Just after 1pm we arrived in the town of Sévaré. Lunch was at a local restaurant with goat stew in a peanut sauce served with steamed rice.


An hour and 62 kilometers later we made it to the town of Bandiagara, the main gateway to Dogon country.


And where we picked up a few food supplies for the next 24 hours. Unfortunately not all of the eggs survived the bumpy road ahead though.


From Bandiagara the plan to was head ~25 kilometers south-east to the village of Begnimato located by the Bandiagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Heritage site.


We then ventured onto the dirt and muddy road across the Mali central plateau.


The cropfields criss-crossed with rows of rocks to stop the soil being washed away by the rain.


Some Dogon Militamen on their motorbikes. They weren't too keen having their photo taken so I sneaked a shot with my iPhone.


In recent years there has been increasing violence between the Dogon and Fulani communities in the Mopti region of Mali.

The Dogon people practise settled agriculture whereas the Fulani are semi-nomadic herders. The Dogon have often accused the Fulani of bringing their cattle onto their farms and destroying their crops, leading to tension and even violence between the two groups including the masscare of 160 Fulani herders in March 2019 and the slaughter of 35 Dogon villagers in June 2019.

The tension between the two communitites has been exacerbated by climate change, land degradation, population growth and jihadist groups exploiting grievances to recruit Fulani and boost their numbers and power in central Mali.

The Islamist militant conflict that began in 2012 and spread to central Mali in 2015 brought more instability and consequently weakened government control. Hence the Dogon self-defence militia were formed to protect their own people.

We were very lucky to visit Dogon Country when we did as shortly afterwards the Dogon militia prohibited further tourists from travelling to the region.

About thirty minutes into our drive the van came to a halt after an apparent mechanical issue with the driver not able engage the clutch.


It appeared to be the mechanical linkage between the pedal and the clutch so luckily nothing too serious though.


Ibrahim quickly made a few phone calls and said not to worry and everything would be sorted in 45 or so minutes.

While we were waiting we went for a walk to a nearby Dogon village.


The people were all out working in their fields so the village was eerily deserted.


A couple of Landcruisers from Bandiagara arrived a short while later to rescue us.


We then loaded up our luggage and supplies to continue the drive to Begnimato.


We arrived at a small village at the end of the road just as dusk was beginning.


It was still a ~2 kilometer walk to Begnimato so Ibrahim enlisted the help of some of the villagers to help carry our luggage.


Making our way down the hill with Begnimato just visible beyond the trees. Luckily we had brought headlamps to help navigate in the fading light.


We arrived in the village right on nightfall. The village had no electricity so it was almost completely dark.

My sleeping bag laid out on the roof of a village hut. It was too hot to sleep inside so we would be sleeping under the stars tonight.


After setting up our sleeping arrangements we gathered for dinner.


With some surprisingly tasty pasta and goatstew.


And some juicy Malian mango for dessert before retiring to the rooftops at the end of day 3.