Crazy Travel Experience in Mali

One of the crazier travel experiences I have had was at the end of my trip to Mali. Towards the end of my trip, I realized that I had not budgeted enough money or planned enough time for transportation. Or more specifically, I had budgeted less than I thought I needed.

At the time I lived in Togo, and I decided to take a visit to Mali to see the Sahara Desert and the famous city of Timbuktu, which was famous for having many World Heritage Sites. It was a very good trip, but I should have brought more money. The food, in particular, was more expensive.

Food in Togo was quite cheap because Togo is near the ocean and has many farms. Food in Mali is more expensive because there is a desert and there are not as many farms. I didn’t think about this and so the food was much more expensive than I had planned for. The situation was not too bad, I got through most of my trip without any problems. The main issues came on the last day of my trip. I was planning to go from Mopti in Mali to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and, since I did not have money for a taxi, I would walk to a house owned by my organization where I could stay without having to pay. The walk might have taken 2 hours, but I could stay there for free.

Unfortunately, I had some problems, and the journey was slower than I expected. I arrived at Mali at about 3 in the morning. Too late to get a bed at my organization and I only had enough money for bus fare back to Togo. I just wandered around Ouagadougou late at night, hoping to just stay awake until the morning when I could get a bus ticket back to Togo. At one point, a night guard at a motorcycle parking lot told me that there were many dangerous people out at night and that I might be killed. He let me sit with him for the night so that I was safe. We talked until the morning.

In the morning, I bought a ticket to Dapaong in Togo. I was happy to see I had enough money to buy an egg sandwich for breakfast, so I had something to eat. However, that was not the end of my problems.

I got to Dapaong without problems and was able to go to the bank and withdraw money in Dapaong. I was able to find a car going to Sokode. Sokode was the biggest city near the village where I lived, and I planned to meet some other members of my organization there the next day. Once again, I had not planned enough time and I arrived in Sokode fairly late, around 9 pm.

Unfortunately, when I arrived in Sokode there was a huge rainstorm. Usually, I would walk from the car station to a house owned by my organization, but it was very rainy, and I was very tired. I paid for a motorcycle taxi to take me to my house. It was against the rules of my organization to ride a motorcycle taxi, but I was too wet and tired. I arrived at the house soaking wet. I dried off with a towel and then found a bed to sleep in. I fell asleep quickly.

Nathaniel