Somewhere on the mighty Niger River is a floating ethereal world of dreams

The river is a kind of khaki green while an angle of the waves catches the bright blue and light of the sky resulting in a pleasing mix of colours and light.

The view as I lie on sacks of grain and gaze out is bizarre , all water and sky with a thin strip of land floating dramatically in space. This water level perspective, a ducks eye view if you will is not one I'm used to.

Small details take on significance, a tree or a goat become singled out against the enormity of sky and water. In this space the humble goat is dramatised, given dignity his life made epic. Cows swishing their tails and rocking there heads back and forth languidly look striking against a big blue sky. The smiling faces and waving hands of friendly villagers and excited kids shouting Toubab! Toubaboo! ( Toubab being the local phrase for foreigner ) Are like actors on a big blue stage, the bank, trees and huts like props to their lives which shine from this the strangest of perspectives.

The landscape is shining, ethereal and full of the exotic and timeless. Everything slides by like watching memories, as if time itself has been covered in treacle so as to slow things down and take the edge of reality. The movement so slow, the sights so unfamiliar I am convinced I am dreaming. If I saw a unicorn standing proud on the bank I wouldn't be surprised.

This cant possibly be real, floating past hippos and nomad villages is surely the stuff of dreams. I'll wake soon to a dreary wet day and go to dreary wet work to pay for a dreary wet life. But the dream goes on and on, time stretching out like the river, long winding and endless. I shake my head in disbelief at how lucky I am, how big the world is and how beautiful.

The most beautiful town in the Sahel

The dirty and frenetic docks at the riverside port of Mopti

I stayed for a few days in the mission chatholique a wonderful old sprawling place of many arched buildings in Segou. During the days I wandered the streets past mud buildings and stately colonial structures. Meeting friendly locals who were ever curious and open and then in the evening hanging out with French travellers and brushing up on my French. But as ever the open road was calling an so I left for Djenne, reputedly the most beautiful town in the Sahel and possessing the largest mud building in the world it didn't disappoint.

Goats are everywhere in Africa

This was taken from the rooftop of my hostel in Djenne where I would gaze out over the rooftops every evening and reflect on how lucky I am to be in such a place

In Djenne I rediscovered the artist in me. The town is isolated and its narrow medieval streets don't accommodate cars giving it an old world calm which fosters creativity.

For a few days I enjoyed the company of friendly locals who would always invite you to drink tea with them, I drew and painted and relished the slow pace of life. But as ever I was on a mission, I had to see the legendary Timbuktu the holy grail of traveling. Just the expression to have "been to Timbuktu and back" is embedded in our Psyche as a symbol of adventure, a place that is beyond the back of beyond.

To get on my way to Timbuktu I had to get to the river port of Mopti from which it takes three days by boat to get to Timbuktu. The Niger being one of the largest rivers in Africa with hippos living in its waters and ancient nomadic communities on its banks the journey was going to be an adventure in itself. In fact the journey to a distant exotic place like Timbuktu is the whole point of going, for the ride, to see what its like to get to the back of beyond.

some much needed nurishment for the blog

African crafts are colourful and diverse


Masks that tap into the human psyche and talk to you

A mud brick houses old yet timeless

I guess it kind of apt that as Ive become progressively sick and worn down bu Africa so has my blog. In that sense its a true mirror to my experience's. I realise a sick blog is a boring one all it does is sleep all day. Thankfully as I am recovering so is my blog. I'm in new surroundings now and feel refreshed so.. witness my blog reawaken!

To get up to speed we need first to do a little time traveling to a time when I first discovered the awesome ancient wonder of Mali. My first experience of this other world that inflames the imagination was on arriving in the riverside town of Segou and specifically on reaching the seat of a past empire in Old Segou.

Old segou was the capital of a Bamana empire around 1712 which was one of the first of the Mali empires to acquire guns by trading slaves on the Gambian, Senegalese and Ghanaian coasts. The empire was superseded by the Fula empire of Masina and Segou was captured in 1861 by El Hadj Omar and its people converted to Islam.

Mali with its position near the trans Saharan caravan routes and possessing the mighty Niger river a life line in the harsh Sahel ( the name for the dry land on the edge of the desert) was the founder of many a large and prosperous empire. Though present day Old Segou seems far removed from such huge history changing forces it does connect you to a past world.

The old empire capital is now a magical village 10 kilometers from modern day Segou. When I first stepped foot in this place I was unprepared for the unfamiliar smooth lines of crumbling mud buildings that rise seamlessly from the dusty earth. The houses and mosques seem more plant like than architecture like a colony of giant fungus growths. One mosque grew a tall cactus like tower with wooden struts like spines sprouting from all angles. Another was fat and bulbous a turnip of a building the sun cracked mud giving the impression that it was set to burst at any minute.

I was feeling acute travellers euphoria, as if Id really arrived at some holy grail of discovery. We were shown a very old tree where elders sat and discussed the worlds troubles, the old palace a square structure covered in indented or raised patterns and vertical columns, and then introduced to a village elder an given a tantalising glimpse of the interior of a large family compound. Despite all this wonderment it wasn't until I first saw the river that I truly gasped in wonder. From this moment on Mali was a dream world to me. It helped raise my spirits and inspired me to step up my ambitious plans. From this point I could feel my language skills increase as did my filming and photographing skills but most importantly I learned to learn. By this I mean that I started to take something from all the people I met and to open my eyes and my mind to the world around me.

So what was this magical scene like? well I doubt I can give you an Epiphany or revelation by describing it, but maybe I can inspire your imagination by telling you of the scene that unfolded as we came out from the twisting narrow alleys of the village to the banks of the Niger. The space around us opened up accommodating several large trees, huge round green globes a top gnarled trunks. Glittering between the dark shade of the trees you could see the silver light of the river peppered with impossible green. In a hot dusty environment scenes of lush greenery and precious water beckon to you like sirens so I could feel my self being dragged along at an ever faster pace by an uncontrollable force. Coming out from the trees into the light I could see timeless images of Egyptian like zebu cattle grazing on green islands, white egrets stalked the shallows as fishing boats drifted by. Women were washing bright clothes in time honored fashion while a little up the bank the oldest mosque in the village presided over the scene nestled under the hanging tendrills and shade of a banyan tree.

Again I apologise for my sickly blog and its emancipated out put but there really is more to come.