17 April,2010 07:26 AM IST | | Lindsay Pereira
I'm going to Timbuktu: It's the sort of thing some of us would say in school, when Timbuktu didn't sound like it existed. Michael Benanav clearly wasn't like most of us. The travel writer and photographer decided, not very long ago, to embark on an unusual journey, from that mysterious city in the West African nation of Mali. His destination was less important than the means he chose to get there.
What Benanav wanted to do was spend around 40 days with a caravan, crossing an area four times the size of Englandu00a0-- a place referred to as 'The Land of Thirst' or 'The Land of Terror', depending on whom you spoke to.
This unusualu00a0-- or brave, or foolishu00a0-- quest was prompted by a news report on the Caravan of White Gold.
A 1,000 year-old tradition, it involved men leading camels from Timbuktu across incredibly harsh terrain to the salt mines of Taoudenni. The salt gave the caravan its name; a reminder of a time when it was worth its weight in gold. When Benanav found out that trucks were beginning to make the journey, he decided to document one of the last great trans-Saharan trade routes. The Caravan of White Gold is that document.
Putting aside Benanav's tendency to romanticise certain aspects of his desert voyage, what he does manage to convey very effectively is the sheer temerity of the miners and drivers who make up these caravans. Their poor diet, appalling living conditions, lack of medical facilities, daily 18-hour marches -- he records it all, aware that what he sees is an ancient Islamic culture that may soon slip into extinction.
There are some moments of tedium, primarily those involving the Westerner's struggle with caring for and riding a camel. The larger picture he manages to capture, however, is a stunning one. "It was the kind of trip I was born to take," Benanav writes. There should be more people like him.
The Caravan of White Gold, Michael Benanav, 300 pages, Jaico Books, Rs 295. Available at bookstores
