That’s right.  Only ONE MORE DAY until my boyfriend, his brother and my brother arrive for a action-filled jam-packed two week visit I’ve nicknamed, “Swimming on Land.”  That is because we will literally be following the legendary Niger River by car from Bamako, Mali all the way to Benin (stopping in Segou, Mali | Djenne, Mali | Mopti, Mali | Timbuktu, Mali | Gao, Mali | Niamey, Niger | Malanville, Benin + an overnight in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire).  My boyfriend was also a Peace Corps volunteer, in Benin, and we will be visiting his village along the way.  We plan to hike, to swim, to follow desert elephants, to spot bush giraffes, to sleep on Dogon rooftops and perhaps even to duneboard on the desert hills.

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The segment of our trip to Timbuktu coincides with the Festival in the Desert – a three-day  concert, 15 miles outside of Timbuktu, frequented by hundreds if not thousands of Malians and international tourists coming to see famous African and Western bands perform, at the same time sleeping in Toureg tents and riding camels.  This fesitval is supposed to be amazing, however long ago, I opted NOT to go because I am not a big fan of hoopla and crowds.  I thought going to Timbuktu was enough.  (C’mon, Timbuktu!?  I cannot wait to get my body there.  Having that stamp in my passport will finally SOLIDIFY my status as a real world traveler.  It will be as priceless to me, a traveler, as an Olympic gold medal may be to an athlete. ).

Although we are NOT going to the festival, I am following some travel warnings issued FOR the festival nonetheless.  If  I feel like our safety is ever at risk (well more of a risk that it is normally) I have a PLAN B where we would scratch Timbuktu and go through Burkina Faso, the country, to get to Niger instead.  😦  I would love to see Burkina Faso but I really don’t want to give up on my dream of going to Timbuktu.  But don’t worry, safety first.

I plan to check in with you all every few days ago, and hopefully, will find a connection strong enough for me to post some stories along the way.  Just want to let you all know, access to the internet will be intermittent, but hold in there, I promise some fabulous photos and hopefully good stories at the end!

On another note, this is my 100th post!!!  Wow, I cannot believe I’ve kept this up but I am glad I did.  Thank you for being faithful readers, I love your comments and appreciate your input!  If you’ve been a lurker until now, I would LOVE if you could de-lurk and identify yourself.  You can make up your name if you want, you can be Jane, John and Mohammed, that’s up to you.  But I would love to know how you came across my blog and anything more about you.  A tout a l’heure!