The road to Timbuktu
    The desertic regions around Mhamid, 40 kilometers North of the Algerian border mark the beginning of the long, empty, heat infested spaces that merchants and travelers had to face before reaching Timbuktu- the most important trading post in the Sudan (today's Mali).
    A few miles North of Mhamid, in Zagora one can still see a mythical signpost: "Timbuktu, 52 days on camel's back". But today, caravans no longer trek the dangerous miles between these two cities. When the Algerian and Mauritanian borders were closed all trans-saharian commerce ended, and so did the mythical caravans- where the "blue men" , led hundreds of camels through the desert.     Leo followed such caravans to Timbuktu twice- his journeys from Fes to the "black country" will be the