Random photo posts.

[Cossie]

That sounds like some trip. Don't think I could rough it like that.

We were a lot younger then! Couldn't imagine doing it now, however I still want to go through the stans and an overland like trip may be the best way.

 

[Cossie]

Some great photos Cossie. I often look back at our travel photos & wonder how life is treating some of the people we met.

Yes I also think that, it does make me realise just how fortunate I have been.

 

[Simo]

We live about a km from Australia Zoo and we have had some random photo opportunities with the Zoo being so close by. One of our friends lives to the side of one of the animals walking tracks and just sitting down and then watching a African animal wonder by

 

[JohnM]

We were a lot younger then! Couldn't imagine doing it now, however I still want to go through the stans and an overland like trip may be the best way.

This thread is just THE most sensational stuff Cossie .

Perhaps counter-intuitively, as I get older I am growing more sick of the conventional, the often phoney IMO 'luxury' and the increasingly cough sapiens-infested places. I guess I am feeling that I have done all that stuff, that it can be tedious and boring when overdone and when it becomes over-familiar. I am becoming increasingly interested in getting to the out-there places.

I did not get the chance to do the sort of trip you are showing when I was young because of career/marriage/kids/financial constraints but divorce and 50 years this year of subscribing to National Geographic has set up a whole lot of places that I have seen and many in the back of my mind that I still want to see. My life experience (and good health & fitness, I guess) has been such that I can handle the F travel and 5* hotel stuff but can still easily jump over to a hostel, camping or rough 4WD travel - in fact, I very often have that sort of mix in one itinerary.

I am also less interested now in my own mortality - if I fall off the perch doing something different/unusual/exciting/out-of-the-way it will be a fitting way to go, I reckon. Pfft - travel insurance can pick up the pieces and send 'em home :mrgreen:.

So, I actually think I'm glad to be doing 'adventurous' stuff in my later years with a bit of life-experience behind me than if I had done it when I was young and callow . Maybe it keeps me young... .

Keep it coming!

 

[Cossie]

On to Mopti, the Niger had quite a bit of water in it, but not enough for the ferries to be running.

 

[Cossie]

Looking at the map, we actually went to Djenne before Mopti, so these are from there. Djenne has the world's largest mud building and we were lucky as it was market day, always a good time to see various tribes and wonder how their clothing is so bright and clean when there is so little water and dust everywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djenné

Road into Djenne,


you can see where the water can come up to, that's sort of a boat ramp type thingy

Parking lot.

 

[Cossie]

Once in town, this is the mosque,



and a view of the market from the roof, we were allowed to go in and were guided by a couple of young kids.



This one of the guides, I have cut me out of the picture as to not spoil the shot!

 

[Cossie]

All in all it was truely memorable day, 28 years on, what are they doing now?

 

[Cossie]

More people shots. Never enough, for me, anyhow.

 

[Major]

Great photos...great thread

 

[Cossie]

A few more from Mopti and Djenne.

 

[Cossie]

Various river life shots before heading off into the desert to Timbuktu.

 

[Cossie]

But first, some more people.

 

[Cossie]

Crossing the river.



heading off into this.



Camel train with slabs of salt, hard way to earn a crust.

 

[Cossie]

Who hasn't ever wanted to go to Timbuktu? Approaching the town through the sand, but first we stopped for lunch.

 

[Cossie]

It was, dare I say it, a bit of a let down! Not a great deal to see, it was also a public holiday and everything was closed. So a quick wander round, photos of a few plaques and we were off. It was hot and windy and the driver didn't want to hang around, we still had the sahara to cross using rudimentary mapsand instructions from previous Guerba drivers, no GPS in those days.

Alexander Gordon Laing was meant to the the first European to reach Timbuktu by the north/south route and was murdered there in 1826. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Gordon_Laing
another person to spend some time there was Heinrich Barth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Barth

 

[Cossie]

So we follow the river east to Bourem, there is a road on the map, but it's really a case of just driving, don't have to worry too much about other traffic. First however, the driver wants to see how close to the river we can get before the inevitable....digging a truck out of hundreds of years of camel poo isn't much fun!

 

[Cossie]

We did meet some friendly locals and saw for the first time, a guerba, ie, an animal skin used to hold water, not just an overland travel company!

 

[Cossie]

Close up of a guerba, bit like the old hessian/canvas water bags that some of us may have attached to the front of our vehicles in times of yore.



and some cute camels.

 

[JohnM]

Just sensational Cossie! TR of 2016 and 2017!

I think DFAT would have apoplexy at the thought of someone going to Timuktu now.

I see that Guerba is now part of Intrepid.

BTW, when I was mentioning H. sapiens, I was referring mainly to ssp. touristiensis, not members of fascinating societies .