Tri Cycling Africa

HomeBack to the homepage. JourneyThe filmmakers cycled a tandem recumbent tricycle over the dusty landscapes of West Africa. Over two months they crossed five countries from Bamako, the capital of Mali, up to the legendary city of Timbuktu on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, south through Burkina Faso, Ghana, then Togo and Benin. This is the motivation behind the journey. TrailerDownload an extended trailer for the documentary series. Media KitDownload an electronic press kit (includes full synopsis, crew bios, episode breakdowns, director's statement and more), brochure and white paper. PhotosSome images from the trip. BlogsOutside the making of the documentary, this is a series of emails sent home during the trip. They are completely honest accounts from the filmmakers of the highs and lows of travelling in a foreign place. ContactThe series is currently seeking distribution. Click here to contact the producer. CreditsThis project would not have been possible without...

JEFF McLEAN'S BLOG | MARTY POUWELSE'S BLOG

7/10/2002 - Bamako, MALI (again)

We're still in Bamako, though we meant to leave earlier, except we completely forgot about getting our visas for Burkina Faso. Of course, it was Friday night when we discovered this so we couldn't get to the BF embassy until this morning (Monday). We should hopefully have them in a couple of hours, and we'll leave by bus early tomorrow morning. Our plan is to bus it to San, drop the trike there, then go up the tourist trail to Mopti (the touts are supposed to be very bad there - we'd avoid it if we could), then on the boat up the River Niger to Timbuktu. Once there, we'll decide whether we want to go back down through Dogon Country. It is reputedly spectacular with it's escarpments and locals who dwell in caves on the edge of the cliffs.

It's been nice actually to spend a few days here and get used to it. We've taken some great footage of the streets and local way of life, the squats (toilets - I did my first 'wash' instead of wipe the other day - quite an experience!) and also managed to see a christian mass at the local cathedral yesterday - two actually. The music is amazingly beautiful and 'professional' sounding, if that makes sense. Gospel choir, drum kit, bongos, keyboards! We got up to the mezzanine level at the back so I could film everything (after getting the Minister's permission). We also went up to the very top of the cathedral to the bells and clock. Rather precipitous (long drop down) staircase with a section with no handrail, but the view of Bamako from the very top was incredible.

Most of the locals seem to very much dislike being photographed (with the occassional exception), or even having 'their' street filmed, so it's been difficult to get footage outside the hotel. If we need to get something, then I do it as quickly as possible and get the camera back into my bag before a locals yells at us from across the street. We drew a small and frowning crowd on our first filming experience, so we're now taking excessive care.

A few of us went into town yesterday, and it's a sad experience to have a little kid complete with sad face with his hand out asking for money. We keep walking but he takes each of our hands one after the other as we reject him. It's not a particularly nice feeling, but it's impossible to fix the problem with a dollar to one child. Everything we do is seen by many others. Giving money to one beggar will attract a host of others. I did film two locals today weaving chairs after they gave us permisson without any expectation of a reward (evidently very rare), and was rapt to give them a dollar or so as they geniunely gave us something valuable. It's lovely to give credit where it's due. We must take care not to be seen to flaunt or undervalue something the locals value so highly, so we musn't give too much money.

We got some thunder a couple of days ago, and the forecast for the next few days is for thunder, but it was forecast yesterday and never eventuated, so we'll see.

Some of the wares here are utterly dodgy, but some are incredibly beautiful. The fabrics are amazingly colourful and it aches me not to be able to buy any - yet! The women are adorned in the most beautiful ways - you could pluck any of them from this filthy place and drop them on a catwalk in Milan and they wouldn't look out of place - it's extraordinary. We've met some other travellers at our 'hotel' and it's been lovely to speak to some other english speaking people with stuff in common.

The malaria risk isn't as drastic as what the insular health 'professionals' would lead you to believe. I've been bitten a couple of times, despite my still strict precautions, and it's fine. Jeff says that you'd have to be very unlucky to get malaria as mosquitos don't live very long, so there'd need to be a lot of other people with the disease to make it likely for you to contract it. But I'm not dicing with chance and am still taking every precaution, but it does relieve me somewhat that it's not as bad as I first thought. Same goes for the water and food. We're still careful and filtering the tap water, but we're eating restaurant food (though not meat), including bottled water, and I haven't had the expected runs yet! My first sign was a bowel grumble last night, so I thought, here it comes! but still completely healthy. I think if I can stand the thick pollution, the food, and the air of Bamako (I shook the utterly filthy hand of a local yesterday - was difficult to refuse and I didn't notice the filth till our hands were touching - at least it was his right (the left hand is used for 'personal toiletries'!)), I can stand anything, but the next few days may tell a different story!

Bonjour!

Love,
Marty.

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