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 Our accommodation centre will be in the heart of Dogon Country. Located in an old village, Yabatalou, beneath the soaring ridges of the Bandiagara fault, it has commanding views across the savannah.
Bigger map of Mali
The lifestyle in these villages is based on a subsistence economy utterly dominated by millet. Every family has a granary where they store their harvest. Water is drawn manually from wells sunk into the water table. There are no powerlines, and mechanical transport is along simple tracks are only suitable for four-wheel drives.
Royal Air Maroc flies to Bamako every day via Casablanca.
Air France has direct flights from Paris.
Air Mali plans to start direct flights to Bamako from Madrid and Paris.
Internal flights span the whole country, although unfortunately there are many cancellations, making them unreliable for very tight travelling schedules.
www.royalairmaroc.com
www.airfrance.com
www.air-mali.com
www.mae-mali.com
In addition to your passport, which must be valid for at least the next 6 months, you need a visa and an International Yellow Fever Vaccination Certificate (consult your regional international vaccination centre).
Visas can be arranged at a Mali embassy. If there is no embassy in your country, as in the case of Spain, you arrange your visa on arrival at Bamako airport (roughly 30 €, including an extension if you are going to stay for more than 10 days), or at a higher cost on the Internet via intermediary companies. We can arrange visas at the airport for travellers who ask us to do so, but we do need you to send us a scanned image of your passport. A couple of passport photos are worth bringing with you as well in case you are asked for them in Bamako.
Mali follows solar time.
When you are preparing a trip to Mali, you need to pay special attention to health issues.
The first thing you must do is visit the nearest vaccination centre to get a yellow fever jab and the corresponding International Vaccination Certificate, a compulsory document for entry into the country. They will also advise you about preventive medication against malaria
YELLOW FEVER: Get your vaccination at least 10 days before your trip.
MALARIA: Preventive anti-malaria prophylaxis, which may require a doctor's prescription in some places. Mosquito repellent for your skin. Mosquito nets for sleeping are provided with our accommodation, and when we camp out at night, we supply “mosquito netting tents”.
The malaria incubation period is 10 to 15 days, so it is fairly unlikely that you will fall ill on the trip. If your body temperature rises suddenly on your return home, visit your health centre immediately.
Due to the nature of our trips, in close contact with the local population and often outside the circuit of more or less conventional hotels and restaurants, you might be recommended to take other types of vaccinations which are usually only prescribed for journeys lasting more than a month:
CHOLERA: Although Mali is not designated as a hazard area, DUKORAL is a quite effective preventive vaccine for the typical traveller's diarrhoea.
HEPATITIS A: At least two weeks before the trip.
DEHYDRATION: In severe cases, it may lead a traveller to suffer serious health problems. Drinking liquids and protecting your head from the sun is not enough. You also need to eat properly, as the heat sometimes reduces people's appetite, and take a proactive attitude towards everything relating to self-care.
More
information:
www.cdc.gov
The Mali currency is the West African Franc (CFA), 1 euro= 656 CFA.
For quick calculations, remember that the exchange rate for 10,000 CFAs is roughly 15 Euros.
Outside West Africa, you can only buy CFAs in France. You can exchange money on arrival at Bamako airport and then later, at any bank.
Check the exchange rate:
www.oanda.com/convert/classic?lang=es
The official language in Mali is French. Bambara is the most widely spoken of the 30 or more local languages.Aquí puedes consultar un vocabulario español-bambara-dogón.
The climate and the lack of a widely developed agricultural and food preservation industry means that there is a shortage of certain products which Westerners consider to be perfectly commonplace. Only powdered milk is available, fresh vegetables are scarce and coffee always comes in a sachet. On the other hand, you can always enjoy delicious mangos, pineapples and paw-paws, depending on the season, as well as tasty fish from the Niger River.
Also, the roadsides are dotted with simple stalls where you can eat roast meat, usually lamb, cooked in wood-fired ovens.
You will find restaurant in almost every town where you can enjoy a variety of dishes, but once we enter the rural areas, we will only have access to local products, primarily millet. We therefore need to take food with us, mainly pasta and rice spiced with tomato paste and onions, when we travel through Dogon Country or embark on a journey along the Niger River for several days.
For some travellers, the diet might start to seem a little monotonous and not very well balanced, so it might be a good idea to bring a vitamin supplement or better still, some vacuum-packed food. A packet of lentils can be a "salvation" towards the end of a trek lasting several days.
In Mali, the wet season generally runs from July to September. From October to March, the weather is dry with moderate temperatures, and between April and June, you will experience high temperatures.
The most suitable dates for our journeys fall in the rainy season between the second half of June and the end of September, because of the low temperatures on account of the rain and the splendid green colour of the landscape. The best time to visit Mali is between the second half of October and early March, when the temperatures are milder, while April, May and the first half on June fall in a very hot period which is not advisable for travellers.
The table (2008 figures for Bamako) shows average temperatures (T), maximum temperatures (TM), minimum temperatures (Tm) rainy days (RA), for each month, a graphic depiction of the Mali climate through the year.
| |
T |
TM |
Tm |
RA |
| January |
22,3 |
30,3 |
15,2 |
0 |
| February |
27,8 |
36,4 |
19,6 |
0 |
| March |
30,4 |
38,6 |
22,5 |
3 |
| April |
31,3 |
39,1 |
24 |
6 |
| May |
31,2 |
38,1 |
25,2 |
5 |
| June |
29,2 |
35,9 |
23,4 |
11 |
| Julait |
26 |
31,1 |
21,9 |
18 |
| August |
24,7 |
30,8 |
18,8 |
19 |
| September |
26 |
32,8 |
21,7 |
14 |
| October |
26,8 |
34 |
21,2 |
10 |
| November |
25,7 |
36 |
15,6 |
0 |
| December |
24,7 |
33,6 |
16,3 |
0 |
Plant map of Mali. The amount of rainfall, which drops drastically from south to north, defines each of the different landscapes we will encounter in Mali:
1 Sahara:The biggest desert on Earth. Little or no vegetation here.
2 Sahel: A transition zone between the northern desert and the southern savannah. This is a very diversified zone, where environmental factors like water availability vary considerably. The most characteristic tree in the Sahel is the acacia, which largely defines this landscape.
3 Savannah: The high rainfall here there is facilitated the establishment of a savannah is nothing more than the result of human action on a primitive forest. The baobab is an icon tree in the savannah environment.
4 Guinean domain: A 650 km-long belt in the south of the country. Heavy precipitation throughout the 6 or more month-long rainy season has shaped the landscape here, composed of savannahs, open forests and closed forests in the valleys.
Map of Morocco
• Carte
du Maroc • Mapa
de Marruecos • Map of Mali • Carte
du Mali • Mapa de Mali |
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