I Don't Think We're in Mali Anymore
March 10, 2006
We took a nice day trip last weekend. We awoke at 6:00. Eleven of us piled into five rigs and drove out the front gate. After two and a half hours down a dusty road, through several villages, and over the railroad tracks, we turned off onto a modified cow trail only to end up at one of the most incredible waterfalls I have seen for a long time.
The Senegal River is big. It starts somewhere in Guinea, runs north and finally west through Mali. It passes through Kayes before it heads off to Senegal. After a fat detour north and a meandering bend back to the west, it drains into the Atlantic Ocean in St. Louis. You know, the place we spent our Christmas.
It runs all year long and even supports a hydroelectric plant somewhere between Kita and Kayes. At the falls, the river is probably a quarter mile wide. The falls run the entire width. A fifty foot tall wall of stone snakes its way across the river creating an amazing panorama of thundering water and swirling currents. It was hard to believe we were still in Mali.
Some guys fished. We soaked in the water, played in the currents, and cooked up our sheep. After naps and plenty of beer we loaded up and headed home, arriving just before dark. Twelve hours after we left we tumbled back into bed, tired but happy.
MJR
We took a nice day trip last weekend. We awoke at 6:00. Eleven of us piled into five rigs and drove out the front gate. After two and a half hours down a dusty road, through several villages, and over the railroad tracks, we turned off onto a modified cow trail only to end up at one of the most incredible waterfalls I have seen for a long time.
The Senegal River is big. It starts somewhere in Guinea, runs north and finally west through Mali. It passes through Kayes before it heads off to Senegal. After a fat detour north and a meandering bend back to the west, it drains into the Atlantic Ocean in St. Louis. You know, the place we spent our Christmas.
It runs all year long and even supports a hydroelectric plant somewhere between Kita and Kayes. At the falls, the river is probably a quarter mile wide. The falls run the entire width. A fifty foot tall wall of stone snakes its way across the river creating an amazing panorama of thundering water and swirling currents. It was hard to believe we were still in Mali.
Some guys fished. We soaked in the water, played in the currents, and cooked up our sheep. After naps and plenty of beer we loaded up and headed home, arriving just before dark. Twelve hours after we left we tumbled back into bed, tired but happy.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 7:49 AM
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