Scary, stupid times

I got up in “the morning” at 2.50 a.m. to walk to the bus station for my bus at 4 a.m., bound for Djenne. That officially goes on record as the stupidest thing I’ve done so far. My thinking went: this is a small town, it will be practically deserted at that hour, I can walk there in 20 minutes and save the hassle of paying extra for a cab to come in the night. What I hadn’t thought about was crazy homeless people. I left the auberge 15 minutes early and walked with the torch up to the main street, then turned and walked until an old woman called me and refused to let me walk past an old guy raving on the next street corner. So I backtracked to the main road and turned back onto the main street and hadn’t gone more than two blocks when out of nowhere this guy turns on to the street and begins following me. The guy was tall, wearing camouflage pants and carrying a very large stick. He stunk and had a beard, two very unusual things for fastidious Africans, particularly in the Muslim regions. So my heart was basically thundering in my chest.

He walked up and started talking, something about where was I going and maybe I should take a break and maybe he could come too, etc. At one point he put his hand on the strap of my backpack and suggested he should carry it if I was tired. Heart no leaping, I told him no, then proceeded to get horribly lost trying to find the bus station in the dark, with all my usual landmarks shut up and looking different. Eventually I arrived at the grand mosque and knew I’d never find it, as it was around there but I hadn’t seen any bus. Luckily, the gendarmerie is right opposite the mosque, so I pushed open the gates and asked directions, then asked them to relieve me of the man with the stick, who actually had the… the… I don’t know what to follow me into the police station and then say we were together. I hoped the cop would walk me to the bus, but he just gave me directions that were luckily just the next block up and over. I have literally never been so scared in my life and probably sweated out a litre and a half of cold sweat. I was seriously lucky I wasn’t raped, beaten, killed or burgled. Stupid!

The ticket salesguy told me repeatedly I had to report for the bus at 4 a.m. or they would leave without me. So at 4.02 a.m., I found myself sitting on a bench with three others, the driver and mates still sleeping and the bus sitting empty and dark. It was after 5 a.m. before they did roll call on the buss, a truly bizarre experience that left me sitting at the very back by the emergency exit. I found it hilarious that people actually put their bags on the seats as though there wouldn’t be enough passengers to fill the bus. The ride was long and boring, punctuated by the occasional stop and the comings and goings of a guy who puked three times in the emergency exit stairwell. Fun!

I got down at the turnoff for Djenne and waited maybe an hour for a bush taxi to fill. On the ferry I was approached by two guides and by the time I arrived, I was my usual hot and cranky self. I had dinner and some drinks and headed off to the roof.