Agadez to Niamey

And back we are again in Niamey and doesnt it look lush, green, fresh and cool..... when coming from up north. I guess its all relative. Id be tempted to say...almost Tropical, an exaggeration perhaps but its true that in the last month the rains have started and you can really see and feel a difference.

Mind you, we got rained on both in Agadez and N'Guigmi....what a priveledge to witness a drop of water in the desert. In fact, make that three in N'Guigmi - one hit me, the other hit Eric and the third the sand...that was about it but in Agadez it was almost a downpour.

Driving down from Agadez towards Niamey, the rain of the night before had been enough to turn the countryside, if not green then less beige. The animals were out en force, driven to the temporary waterholes to drink by the herders. The herders were either Paul or Tuareg - the Peul recognisable by the wonderful broad straw hats they wear, the Tuareg by their Turbans and long swords.

Indeed most groups here have their traditional weapons and they carry them regularly. We stopped at at a large watering hole on the way back from the Termite Massif in teh East of the country and it was a melting pot not just of Cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses and the ubquitous evil-minded camel but of Peul with their hats, Toubou with their short daggers, Tuareg with their elaborate swords and Beri Beri with their long bows and arrows.

The Peul villages were different too, with their houses looking like the vast skirts of complascent victorian ladies, with flounced tiers of straw descending all the way to the ground and rising into a little peak. But what are truely magnificent are their mud granaries, some bigger than the houses themselves.

They are round at the bottom, rising up to a smooth dome and capped off with a small dunces cap of straw which covr a small entry hole, as like granaries all over Niger they have no door.

The Beri Beri granaries are shaped a bit like a straw sugar pot propped up on a cradle of sticks and short legs to outwit the rats. To to get in you prop up the lid with a big stick, pop your hand in, rummage around and pull out what you were looking for....if youre lucky. But you dont have to go very far up a rickety ladder to do it, and the top is large enough for a good rummage.

By contrast the Peul ones are an impressive climb. Then I guess you have to drop yourself inside through the little hole in the top to be able to effetively route around. It must be pitch black in there. I guess you have to be an organised granary keeper to remember where everything is. Personally Id hate to have to use the same method to navigate my drawers. It would be a disaster!

Its good to be back in friendly Niamey, although Im sorry to have left the rest of the country, especially as between the heat and the heating up of the rebellion in the north we had to leave undone a lot of the things we had hoped to do and see. Oh well...a good excuse to come back.

In the meantime we prepare to leave for Mali, hopefully Monday evening/Tuesday
and hopefully by canoe. The idea is to hitch up the river on public canoe transport stopping at some significant towns on the way. We expect it will take about a week to reach Gao in Mali and I also expect there will be no internet connection....so au revoir Niger and it looks like the next post will be from Mali.

CIAO CIAO e a presto.....