Mali, EPISODE TWO

On Tuesday morning Pam took us on a tour of the local area, partly to look at possibilities for balloon launch sites and also to visit one of ‘her’ villages (Fangouni?) where money has been spent for various projects. We were able to take lots of photos of the villagers going about their normal lives. Diema is twinned with the French town of Chilly-Mazarin who have channelled EU money into various schemes. Pam has been in Diema for 11 or 12 years with her Village Ventures project, working with local people. The main man, Salihou, an ex-English teacher, had a great deal of influence in the town. When Pam learned about our plan to fly the balloon, she hoped it would put Diema on the map as the international crossroads of Mali in many ways. To this end, she introduced us to Major Moulay Mohamed Touhamy of the Brigade Gendarmerie and he readily agreed to get permission for us to fly in his area. He also provided a fine Malian police hat, complete with badge, in exchange for a British Bobby’s helmet.  That afternoon, we all drove 20kms or so north to the village of Mabruke where they were putting on a concert of music and dance for Mike to record. It was very colourful and the people were wonderful. Some very striking faces and beautiful women. There are 7 different tribes and some are quite distinct. The Berbers are very regal and a lot of them ride horses which surprised me. We then drove back to another nearby village to see them drumming, and joined in with the ladies dancing (sorry no dancing or drumming by Chris). They were preparing food for us, but Chris and I excused ourselves and spent the time walking around the village to see all their livestock and the women pounding millet, to which Chris lent a hand.

Wednesday morning we spent preparing the balloon equipment and in the afternoon, while the rest visited yet another village to hear the really big carved drums, Chris and I drove out to beyond the little airstrip to spend the night in the bush and get the rest of the balloon ready for a morning flight. We were up at 5am the next morning. Pam, Salihou and Emilie arrived at 6am but it was too windy to fly, 15 kts gusting 20. We entertained them with coffee and then had a lazy day on our own to await the evening. We had noted that the wind tended to drop about 6.15pm, with sunset at 6.35 and dark by 6.45. This time we had the balloon laid out ready to go when Pam, Emilie, Julia and Major Touhamy returned. We inflated and it was still ‘bouncy’ but Chris took the opportunity and launched solo at 6.30pm. I bundled the balloon bag into Pam’s car, left everything else and we were off in pursuit, Pam driving as fast as she could over the rough terrain while talking on her mobile to Salihou. If you can view the video taken by the Major with his mobile you can get an idea of the excitement. I was very worried Chris would not be able to see in the poor light where the thorn trees were not, but he came down after a 10 min flight in a large clearing. It would have been a drag landing had we all not been there to catch him. We were quickly surrounded by shepherds and children from a nearby unseen village. Chris was exhilarated but exhausted. He went back with Pam to collect the Enterprise and we stopped the night where the balloon had landed, ready for Thursday morning.