The Waterfall Trip: PART I

Rumor has it that gorgeous waterfalls can be found near Bamako…So we traded in our mini-van for a 4x4 Toyota Landcruiser and headed out. We departed Bamako and traveled west for the town of Siby (actually we would consider it a small village). The route then took us NW into the hills between Guinea and Mali.

On the way we saw a project forest, rock cliffs, then actual forest, a waterfall (not the intended one), farm fields, and wetlands filled with bamboo. Some of the plants we saw included mango trees, walnut trees, lemon/lime trees, fields of peanuts and corn, and lots of palms.

The road was not maintained and we encountered a few streams that we had to cross. We didn’t see very many animals, but a lot of neat birds (to bad they fly too fast for pictures).

Since we took so many pictures this will be a two part post, Enjoy!

Everything is Green!

The first photo was taken from the Meteo Mali balcony at the beginning of June, and the second photo was taken from the balcony last week. It’s amazing what you can grow in red clay! A majority of the fields in this particular region are filled with corn.

P.S. A special “HELLO” to everyone who visited our site from Uncle Toddy’s place!

Flying in Mali

It’s quite an adventure flying in Africa. Filing the flight plan is really easy. Fill out a carbon copy form and done in 2 minutes. Then start up the airplane and get a clearance to taxi out. There is no taxiway paralleling the runway, thus requiring a back taxi. This can delay the departure about 10 minutes or so if there is arriving traffic. Good thing the air conditioning works!

Then we take off and do our own air traffic control from there. Mali has no radar service, so we have to give position reports. Often the controllers really don’t get that we are east of the airport and arriving traffic is coming in from the west…so we give ourselves our own ATC instructions..."N233PS avoid the only other aircraft operating in Mali airspace at this time". Can I put Air Traffic Controller on my resume now...hmmm?

Since it’s such a big area we are seeding (about the size of Montana!), we do a lot of traveling from one area to the other (thus allowing time to shed any ice build up). Our target area mainly consists of agricultural fields and the Manantali Dam.

Quick Geographic Fact= The Manantali Dam is located in southwestern Mali on the Bafing River (a tributary of the Senegal River), close to the border with Guinea. It took 13 years (1988-2001) to build the dam which supports the countries largest hydroelectric source.

After landing comes the biggest challenge of the day...fuel! You never know when you are getting fuel. The airlines are priority and it just so happens we land at the peak rush of the day. It can take 30 minutes or 2 hours. After fueling we taxi back over to our parking spot. I guess the really tough part of the job is next....where should we eat dinner!

Here are some flight photos. The middle pictures are from a base seeding flight over Lake Selingue (southeast of Bamako).

Things You Can Buy Off the Street

...while driving that is

1. Tissue
2. Bobble-Head Dogs
4. Cheap Plastic Toys
5. Phone Cards- (THE MOST POPULAR ITEM!)
6. Antacid Sticks
7. Electric “Ping-Pong Paddle” Mosquito Killers
8. Umbrellas
9. Windshield Wipers
10. Key Chains
11. Towels
12. Belts
13. Sunglasses
14. CD's
15. Dates (dried fruit)

This picture should help explain what we mean. Usually our car is bombarded.

Rain Gauge Installation

In June (sorry we didn't write about it sooner) Jody, Jim (co-pilot), and myself went with Meteo Mali to a small village called Manambougou. We were there for a few reasons, 1st Jody and Jim were there to survey the area in preparation for a fly-over the following day and 2nd for a rain gauge installation. The small village is located north of Bamako and took us about 30 minutes by car.

When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by a few children. These few children sent "code" and before we knew it we were surrounded! Each and every one of them wanted their picture taken. Since the children did not speak English we communicated through hand gestures and facial expressions. Eventually as time progressed they were getting loud and decided to mimic every word we said. For example if we said "Say Good Bye" they said "Say Good Bye". They also learned how to give thumbs up.

Here are a bunch of photos from the excursion, we had a wonderful time!


Notice the children squatted down? They did this because Erin was doing it, but Erin was doing to so that she could get everyone in the photo. They thought it was funny!