Most excellent! However, let me just confess that I didn’t finish the hike because I got sunstroke, so take heed. Anyway, we set off from Dourou and were subject to some fairly aggressive but short-lived bursts of sales pitch. There were some stonking baobab trees along the path through a cultivated area. Across a vast, almost featureless rocky plain, to the head of a deep gorge cutting down into the escarpment (falaise). The steep sides of the gorge had been eroded into towering curved surfaces, and the narrow path down the gorge involved negotiating huge chunks of weathered and fallen rock. In contrast with the dusty natural vegetation associated with semi-arid areas were the trees and bushes in the gorge that gained a foothold between rocks and had glossy dark green leaves.
There was no running water, but it was cool and slightly damp; a real micro-climate. The sunrays caught the cliff-tops, and the resultant reds and oranges contrasted strikingly with the vegetation. There are tantalising glimpses of the view, but it’s not until you’re nearly at the bottom that you can look out over the sweeping cliffs of the escarpment stretching away into the distance. Towering cliffs of orange/red sandstone, a patchwork of allotment areas below you on the plain and ahead in the trees, the thatched roofs of Nombori.
The museum–part of the sustainable tourist development programme, supported by the Mission Culturelle (CFA500 entry) and the danses des masques, is also performed here for tourists. It is a fairly large village, and our campement was at the highest point with a commanding view back over the plain to the bottom of the gorge, a black slice in the red cliffs. Having negotiated the notched tree trunk that is a Dogon ladder, we’d all just settled on the roof to sleep when the drums started. Not particularly loud, the sound seemed to roll up and down the escarpment. Couldn’t work out if it was echoes or drums in other villages we were listening to. I thought it was great but a few weren’t so thrilled.
In the morning we visited the Tellem buildings above the village but once we started walking I just couldn’t stop shaking. I have vague memories of villages and fields and baobab trees and practically crawling into Tireli. My hike ended after the danses des masques with a lift back to Bandiagara with some French missionaries. Even though I rested at lunch, drank gallons of water and was feeling slightly better, it was quite right that the decision was taken to send me back to the hotel. I so wanted to carry on but it would have been quite irresponsible if I had. Nevertheless, in the little amount of time I did spent walking before becoming delirious and deranged, I thought it was a great place and kept thinking of friends and family who’d really enjoy hiking the escarpment too. Stunning scenery, interesting sites, relatively tourist free, good walking and colourful birdlike. Excellent.
From journal Delirious and Deranged in Dogon Country