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I had heard that leaving Timbuktu can be a time-consuming challenge. So when I was in Kourioume, still 10km prior to arriving, I was searching out ways to leave. The day was Wednesday. We could leave on Friday. By public pinasse. A pinasse is like a large, motorized pirogue. A pirogue is a small wooden [...]

Djenne
Djenne is a sleepy place. Except for Mondays. Monday is market day. Market day means hundreds of people arrive in town, congregate, congest the streets. They usher in goats and sheep, set up shop on the street floor to sell anything (everything afterall has a price and if it has a price it can be [...]

A few photos from the cycle from Kouroussa in Guinea, where we ended the boat trip, heading northeast into Mali for Bamako and then on to Djenne.

For some numbers relating to our Niger River boat trip,  see the article posted over at The Travelers Notebook:
http://thetravelersnotebook.com/by-the-numbers/by-the-numbers-paddling-the-niger-river/

This is just a short clip of me and Lars paddling through one of the faster sections of water.
Shortly after this clip ends, when we’re just out of camera view, we run into the bushes and I fall out, losing my sunglasses and flip-flop in the process.

This is my first ever video upload and I [...]

Day 14: 19th Feb 2010
Fast rapids – Boat unload – Stuck! – Decision to quit in Kouroussa
It was a successful start to the day, with calm open water which Joliba II glided over with considerable ease.
Boosted by our progress and steady rhythmic paddling, when we heard the distinctive white water ahead and then saw the [...]

Day 11: Feb 16th 2010
Warthogs - Broken boat - Hippo encounter - Bush fire – Bat exodus – Uniformed and uninformed – Poacher or American?
A long, hard morning paddle – at least we were paddling and not pushing or dragging, but the wavelets on the river surface were tiresome. With the ripples lapping at [...]

Day 7: 12th Feb 2010
Ou tu vas comme ca? - Bee island - Frogs and splashes
Nearly a week into the trip, about 100km downstream of Faranah, getting close to the National Park and the number of people we are seeing has diminished – just the occasional onlooker from a riverbank and lone fishing boats. We [...]

On day 10 of the Niger River boat trip, we came across a Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Sanctuary.
Here are some photos from our visit…

For more information on chimpanzee rehabiliation and the Sanctuary, visit The Project Primate website

Day 4: 9th Feb 2010
Quiet morning – shallow maze - near-disaster - crocodile island
Following a quiet morning on the river where progress was slow but steady, the afternoon brought with it a maze of rocks and shallow waters that slowed progress drastically. We would stop paddling and stand up to get a better view downstream, [...]