Day 4.

Udo slowly awaking at dawn on the morning of day 4.


After arriving in darkness the night before, I was eager to explore the village now in the morning light.


After the relatively modern city of Ségou it is was great to see the traditional mud brick buildings and rock wall architecture of Begnimato.


And to see the dramatic and breathtaking rocky cliffs of the Bandiagara Escarpment.


A rocky chasm next to the village extending out towards the cliffs.


A natural rock pillar rising high beside the village. There are dozens of other Dogon villages located along the rocky cliffs of the escarpment.


The mud buildings of the village blending in with the surrounding red and brown rock.


Some low morning clouds drifting over the village.


The Dogons arrived at the Bandiagara Escarpment in the 14th century close to the neaby the village of Kani Bonzon and originally to avoid conversion to Islam. From there they spread over the plateau, the escarpment and the plains of the Seno-Gondo.


A panorama of the village showing the surrounding unique and beautiful landscape.


Looking south to the cliffs of the Bandiagara Escarpment and the Seno Gongo plain which stretches to Burkina Faso in the south-east.


Begnimato center in the middle distance with the crumbling rock of the escarpment in the foreground.


The cliffs of the Bandiagara Escarpment stretch for over 200 kilometers with height varying from 100 to 300 meters.


Since 1989 the Bandiagara Escarpment has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


The three different sections of the village visible from above, segregated based on Christian, Muslim and Animism beliefs.


And in the village where we were served a tasty breakfast of bread, nutella, fried donuts, omelette and Nescafé.


A carved wooden Dogon door. After breakfast we went for a stroll through the village.


A Christian woman wearing a cross around her neck.


Women pounding maize to make flour.


Two pigs in their sty in the Christian section of the village.


Another ornate carved wooden door.


An elderly Dogon man posing with his cane.


We then walked to a large open area for the start of a performance of a Dogon masked dance.


The beats from the drummers providing a steady rhythm.


And the masked young men dancing just behind.


Some of the masks were decorated with cowry shells, apparently used centuries ago in West Africa as a form of currency and hence highly valued.


The dancers snaking out along a long line.


The dance put on for us today was a condensed version of a funeral ritual intended to urge the reluctant dead into the afterlife, where they can assume useful roles as ancestors.


A dancer wearing a Kanaga mask.


The Kanaga mask is topped by a vertical double cross that represents a bird and also refers to the arms and legs of the Dogon creator God, Amma.


While ours lasted about 30 minutes, a proper Dogon funeral dance, honoring important elders, can go on for days.


A tingetange dancer on stilts, which represent the long legs of a waterbird.


Just behind was a dancer wearing an impressive five meter tall sirige mask. The mask’s straight lines are believed to connect the celestial world of the living with the spiritual world.


The dancers resting at the end of their very energetic and entertaining performance.


It felt like quite an honour to a get a brief glimpse of a centuries old tradition.


A village elder wearing a cowry shell necklace.


And a drummer wearing traditional Mali dress including his Bògòlanfini shirt and which we would get to see how it was decorated later in the trip.


After the Dogon mask dance we made the short walk to the edge of the escarpment.


At the edge of the cliff looking down at the trees and Seno Gongo plain below.


Ibrahim relaxing on the edge.


Piotr (center) and Udo (right) pausing to take in the expansive and breathtaking scenery all around us.


And myself nervously posing for a photo a few steps from certain oblivion!


Back in the village where we visited the home of a Dogon Dozo, or traditional hunter.


An array of baboon skulls and other dead animals on the wall.


And some tasty press coffee for morning tea before packing up our gear and getting ready to leave Begnimato.


Saying farewell to the village kids as we prepare to depart.


We then began a hike through the rocky landscape to the nearby village of Inndarou.


Sanny trekking through a gap between two rocky cliffs. A friend of mine once did a mind-boggling 125 kilometer trek over four days in the 40+°C heat of summer in Dogon country.


Luckily today though our trek to Inndarou was only a few kilometers and we were luckily to be blessed with overcast weather and temperatures in the low 30's (celsius).


Passing some basket carrying locals.


After the short hike we soon arrived at the Dogon village of Inndarou.


Like Begnimato, Inndarou also consisted of Dogon architecture with the distinctive mud-brick buildings and rock walls.


A man smoking a pipe as he applies mud plaster to a granary that will be used to store food.


A lady wearing a yellow dress and a colourful headscarf.


And the kids coming out to see the new visitors to the village.


The village blacksmith toiling away.


Goats sheltering in the shade of a rock wall.


In the center of all the huts was the village Toguna. Used as a general gathering and meeting spot, Toguna are purposely built with a low roof to force people to sit and to avoid any aggression when discussions become heated.


After walking through the village we climbed up to get a better view.


Looking across the village with Begnimato in the distance in the upper-right.


And down at the village of Inndarou below.


The steep cliffs of the Bandiagara Escarpment to the right.


To the south with the Seno-Gondo plain beyond.


The village of Dioundourou on the plain just below.


And our time at the Bandiagara Escarpment unfortunately coming to an end with our driver arriving to pick us up after getting the clutch pedal fixed in Bangiagara overnight.


Back in Bandiagara where we stopped for fish and rice for lunch.


The plan for this afternoon was to head to the city of Mopti via a brief visit onroute to the village of Songo.


After a short drive we arrived in Songo. Outside the beautiful village mosque.


An old lady carrying a bucket of wooden branches.


Men resting in the village Toguna.


A girl collecting foliage to feed the family goats.


A man weaving cotton fabric.


Looking down on the village as we walk up a steeply rising butte.


Ibrahim then took us up to the rock shelter where Dogon cave paintings covered the wall.


The rock shelter is where ritual circumsion is carried out by the village blacksmith for boys as they enter adulthood.

Although Songo is now Muslim, the Dogon initiation still takes place every three years with boys coming from the surrounding countryside.

The paintings refer to “the life of the world”: astronomy, masks and sacred paraphernalia, spirit figures, totemic prohibitions and ritual cycles and are used to educate boys about adult life, behavior and responsibility.

The wall continually evolves every three years as it is selectively repainted. Some symbols are freshened up, others are left to fade and occasionally new things are added.

We then drove on to the city of Mopti and checked into Hôtel Doux Rêves.


And our room for our one night stay.


After a quick shower we headed out for a walk through the city.


Outside the Grand Mosque of Mopti, which was built between 1936 and 1943.


The mosque design was based on the much bigger Great Mosque of Djenné (which we would visit tomorrow) and was constructed using sun-dried mud bricks covered with a layer of banco, a mixture of mud and grain husks. Also known as Komoguel Mosque, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2009.


Continuing our walk through the city.


The local kids definitely weren't camera shy!


It was great to be greeted by smiles and laughs rather than by stares and suspect looks.


Women carrying bundles of colourful fabric.


Boats on the banks of the Bani River. Mopti lies on the right bank of the Bani River and a few hundred meters upstream of the confluence of the Bani with the Niger River.


Two ladies waiting for the next departure.


We then went on a boat ride on the river to watch the sunset.


Sanny and Ibrahim enjoying the beautiful view.


The sun now getting closer to the horizon.


And cruising up to the confluence of the Bani and Niger Rivers.


Back on land again where we went to a local restaurant for fish and chips with some Castel, Africa's most popular beer, for dinner to end day 4.