The road to Timbuktu

Mali, 2011

‘Monique, shall we meet in Timbuktu this October?’, friend and Mali-lover Helga asked me in 2011. She didn’t need to ask twice. I had visited the town briefly the year before as a tourist. Having since become a travel agent, I had been looking for an occasion to explore the town and its treasures in more depth.
Is Timbuktu still the sleepy desert town, I visited early last year? Several governments have put travel warnings in place. I call with two of our local team members, who assure me the situation in town is calm and they will be happy to welcome me. I decide to give it a go, and to feel out the situation myself.

Till recently, many people didn’t even know that Timbuktu, at times mentioned by Donald Duck, truly exists. The town’s name has become more of a byword for a faraway, nearly impossible to reach destination.
And in fact, it was a tough destination to reach in centuries past. Explorers yielded to the stories of a prosperous town with gold and treasures, to the temptation of adventure and the prospect of eternal fame. Many an expedition set out in search of the city of the 333 Saints.
Most explorers and their crew members lost their life along the way, falling prey to exhaustion, depletion, tropical diseases and hostile tribes. Gordon Laing and René Caillié, were among the few who did reach the city. The houses they stayed in, were turned into museums.

Over time, the town in the northeast of Mali, situated between the Niger river and the Sahara desert became more easily accessible. Planes, boats and 4WDs nowadays connect the city to the south of Mali. It is still far out though, and an effort has to be made to reach the mysterious city on the edge of the desert.