Along the steep rock formation of sandstone called the Bandiagara Escarpment. This is where the small villages of the African peoples of Dogon are located. The peoples originate of is still a mystery today. You can trek one day up till three weeks. Three villages per day should give you the best coverage. Some of the villages are prepared for tourists and offers food and housing. You can stay in a tent or sleep with a mosquito net on the flat roofs of the village mud houses.

We had decided to do one day where we drove between some villages and walked between others. Very early morning armed with kola nuts, a Dogon guide called Bouba and great expectations, we started out on the day's struggling task.

First stage was reasonable road to Djiguibombo where we saw the different kind of buildings of a typical Dogon village. The Dogons are mainly animists (everything in nature has a soul), though Islam, Christianity and Catholicism have made their way to the villages. Mosques, churches and Ginna's (building with several alters) are living door to door in the small societies. According to the story of their creation, eight ancestors were basis of the Dogon peoples and they appear in mostly everything they do. In principle the Dogon creation story has some similarities with Adam and Eve, but after that all resemblance ends.

The most important building is the Togu-na a low house with eight wooden pillars often decorated with ingenious motives about the first eight ancestors. The roof is covered with several layers of millet stalks. In the Togu-na of the village the eldest men, who rules exclusively, take all-important decisions. This is also the place where experience is past on to the next generation and where they exchange stories and news, though they probably relax and chew kola nuts most of the time. It is only possible to sit in the Togu-na. This is to prevent standing up when the discussions get out of hand and puts a lit on the temperaments. There is also a family Togu-na where marriage, education and other important family decisions are taken.

Hogon is the Dogon village spiritual leader and his house contains all the holy bones and relics. A part from that he has exclusive access to the village temple - Sanctuaire du Binou where offerings to the ancestors are made.

Granaries with conical roofs of millet stalks stand on stones over the ground to prevent vermin. Men and women have their own granary. The man's is one big room where he keeps whole millet stalks with grain on and meat. The woman's is divided into five compartments, one in each corner for various grains and vegetables and one in the middle for millet grains. Women also use the granary for their most precious belongings, jewellery and personal relics.

Ginna is the family temple an in the front, on the top, there are eight holes where small birds can bring happiness. Below eight to sixteen compartments in which there are laid different sorts of grain, holy bones, stones and amulet's to the ancestors or to mild the god Amma.

Yapunu Ginna is a round house where women are together when they are menstruating (called “women who wants a baby”). They are overseen by a wise woman who gives them advise and guidance if they have ailments. Excused from their domestic duties, they work together in the fields far from the village.

Every third year the local Hogon perform ritual circumcision of boys in the age of twelve to fourteen. It is usually carried out outside the village on a special ledge on the escarpment and is often surrounded with a lot of rituals and mysticism. Today the boys are supervised by a doctor in up till 30 days after the circumcision to secure that it is done properly and to keep an eye on inflammation. Circumcision is an important part of the Dogon cultural heritage and something they have in common with Moslems, which have made it easier for most to convert to Islam rather than to any other religion.

We drove further on a red uneven and hilly dirt road to the town of Teli, which has some of the most spectacular cliff-side houses in the whole of Dogon. We had to climb up some steep cliff sides to see the houses in which the earlier ancestors were living in. It was the same type of buildings as in the villages though most of them are used as burial sites today. All ritual music instruments and masks are kept in the caves of the escarpment. “For example this music instrument,” Bouba said and showed us a big hollowed out calabash with a pole in the middle and some small round thingies that could rattle. “If a pregnant women hear the sound of this musical instrument any other time than at ceremonial occasions, she will have a miscarriage. On the other hand if she hears in under the ceremony, everything will be okay,” Bouba said and putted the “dangerous” instrument back in the cave.

45 minutes upwards to lunch on the cliff

The next village was located in the plateau and had some fantastic rock formations rising majestically towards the dark blue sky. Normally you have a break between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. because of the heat. “I don't think it is hot and there's even a light breeze now and then. Shouldn't we go up there for lunch,” Travaini asked. I thought it to be a splendid idea on the contrary to Bouba, our guide, who seemed as if he had another plan. We went up there, not under the protest of Bouba though it took some time before he smiled again.

The menu was macaroni with chicken made from the bottom – they had to catch the chicken first! So after an hour and a half the food was on the table – it tasted heavenly. After lunch we walked another five kilometres over cliffs and a bit higher up to the village of Endjalou. It was the highest peak and the highlight on our walk. The view over the vast savannah was unbelievable from there and we took some time to enjoy that we had achieved to get as far as the high cliffs.

In Endjalou Bouba greeted the village elders in Dogon language. It's a string of words, which are said every time one meets.

•  Hello, how is work?

•  Fine

•  How are you?

•  Fine

•  How is the family?

•  Fine

•  How is your father, mother, children?

•  All is fine, thanks

•  See you later

•  Yes

•  Thanks

You can hear how it sounds in Dogon here

The heat was declining and a cool air touched our skin. “We have to go back to the car if we should be able to reach the campsite before dark. We can return the way we came or walk down through the ravine. Do you have any problems with going down,” Bouba asked. “No, no we'd rather go down than up,” we answered in a chorus. Descending 400 metres we crawled, slipped and balanced without elegance on the sharp and steep rocks in the cleft. It took us quite some time to get down in that manor. On the contrary Bouba, springy like a mountain goat, moved between the uneven rocks and waited patiently for us to catch up.

At last we were on the ground again. We drove the swingy and hilly roads and time went by and the dark caught up on us. After a while we saw something blocking the road further down. “This is not good,” Travaini stated and Bouba sighed loudly, he knew this all to well. We couldn't pass because on a narrow bridge in front of us stood a pickup loaded to the point of bursting and around all the passengers were sitting waiting in the dark. The car, which sloped heavily on one side, has had a puncture and the driver didn't have a jack. There was only one thing to do. Get the tools and hope that the pickup had a spare wheel otherwise we were looking at several hours of waiting. As always our car was the centre of attention and soon curious children surrounded both the car and me. “What's your name,” they asked. I answered Helle and then got all their names, one by one. Then one of them started to read the company names from the ads on our car. ”So-u-thi-ng, Fj-a-ll-ra-ven, Sk-i-lte…” ”Kom-pag-ni-et,” I continued and explained the reason for the drawn cow, they all laughed and repeated the syllables over and over as if they were at school.

Travaini came back; we were now ready to go. “That went fast. Let's get in front of the pickup as soon as possible. That car is so loaded that it might have another puncture soon or it will break the cardan – and that will not be possible to fix here on the road,” Travaini said and took over the first chance he got. We arrived in Bandiagara around 7 p.m. Sat up the tent, had three cold beers and went to bed totally knackered.