A Working No Holiday in The Salt Mines of Timbuktu
Fly to Tombouctou (Timbuktu) and wait a few days until there is a camel train leaving for Taoudenni, which is in the middle of the Sahara desert, and otherwise inaccessible.
Traveling by camel is considered the authentic way to see the Sahara Desert. It is also the only way to reach the salt mines. The walk, however, is onerous—that is walking beside the camels, which are carrying goods—some 470 miles (756 kilometers) and you should expect it to take about three weeks. The pace begins gently though, a mere eight hours a day, through land that is relatively lush, where there are tufts of grass which the camels can eat, weeds underfoot, and even the odd boulder to break up the monotony of what is otherwise an extremely flat region. But after the oasis at Araouane, that is some 155 miles (250 kilometers) into the walk, the route reaches the Sahara proper, and the camels are crossing sand, and as the temperature climbs higher, the camel train must press on for a good 12 hours in every 24. However, the pace pays off. Just two weeks later, the sand becomes first pink tinged, and then quite red. This is the sign that you are near the mines.
The area has been mined by the Berabich Arabs for salt, using the same methods since the 16th century. Each year, surprisingly, between 3,000 and 5,000 tons (3,300-5,500 metric tonnes) of salt are extracted this way. There is no charge for mining—you can just show up (as above) and start digging. Typically a hole is about the size of a cellar, that is fifteen feet deep. The “white gold” (as the locals call the salt), is extracted in blocks about one foot thick. Each block weights about 310 pounds (141 kilos). But the money is good—if you can get it back as far as Tombouctou intact (the blocks of salt are very fragile), it will be worth about $3. That's a lot of money (by local standards). A skilled miner can manage three blocks a day, and as they work at the mines non-stop for six months at a stretch, they will have made over $500 by the time they get back to town!
Alas, gender equality has not reached Mali, let alone the mines, so women travelers face discrimination. Women miners must both work and eat separately.
There are no health or other facilities at the mines, but a truck occasionally arrives, which in an emergency can get you back to Tombouctou a bit faster than on (or beside) a camel.