We stopped in Djenne, Mali, for 2 days to visit the oldest mud-built mosque in Africa. It is an interesting town in a delta region (Niger River) completely built out of mud buildings. You can just imagine how life must have been some hundred years ago with caravans arriving from Timbuktu and other traders from the region.
We walked through the narrow streets and looked into some houses and got a feeling for it - very interesting! It was super hot though and during the day we were hiding in our air-conditioned room, waiting for the evening to come when temperatures dropped maybe a degree or two (still over 40, I am sure!).
So at first we didn’t even see what was happening outside but the light had changed and then the noises too. We finally realised that there was a serious sandstorm and went outside - wow!! The sun was almost gone, covered by dust, the light was orange and a heavy wind blew tons of sand into our eyes. But it was fascinating! We went up onto the roof of our camp and observed the spectacle from up there - branches of trees flying through the streets, people running home, closing their doors and windows and buildings disappearing in dust clouds.
It lasted a little while and then slowly slowly some buildings came into sight again and the storm continued elsewhere.