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Guest
Guest
Hi Peter
Only just picked up on this thread, so apologies if this repeats previous opinions.
Can't comment on the current situation in Mali, but I was there earlier this year so a few general observations.
We travelled from Bamako, Segou, Mopti, Dogon, Tomboctou, Essakane (for the festival) and back via Burkino Faso.. 80% of that journey is on tarmac or relatively hard roads. Once you get beyond Tomboctou then it becomes significantly more difficult. There, you will find little more than tracks in the scrub (often several sets of tracks in parallel where others have tried to avoid soft spots, etc), no signs, and very few settlements. There is passing traffic but we were there at festival time so that was not representative. Plenty of occasions where the track forks and it's largely intuition as to whether you bear left or right. If that's the sort of area that you're planning to travel through then I suggest that you consider hring a local guide. They can be picked up in most towns and larger villages for not much cost. In addition they can be useful in dealing with local encounters on the way.
It's festival season in West Africa throughout January so you might consider timing your visit accordingly. I can send some web links if of interest.
January temperatures were about 35C at midday down to a low of about 7C at night (in the semi desert)
Plenty of Landcruisers to be seen, mostly 20 years old+, although there are a few newer ones (plus of course the brand new ones used by the UN and some NGO's)
Have a good trip
Ken
----- Original Message -----
From: [Email address removed]
To: [Email address removed]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 12:38 PM
Subject: [ELCO] After The Floods
Cedric
Once again very many thanks for all your advice.
We leave in about 3 weeks time and, although we won't be in the areas of Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana that were hit by the floods for about 6 - 8 weeks after that, I wondered if you could give me an indication of the residual effect the floods have had on the road infrastructure of the effected areas. Are routes normally passable even if with local detours around gaps,bridges down ,etc? Can we plan ahead and generally not worry about being unable to get from A to B?
Many thanks
Regards
Peter
'94 1HD-T(auto), 2.5"OME, oil cooler
Only just picked up on this thread, so apologies if this repeats previous opinions.
Can't comment on the current situation in Mali, but I was there earlier this year so a few general observations.
We travelled from Bamako, Segou, Mopti, Dogon, Tomboctou, Essakane (for the festival) and back via Burkino Faso.. 80% of that journey is on tarmac or relatively hard roads. Once you get beyond Tomboctou then it becomes significantly more difficult. There, you will find little more than tracks in the scrub (often several sets of tracks in parallel where others have tried to avoid soft spots, etc), no signs, and very few settlements. There is passing traffic but we were there at festival time so that was not representative. Plenty of occasions where the track forks and it's largely intuition as to whether you bear left or right. If that's the sort of area that you're planning to travel through then I suggest that you consider hring a local guide. They can be picked up in most towns and larger villages for not much cost. In addition they can be useful in dealing with local encounters on the way.
It's festival season in West Africa throughout January so you might consider timing your visit accordingly. I can send some web links if of interest.
January temperatures were about 35C at midday down to a low of about 7C at night (in the semi desert)
Plenty of Landcruisers to be seen, mostly 20 years old+, although there are a few newer ones (plus of course the brand new ones used by the UN and some NGO's)
Have a good trip
Ken
----- Original Message -----
From: [Email address removed]
To: [Email address removed]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 12:38 PM
Subject: [ELCO] After The Floods
Cedric
Once again very many thanks for all your advice.
We leave in about 3 weeks time and, although we won't be in the areas of Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana that were hit by the floods for about 6 - 8 weeks after that, I wondered if you could give me an indication of the residual effect the floods have had on the road infrastructure of the effected areas. Are routes normally passable even if with local detours around gaps,bridges down ,etc? Can we plan ahead and generally not worry about being unable to get from A to B?
Many thanks
Regards
Peter
'94 1HD-T(auto), 2.5"OME, oil cooler