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| Getting there | |||
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Tombouctou,
Timbuctoo, Ti-n Buktu, however spelt it is a figure of remoteness. In
some ways the place is now more remote than ever. The River Niger used
to flow here, that anomaly which rises so close to the ocean, yet sets
an absurd course into the depths of the Sahara desert. Nature is fickle,
and as the river changed its course over the centuries, it left Timbuktu
stranded among the shifting dunes, its raison d'être as a trading post
lost forever.
I set out from Mopti in an old 4x4 flatbed. The driver is tall and very dark, a Mandinka from Mali's forested South. He says he does the trip to Timbuktu every week, and persuades me to pay extra to sit in the cabin with him. When we stop for a break I see the wisdom of my decision - the dozen other passengers, an assortment of fine-featured Fulani cowherds, and pale-skinned Moors in flowing robes, are caked in sand and dust from head to toe. After some miles the track peters out. The driver seems confident but I see no hint of a way, no tyre tracks, nothing. A few hours later, I realise we have been driving in a circle for a while. We stop and a heated argument ensues between the driver and one passenger, each insistently pointing in another direction. The other passengers look from one to the other intently but in silence. When we set off again, the driver is less chatty. We drive on and on through a landscape formed by the wind, with rocky outcrops sandblasted smooth, patches of mean scrub the only vegetation, and not a sign of animal life. It is clear that if we get lost here death is inevitable. The sun beats down relentlessly and its hot breath pours in through gaps around the door. My tension slowly ebbs with the acceptance that I have no control over my fate. During the hours that follow, the driver's face is inscrutable, and he remains taciturn as we bump across the trackless waste. Finally, with the sun setting behind us, the mudbrick city walls of Timbuktu appear purple-brown on the horizon. |
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