Mali

Mali, a nation steeped in history, stands as one of Africa's most symbolically powerful and storied lands. It was the heart of the legendary Mali Empire, home to great rulers like Mansa Musa, widely considered the wealthiest person in history!.

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The country's rich cultural heritage is palpable, particularly in places like Timbuktu, which once attracted scholars from across the Islamic world and housed thousands of priceless manuscripts. Unfortunately, today it lies in territories ravaged by terrorism so we could not think of riding to this wonderful place that we have been hearing of since childhood as a synonym to a land far far away.

This photo shows a group of Malian motorcyclists doing their thing with the TVS Apache in the streets of Bamako, the capital of Mali.

Bamako

On the left page you can see a small gathering of motorcycling enthusiasts and TVS customers at the TCSONS TVS Showroom in Bamako.

On this page you can see Tienfala, a small place around 40 kms from Bamako. Every Sunday a lot of petrolheads descend here in all sorts of bikes and cars and do stunts on a semi-closed portion of the highway. Even though it is extremely dangerous, it is a part of their culture and there are people doing stunts on a lot of litre class motorcycles that we didn't expect to see. The TVS Apache felt right at home, but we did not indulge in the festivities too much due to safety reasons.

At that moment we realised that even though many people would have never even heard of Mali as a country, or Bamako as a city, and might have the image of Africa as a run down country full of despair, but this was pure adrenaline, passion and skill that we were witnessing. It can be argued that it is dangerous, but then similar scenes can be seen in the most developed countries of the world. Motorcycling truly stirs one's soul like nothing else.