up to our knees and then to our hips. we pass a few people coming the opposite direction, carrying their bicycles and baskets above their heads and smiling as we slog through the morass. eventually i start to loose my flip flops in the thick mud below the water and take them off to walk in my bare feet. the water is up to mid-chest before the ground slopes upward again; a man perches high on his camel's hump, passing us and looking rather smug i'd say.
when we get back to dry land, restore socks and running shoes, we are in a small village at the base of the escarpment. with nowhere to go but up, we plow carefully through a cornfield and begin the climb. it's fairly easy going, a lot of scrambling and before long we're halfway, wheezing lightly and resting in the shade of a boulder looking out over the valley we crossed in the morning. from here, the swamp is clearly a swollen stream, spreading out over the maize fields and running along the base of the escarpment. the valley is shocking, bright green and the dim shape of a tall radio tower in douentza is visible through the haze.
we press on for the top, but realise it's probably out of reach without technical climbing gear. we ascend the spine of a ridge; looking below, on both sides of the ridge, the crumbled stone foundations of nearly abandoned mud hut villages, with flocks of goats and the odd goatherd in their avenues. the sun is high now and it's pretty hot.
on the descent, we make better time, passing through a few rockstrewn fields of lush grass. back into the cornfield, onto the village path. we decide to follow the path along the stream to the main road; at first we feel a bit lost, but arrive eventually. where the river crosses the road is paved, but a foot deep in swift running water. just up river, off the tarmac, a herd of cows lumbers awkwardly through the river. lumps of cow turd float past us, but we're thirsty so we fill the bottles and purify them with iodine for 10 minutes, standing in the middle of the road as trucks and 4x4s pass us. no one seems inclined to give us a lift, but we're worried about making it back to doentza to catch our cab to koro.
eventually we make it - everyone is in he huge market; naturally, we have to wait for a few hours before the cab is full to leave town. we spend the time shopping for CDs and food.
posted by Jon @ 11:48
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