One Day in Timbuktu

What do you at sunrise in Timbuktu? You could pray to Allah in the direction of Mecca. You could play football with the locals. Or you could go for a run in the Sahara. I chose the latter. Around Timbuktu I ran, checking out the quality mud houses, stick houses, even animal skin homes that populate Timbuktu’s suburbs. There isn’t much to them, or the sand roads between them, and once they end, and they do end soon, its all Sahara.

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The Road to Tombouctou

Back when I was a kid, I read about Timbuktu. I don’t recall exactly where, but I do remember having the impression that is was a grand place with lush green surroundings and majestic buildings.

Maybe, once long ago, that was Timbuktu. Now it’s not so lush or so grand. It can be very interesting for a bit, as the Sahara Desert meets the Niger River and the peoples from these two regions coexists.

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Wipers – Know Them, Use Them

We are on the road to Timbuktu, the long, dusty, dirty road to Timbuktu. We’ve crossed deserts, we’ve crossed rivers, and we’ve crossed the country, but not once in that entire two day and one thousand kilometer trip have we once used the windshield wipers.

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Always Eat on the Street

The best cooking is always streetside Open air cooking Three bowls happy A swank stop Oh am I hungry. Its been hours, seemingly days, since a good meal and I need one now. Not content to wait the usual two hours for ‘fast food’, there is only one option for…

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Dust, Dust, Dust, Dust, Dust

Dust. Rust red dust. From microscopic airborne particles that collect on every flat surface or in your lungs to big sand granules that amass in every un-swept corner of Mali, dust is everywhere here. It’s in my laptop keyboard, on my clothes, and behind my teeth.

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