Bamako Tumbuktu ?

[armadillo]

Hi everybody !

Can you please advise me in the difference ways there are to go from Bamako to Tumbuktu. I fly to Bamako and I got to go to the festival but i rather not taking the plane to go there.

- are there bush taxis ? how long does it take ?

Thanks a lot in advance !

Richard: do you miss the sand ?

[McThor]

Hey.

I don't have a complete answer for you. But I have an idea that might be worth looking into.

I know there are tourist ferries from Mopti to Timbuktu. Maybe it's even possible to get on one directly from Bamako?

As far as the bush taxis go, I'm sure you can. But how to go about this, I have no idea. Nor how long it will take. Sorry.

Anyway, just thought the ferry idea might be worth looking into as an option.

Torsten

[brend]

hee
good question. i want to know it too.
I plan to go with the car to mali. and drive little bit around.
Only thing I know till now is that there is tarmac from bamako to douentza and from there a i hope good piste to timbouctou.
About the boat the only thing i know is that it also depends if it is rain season or not because otherwise the river is too low.

But we will wait for the answers of the people who have been there. I'm looking forward to it.

brend

[Haakonbj]

Hi there
When I drove through Mali a couple of years ago, there where extremly litle traffic between Bamako and Douenza. Hardly any busses, only between villages. I met a couple of tourist in Djenne that had to rely on hiring cars, and it was not cheep..

In Bamako its possible to hire 4WD, something like a hundred euro a day.. I believe. If I am not wrong, it took me a couple of days to Djenne, and from there it must be another day to Tombucto.

The river from Mopti would be a great way to do it.

Mali is a great country.

Have fun
Haakon

[armadillo]

Thank you very much !

I got only a day to get to to the Festival, so against my principals, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to fly to Tumbuktú. When the Festival is over I'll take it easy in the way back to Bamako. I'm hired to film the Festival so I got to be there on time. Arbeit.
Its gonna be my 1st time in the Sahara car-less, finally, not to worry about engines, filters, loosing, breaking bolts... I hope....

When the Festival is over I'll hang in the area for some days. I just miss the sand.

I hope I see any of you around!

[McThor]

Just wanted to add that from Bamako and all the way to Douantze, it is pretty good asphalt road. There might be a detour or two along the way, but nothing that a 2w drive can't handle easily.

From Douantze to Timbuktu however, it's a different story. Mostly it's corrugated sand covered road like you see in the picture below. But sometimes the sand gets pretty deep and may cause a 2w drive some trouble. But not impossible. There is no asphalt from Douantze to Timbuktu.

[brend]

hello
nice picture..............bad road.....hihi
how is the road in the rain season??
in general how are the roads during wet season in mali. (july, august).
Is it raining every day or just a few times? I have never been south of the sahara in summer holidays. We are always in maroc, tunesia, egypt, jordan etc. And never problems with weather because in the summer it never rains there but this year it is all different. But I can't imagine how a rain season is? how many times rain? how much? I don't know......

thanks
brend

[xjohnparkx]

We just did the road to Timbuktu from Douentza on our motorcycles about a week ago. Took us about 7 hours on our 225cc Yamaha Serow's with all our shit tied down to the rack on the back. Definately doable, but not the most comfortable ride, especially on a moto. 4WD vehicles would be able to do it no problem. The only problem with a 2WD is that there are some really deep pits of sand that might be a bitch to get out of. It was NOT a fun ride. We ended up taking the COMMNAV boat back down to Mopti. I don't think it will run anymore to Timbuktu after that trip though. We are now in Bamako trying to sell our bikes. Anyone have any advice?

On another note, the road from Somougou to Bankass and then Bankass to Bandiagara was a lot of fun.