Festival in the (Sahara) Desert

J. Toronado

J. Toronado

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2008
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Warsaw, VA
Going to Mali.

I'm leaving in early January to guide a few American women to a music festival in the middle of the Sahara desert outside of Timbuktu. We're taking two Land Cruisers and an interpreter. Its about a 3-4 day trek over sand and sahel from Bamako where the local travel is by camel. Should be a good time--lots of good beer, music and sleeping under the intensely bright stars.

But that new terrorist warning for the area should make things interesting... I'm going to buy one of those SPOT trackers for the trip and take a SAT phone to stay in touch with home base but the warning adds a new dimension to trip. Ive been to Timbuktu though before and felt completely at ease there. Our safety really depends on this one guy named Mohammed (last name withheld) who is known far and wide and can make sure no one bothers us. Its an amazing part of the world and I'm looking fwd to it. I'll post up some pics along the way. Should be a big group of Brits there in 110's.
 
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varova87

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Mar 21, 2006
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Texas
I'll be in Northern Uganda while you're in Mali. We'll have armed escorts for a portion of our time there.
 
J. Toronado

J. Toronado

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2008
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Warsaw, VA
northern uganda is 5 times more dangerous then timbuktu. be safe and have a great trip. kampala is a nice city if you get down there.

jenny...

:cheerleader:
 
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varova87

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Mar 21, 2006
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Texas
J. Toronado said:
northern uganda is 5 times more dangerous then timbuktu. be safe and have a great trip. kampala is a nice city if you get down there.
Click to expand...


spent three weeks in Kampala this past summer. By far the craziest city I've ever been to as of yet. It was glorious though, and some great local places to eat.

We'll be stopping through there this time around as well, only for a few days. Hotel Africana:cool:
 
J. Toronado

J. Toronado

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2008
1,470
0
Warsaw, VA
incredible trip. i posted some pics here

met some germans in bamako on the way to namibia in their defender. they had been driving for about 2 months. also ran into a group of frogs in a defender that had some major conversion work on it. it looked like the rear of a short bus had been welded on to it. we had a good time at the music festival which was held in the bowl of a sand dune that got down to 40 degrees at night and 95 in the day. enjoyed driving the land cruisers through the deep sand.

sadly though on our last day in timbuktu a small boy ran out into the street and was hit by our truck going about 40mph. not something i would ever want to witness again. he rolled at least 100 ft and folded like a wet sack into the middle of the road bleeding from his head which had taken most of the impact. amazingly he survived and is in a timbuktu hospital now though i am not sure of his exact condition. we learned later that another outfit had hit a young girl nearby on that same day and killed her and that the driver is now serving 3 years in jail mandatory. between the kids, the goats, the dogs and donkeys running inj and out of the road the whole time its amazing that anything lives there for very long. whats new in dweb world? what did i miss?
 
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