The Niger River

Its been a hole year that I have waited to take a boat up the Niger River here. Coming from the Northwest I miss the water, the boats and the reflections the sun rises on the water.

The Niger River brings mythical images of ancient times. Whether things have changed much over the last several centuries. Many of the boats have motors. You can see western dress on some of the people although many are dressed in traditional clothing from their regions.

The connection to Timbuktu just fed the imagination. Many people think Timbuktu is a mythical place that does not exist. When you tell someone you’re going to Mali they get a blank look on their face and ask where is that. I respond by saying it’s the country where Timbuktu is.

The culture and language gets more diverse as you head north. Bambara the dominant language of Mali is hardly spoken up there. In Dogon Country alone there are hundreds of dialects with each village having their own. That's just the gateway to the northern regions of Mali.

The boat we took was a little more upscale then I had envisioned but the landscape and the people were amazing. We left in the dark with a bustle of people, animals and goods being loaded for the voyage. Our accommodations did not include anything but a deck on board the ship. We fortunately took a scenic spot where river life unfolded starting every morning with the first light becoming muffled every night.

Every morning I woke with the first light then witnessed the sun rising over the lush green flood plain of the Niger River. Even thought it hadn’t rained in several weeks the water ways this far north flooded out into seasonal lakes stocked with an abundance of animal and plant life. People took a back stage living with the bare minimum of land.

How the captain navigated through the main channel is beyond me. Most of the water ways are shallow yet we only came grounded once. We were heading to the boundary of the Sahara Desert surrounded by water and green as far as the eye could see. This is not the Mali I live in. How refreshing to see another side of a great country.