Niger River Pirogue boats, a photo by hialoakapua on Flickr.

There was a time when I had to cross the Niger River on the way to Mopti ... Just to get to the river from Bamako our land crusier ran out of gas once, broke down 6 times in the desert - one time the accelerator stuck at 100km ... the driver jammed the breaks on to slow it down enough to get it out of gear .. We were told/warned about the Sub Saharan nomadic tribes that wonder the wasteland in caravans moving from one oasis to another. They are armed with swords and ancient weapons .... I had my Swiss Army knife .. as for food - the French left West Africa with bread ...