Kayes, Mali

After arriving at the border with no visas, which we were told was completely acceptable by the Malian consulate in the Gambia who wasn't authorized to issue visas, we managed to get through customs with a minor 'gift' costing less than eighteen dollars each. We pulled into Kayes, a large and dusty frontier town of 200,000 people, barely an hour later and drove into the city center in an attempt to locate the regional Peace Corps transit house. Mopeds and motorcycles heavily outnumbered cars on the sandy streets, and people and animals mingled everywhere in a dangerously disordered mess.

Everything off the main thoroughfare was difficult to navigate due to the deteriorated road conditions, with streets often acting more as a mud barrier than anything else. After repeated attempts to find someone who knew where the house was, we finally found someone who knew someone who knew where we could find the local Peace Corps community. Once we found this man, who turned out to be very knowledgeable as well as helpful, it wasn't long until we were at an obscure house in a back alley in the middle of Kayes with a Peace Corps logo on the front gate.

We were welcomed into the house by a couple of very hospitable volunteers who quickly broke some bad news to us. A bridge on the northern road on which we expected to drive to Bamako had been washed out the day before and no cars were getting through. Our other option was to take the long southerly route on a bush trail that the Peace Corps driver told us that we 'would never make' in our car because of the ravines, rivers and deep mud we would have to transverse. With neither of these options sounding very friendly, we decided the following day to scout the first 15 kilometers of the southern road along the way to the Chutes de Falou, a waterfall we were told was worth checking out.

The dirt road to the chutes started out fine without leaving us with any indication that troubles might lay ahead. As the road started to wind its way into the hills, we approached a distinctively Malian village. The mud houses were built as if they grew from the ground. Smooth sun burnt earth flowed upwards from the ground and became wall. The majority of the houses did not have roofs either, but rather the walls leveled out and became mud roofs. We passed the ruins of an ancient fort and continued through the village. The steep windy road was paved in cobblestone in a few areas, which was especially treacherous as it had fallen into disrepair and large rocks were strewn across the road. As I tried to navigate the roads, I quickly learned an important fact about the clearance of the Stingray: it doesn't have any. The skid plate installed prior to the trip suddenly became very important, keeping our oil pan from being ruptured on various occasions.

As we left the village, there was a loud noise like a shotgun being fired directly behind us. I pulled over and, as expected, the back tire of the Stingray had exploded. We were only two kilometers from the chutes. We stopped in the intense midday sun and started unloading the vehicle. We jacked the car up and after putting on one of the spares, started to lower it back to the ground. As the jack dropped, the car kept sinking, up until the point that it became apparent that we had just replaced a blown tire with a flat spare. As the car went back up, I desperately hoped that the second and last spare would have enough air in it to drive. Otherwise, it would be a long walk back to Kayes.

This time, when we lowered the car back to the ground, I could see that while the tire wasn't completely filled, there was probably enough air to get us to the chutes and back. We piled back into the Stingray and moved on. As we approached the chutes, all the positive attributes I was so willing to bestow on the road disappeared and driving became a slow perilous affair. At a number of spots, Nate and Tuuli had to get out and walk, while guiding me over especially awful areas. However, the car held out and after the road started to change back and forth from sharp compacted rocks to significantly steep sheet rock, we parked and walked the rest of the way to the chutes. The Chutes de Falou were much more impressive than any of us had imagined. Constituting thousands of small waterfalls and rapids, they covered a huge section of the river that looked to be almost a kilometer wide. However, getting to the chutes proved to be a problem. We had to wade through several rapids before we arrived at the first of the scenic areas. Once there, however, we were left to swim in natural spas, slide down rapids into large pools and hang off the sides of low lying waterfalls. After a few hours of splashing around, we packed up with the sun starting to drop and headed back to Kayes without incident. Tomorrow we will be spending the day getting the car back into shape for the drive and deciding whether to risk the washed out bridge in the north or the potentially impassable roads to the south.
* posted by Sean at 2:34 PM