Things you see transported on bikes, motorbike, wheelbarrows, cars, buses and lorries constantly win the funny photo stakes in Mali. I never cease to be amazed at what people transport and how they do it. Today’s topic is sheep. These pictures are common sights near the end of Ramadan or other feasts.
Peter Baldwin has lots of great Mali pix including this one of sheep
Ferdinand Reus has this one of sheep on the top of a long distance bus (check out the rest of his Flickr Mali stream)
Here’s one from Johanne Veilleux (again lots of Mali pix on Flickr)
Sheep even travel by boat. (Thanks to
Dianne Murray, via Travel Pod)
Image via Wikipedia
I’ve been looking around at guides to Mali as I’m often asked for information about the country, where to stay, what to do etc. The book I use most often is the Lonely Planet guide to West Africa. Here is the Mali page from their website:
Lonely Planet guide to Mali
The Mali travel guide in the World Travel Guide is also quite good.
Happy Travelling!
Suggested Books (US)
Suggested Books (US)
You’ve heard of ecotourism? Well a few years ago whilst working in Mali we stayed at Teriya Bugu a tourist village run by local villagers and enjoyed it very much.
In Bambara, Teriya Bugu means ‘hut of friendship’. The hotel of 20 rooms on a self-sustaining compound was the brain-child of Father Bernard Vespieren. The idea is to promote an exchange between the tourists and the local community. Teriya Bugu caters for all kinds of clients from African schoolchildren from neighbouring countries, back-packers, development and charity workers to well-heeled tourists. All the profits from the tourism benefit the local community and finance equitable development micro-projects locally.
Teriya Bugu is an oasis in the middle of the bush surrounded by 200,000 eucalyptus trees which are used by the honey bees. There are productive gardens, orchards, fisheries, a nearby village with its school, its dispensary and a population of 500 people. There is a centre for the use of renewable energy aimed to promote solar energy and biogas, a model farm, and the centre employs over 50 families.
Please take a look at their website: http://www.tb-mali.com/e-teriya-bugu.html
An air conditioned room at Teriya Bugu
This is a wonderful site with many links. Please take time to explore the ancient libraries of Timbuktu in Mali.
The desert city of Timbuktu is rightly known as one of the more remote cities in the world. In fact nowadays it is easier to get to since the new airstrip and airport have been built. Hidden in the many mudbrick buildings are ancient libraries of Islamic texts. These texts cover many subject areas not just religious ones and are now being protected as a major heritage.
(map)
(map)