I watch the news these days with an increasing sense of foreboding. Events in north africa seem to be going from bad to worse, and we europeans are being drawn into a conflict there which many respected commentators think will last for decades. I cannot help but think what a wonderful, mystical part of the world that is; I think of the sahara’s history and cultures, and about how so many manuscripts and mosques are now being set ablaze. The very name Timbuktu evokes adventure and travel to me, exotic ideas which capture the imaginations of so many wanderers. Thus I think I’ll send you here today, to the record of one such Englishman’s adventure in that city, and quote the following words, written in happier times:

[quote=”Michal Palin, Saharaurl:www.palinstravels.co.uk”]Timbuktu remains well off any beaten track. There is an airstrip from which tourists are flown in and out, but it remains a city at the end of the road, centre of an administrative region but not much else. Yet its appeal remains almost as potent as it was for Laing and those who risked their lives to follow him. To the almost certain puzzlement of the locals, Westerners remain drawn to Timbuktu like moths to a candle. No other city remains as synonymous with the fabulous, the lonely and the remote. Timbuktu, la mystrieuse, they call it in the tourist brochures – a Holy Grail for the adventurous traveller.

It’s hard to remain unexcited as we glide slowly in to the little inlet at Kabara, the port for Timbuktu itself.

[/quote]

And so we watch as yet another piece of our collective heritage is torn apart in the name of religion.