Road 2 Timbuktu (Festival in the Desert)
Posted Jul 7, 06:08 PM
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As a child, Timbuktu was a fabled town in the wilderness of the Sahara; an inaccessible land where the Tuareg ruled supreme.
Taking a sabbatical to travel overland to Morocco, I decided to head further South in search of Timbuktu, a desert town that remained undiscovered until 1828 when French explorer Rene Callie reached Timbuktu and returned to tell the tale, unlike an earlier Scottish explorer, Major Gordon Laing, who reached Timbuktu in 1826 but was reportedly killed by his Tuareg guide.
Having previously toured Morocco, the landscape was familiar until I reached the wastelands of the Western Sahara and the border crossing into Mauritania. The crossing, although time consuming, was straightforward and I was soon rewarded by my first glimpse of the huge Sahara Desert ergs that stretched to the horizon on either side of the road.
After travelling through the bustling towns and villages of Mauritania I finally arrived at the Malian border and began the final leg of my journey to Timbuktu. Mali is a wonderful country; the people are friendly and hospitable and I was particularly moved by my experiences in the Dogon country where the villagers retain their rich cultural heritage. Three weeks after leaving UK I drove into Timbuktu and immediately sensed how atmospheric it must have been in its hey day, when it was an important staging post for the trans-Saharan caravans. Now, sadly, much of the town is neglected but, on a positive note, a restoration program is underway to restore many of the buildings to their former glory including the houses that Laing and Callie inhabited during their time here.
Having timed my trip to coincide with the Music Festival in the Desert, I hired a local guide and drove across 70km of the real Sahara to reach the festival site. The festival was a remarkable experience, surreal in its setting amongst the sand dunes under a full moon. The desert nights were filled with the haunting melodies of local musicians as the local Tuareg, resplendent in their indigo-dyed robes and turbans; looked on from their white camels on the dunes.
