Day 26 - Thursday, August 12th, 2004

Sleep is not a term I could really use to describe what I got last night. I suppose I dozed in and out of consciousness but I cannot really say I “slept”. Shut my eyes, most definitely, squeezing them shut in hopes of sleeping, yep, but sleep? No, not really.

Last night our “luggage” lady who is sitting right beside the door to our cabin had the scarf taken from around her neck. Quite shocking really. Makes us mindful of security. Anne and I (and Chris and Sue for that matter) are all sitting in seats right beside the window so we are a bit safer but it does make you think.

There were a number of stops in the night but I don't remember too much about them though we seem to have acquired much more people on the train. People are everywhere: Sitting in the aisles so you have to step over them, on the roof of the carriages (!) and, as Anne and I learned when we went to the dining car for something to eat, in the dining carriage as well (using the tables as beds). 8:00 we headed off in search of something to eat and, after someone removed some of their luggage for us to sit down, we had omelette sandwich and something to drink all of which was, of course, overpriced. Earlier Chris and Sue had tried the same thing but found the people lying everywhere indicative of no possibility of food. Reasonable.

Always Scenery to Look At...

Of course, the toilet in our car is unusable as it is stacked to the ceiling with luggage so we have to pick our way through the dining car past a particularly crowded section in that car that leads to the sleeping car where, just before you leave the car, you come to the toilet (with someone sleeping against the door). I have only done this a few times, I am hoping my bladder holds out for a bit longer. The first time I gave up, wimping out after only clambering over half the bodies to the destination. I guess the good thing is that 1) there is a door (the toilet in our car, now blocked with luggage, has no door), 2) it has a seat and 3) it does not smell too bad. No water is a bit of a disadvantage though.

The scenery is actually quite interesting with the train passing through an area with many rock formations and hills/mountains. There are not many villages but those we do pass seem to only have the train to supply them as there are no obvious roads around.

Kayes Station

We arrived at Kayes which is the last major stop before the border and where the normal daily train from Bamako ends. At many of the stops today we have been getting out in search of food sold along the platform. At the stop before Kayes I had some quite good liver and onions (though I was overcharged – 500 CFA for the meat and 100 CFA for the bread) as well as some local frozen juice. It is much cheaper than the food car and there is a lot more variety.

As we were pulling into Kayes we had been told by the conductor (or whoever) that we should lock up and secure our bags – even going so far as to check each bag for security. Evidently here at Kayes there is a bit of problem with security and this became obvious when we saw young boys walking along the tracks on the other side of the train as well as walking through an empty train that was stopped beside ours. They seemed to be interested in empty bottles but there were an awful lot of them…We locked up our bags, making use of Anne's chain (purchased in Bamako at the beginning of the trip for just such a purpose) to at least slow someone down that wanted to grab our bags.

Leaving the train we were told by some of our fellow passengers that we would be stopped for “4 to 5”, I assumed that meant “45 minutes” but actually, this turned out to be HOURS, “4 to 5 HOURS”. We noticed that many of the passengers were setting up blankets under the trees and were having a bit of a social time while Chris and I headed out of the station in search of good food. Across the road we found a few stalls one of which was selling some Domodah (meat with peanut sauce on rice) that was actually quite good. Returning to the train Anne and Sue headed off a bit later in search of some coffee.

During our forays we noticed that the locomotive was missing which seemed to be a sign we would not be leaving soon.

We actually tried out the station toilets that turned out to be at the far end of the train (near the locomotive) and basically a big pit (50 CFA).

3 1/2 hours later the locomotive once again joined to the rest of the carriages and let out a short toot (which was used to warn people after stopping that the train was about to leave). To our surprise it started moving not seconds later causing the vast majority of the passengers still lounging under the trees to run in order to catch the train. According to Chris there were people chasing after the train for some time. I wonder if some did not make it? Most likely.

At 6:30 we were getting close to crossing the border. Before we arrived at the border we were boarded by Malian officials a few stops in advance. They came and visited each carriage talking to us individually then indicated that we were to go to the restaurant car after he was done so he could stamp our passports. Interesting. The question we asked was why he could not stamp them as he came around but, nevermind, we will do it his way. After about 15 minutes I was wondering what was going on since we had not seen him return so I headed to the food car to find a massive number of people crowding around the tiny bar after the seating area. Standing there for a few minutes the official spotted me (a “toubab”, or, tourist) and had me come to the front where he stamped my passport ahead of everyone else. I was not in a position to argue so thanked him and headed back to our car. Crossing from the food car all of a sudden the corridor was full of people scrambling to get to the car for their passport to be stamped and I had to almost literally crawl over top of them to get back to our cabin. Not pleasant.

Bamako Train - Onward, Ever Onward

Arriving at the border itself we passed over a small river to enter Senegal and the border stop for Senegalese customs. Stopping there we were then boarded by Senegalese officials who then took our passports from us and asked us to follow them. The confusion was immense and as we watched we could see money changing hands more than once – 5,000 CFA for no questions, no passport, 2,000 CFA if you were Gambian regardless of whether you had a passport, which they took, or not (which I can imagine would cost far more).

Following the official he went into a small building where large numbers of the passengers were standing outside waiting for their names to be called. Towards the back of the train (2nd class) I could see there was similar confusion there, though how the process worked for them…Eventually we learned that we could, as “toubabs” to straight to the front which made me uncomfortable but when event the people waiting insists…Inside the small office there were a couple of officials behind a table stacked high with passports who were taking down details from them. We were able to get our passports then had a few minutes wandering around the area before once again boarding the train. Without the train moving (which provided a limited amount of ventilation) for so long a time it got warmer and warmer while we waited.

It was just after dark when we left the border. About 7:30. It was a scary experience with so much confusion and chaos. I could not help thinking “It does not have to be like this”. Why is it so confusing? Why is this accepted as the only way to do things? Because it is, it would seem.

I have pushed myself into the corner (having swapped seats with Anne from the day before) and I hope to get some rest tonight (cannot hope for sleep, but rest would be nice).

⇒ Continue to Day 27 - Friday, August 13th, 2004