Why this ride
135 km from Bandiagara to Bandiagara, about 3 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes Cliff of Bandiagara, La Falaise de Bandiagara and back through Cliff of Bandiagara.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Village de Songo and La Falaise de Bandiagara
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 135 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 55
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Village de Songo
Songo stands on the edge of the Bandiagara escarpment in central Mali, the long sandstone cliff that is the heartland of the Dogon people. From the top, the land drops several hundred metres to a sandy plain, and houses of mud and stone cling to the rock face, stacked like swallows' nests, with granaries topped by pointed thatched roofs. The area is a World Heritage site, valued for both its landscape and its living culture.
Read the complete Village de Songo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Village de Songo is where the day begins. Next is Cliff of Bandiagara.
2. Cliff of Bandiagara
A sandstone wall some 150 kilometres long and in places 500 metres high runs across the Sahel of central Mali, and clinging to its face are houses, granaries and shrines that have been there for a thousand years. The Cliff of Bandiagara is the home of the Dogon, a people famous for their masks, their dances and their cosmology, which is among the most elaborate in Africa. The first inhabitants of the cliff were the Tellem, small people who built granaries in caves high up on the rock, and the Dogon who arrived from about the fifteenth century built their villages below, in the cracks and at the foot, linked by paths, stone steps and ladders. The area was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1989.
Read the complete Cliff of Bandiagara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cliff of Bandiagara comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Falaise de Bandiagara.
3. La Falaise de Bandiagara
The Bandiagara Escarpment runs for about a hundred and fifty kilometres across central Mali, a sandstone wall that drops some five hundred metres to a sandy plain. From the top it looks like the edge of the world, flat and dry and hazy in every direction. Along the base and up the face, the Dogon people have built villages of mud-brick houses and granaries with pointed thatch roofs, many of them tucked into cracks in the cliff itself.
Read the complete La Falaise de Bandiagara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach La Falaise de Bandiagara. Next is back through Cliff of Bandiagara.
4. back through Cliff of Bandiagara
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cliff of Bandiagara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cliff of Bandiagara, late in the day. Next is Village de Songo.
5. Village de Songo
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Village de Songo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Village de Songo. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Village de Songo to Cliff of Bandiagara
Village de Songo → Cliff of Bandiagara is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cliff of Bandiagara to La Falaise de Bandiagara
Cliff of Bandiagara → La Falaise de Bandiagara is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Falaise de Bandiagara to back through Cliff of Bandiagara
La Falaise de Bandiagara → back through Cliff of Bandiagara is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cliff of Bandiagara to Village de Songo
back through Cliff of Bandiagara → Village de Songo is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.