06-Jul-2008 -- Continued from 13N 8W.

We went to visit this point from Bamako on 6 July 2008. Nice weather, a little cloudy, 35°C. We stopped in a small village on the road from Bamako to Kayes, Niamou. We then tried to find a track to approach the confluence point, which is 5 km east from Niamou, but even with our Toyota 4x4, we had to stop soon in a very rocky area.

So we went back to the village and found people who could guide us. Two of them joined us and we could follow a track which ended at about 400 meters from the point. Then we used the GPS to walk until the point on a small hill. There are many trees and since it is the rain season, the landscape is very green. According to the GPS, the point is just in the middle of a bunch of shrubs named Kolobè in Bambara language (Combretum micranthum). Local people make a kind of tea with it. A few meters from to point to the East is a nice but still young baobab.

Our visit was useful, because the motorcycle of one of our guides was broken down. So we put it on the plateau of the car and we took it along to Didieni, 15 km away, for some repair. Our guide was very happy. But the most difficult part of this visit was to try to explain to the local people why we wanted to visit an empty point in the middle of nowhere, far from any village...