CAPITAL BAMAKO - POPULATION 12 MILLION - AREA 1,240,140 SQ KM - OFFICIAL LANGUAGE FRENCH
If you've ever wanted to go to fabled Timbuktu, now's your chance, as Mali creeps further onto the tourist map. The country is one of the few in this part of Africa that travelers don't come to seeking safari: here, it's the weird and wonderful lunar landscapes that draw visitors to its empty, empty spaces. Visitors to Mali in 2009 can look out for competitors in the mammoth Budapest-to-Bamako Great African Run car rally, an alternative to the good old Paris-Dakar. The race concludes in poverty-stricken but generally smiling Bamako, where parties to celebrate those who make it this far are the order of the day. |
